Indian Diggins Courtesy Cancels

This was an interesting cover which I have no background on, but I liked the cancellations. Three different handstamps from Indian Diggins, CA, were used, all dated Sept. 29. One from 1899, another from 1934, and one without a year date, but it looks to be from the 1850s.

Sep. 29 wasn't a FDoI for any of the stamps. I'm thinking it may have been the last day of use for that P.O., which appears to be a DPO now. All the cancels look genuine -- do you think they brought out all the old canceling hammers and put them to use on the final day?

If desired, you can download the Postal Guides for different years and lookup to see when the Indian Diggins PO was closed.
https://stampsmarter.org/learning/P...GuideS4.html
Don

I seem to recall a thread on Indian Diggins before. Yes, I agree, these are strikes of old devices in the early 1930s era of lots of philatelic contrivances, although this one has considerable historic appeal. Obviously they didn't have the appropriate sizes/styles of current year dates for the old devices. I do not know how/why the 1850s device lacks the G, perhaps a later remake?

I use a different method to quickly find the exact date.

From the post office listings on Jim Forte's website:
"Indian Diggings, El Dorado County (1853-1869)",
and without the "G" as
"Indian Diggins, El Dorado County, (1888-1935)"

This narrows the year search for using the uspostalbulletins.com website which has the Postal Bulletin of November 18, 1935 (issue 16825):
"Discontinued ... Indian Diggins ... effective November 30, 1935."

The two websites are at:

https://www.postalhistory.com/

http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/Home.aspx

Thanks for those links! The first one had several more Indian Diggins covers. Looks like that earliest handstamp got a lot of later use!


So obviously my cover wasn't a last-day. Probably just a contrivance, as you say, but an attractive one.

As well as it's later use, that device (ELD-1930) was in use from 15 Aug 1861 to 10 Oct 1894. 33 years is the longest usage I've noticed!
A note below the town name/s says "the change to Diggins occurred between 1860 and 1868"
From Williams California Town Postmarks