Hong Kong Stamp Cancel Or Registration Number

Hello fellow collectors!

I have a Hong Kong stamp that has numbers across it. I am trying to determine what they mean or signify can anyone help me?

Thank you and have a nice day!!

Could it have been used as a revenue stamp of sorts?


Peter

Sharons25

Nice stamp, and thanks for starting this thread.

I was hoping somebody would answer your question by sharing a similar stamp on a document or cover showing how your stamp was used, because I have had the exact same question for years now.

I am not 100% sure what the numbers mean.

I have three examples in my Hong Kong collection, but lacking the full documents, the context is lost by just looking at the stamps. Most likely, as Peter said, it is some sort of revenue usage, but I would like to see for sure how it was used and what the numbers mean.

Here are my three examples, plus another example snipped from a large online collection, all similar to your stamp. I have seen other examples in collections for sale on ebay.

Sorry I cannot help you more than this.

Linus

They are all revenue usages, but I'm not sure what the significance of the numbers are, perhaps docketing numbers?

I even asked the late Clive Smyth, aka Ningpo on SCF, about these numbers back in 2015. He was a member of The Hong Kong Study Circle in the UK, and even he was not 100% sure what they meant. He thought these postage stamps were used as a "receit" function. I tend to agree with him.

I bought a paperback book for my reference library, titled: "The Hong Kong Fiscal Stamps" by Frits G. Huygen. On page 113 of this book, in the section on Receit Stamps, it mentions that King George VI postage stamps were used as revenue stamps, but does not show or discuss the stamps as shown above with numbers.

Linus

I do not have a Hong Kong example. But ik can show a Dutch example.

It is a 15 cent stamp used as handling charge for a money receipt. The "postmark" used shows how either letters or numbers can sometimes be found on stamps. The postage stamp on itself would not make a lot of sense. But seen on a document it does give a got idea. As I said not a Hong Kong example. But I do believe pretty common use back then around the world.

These stamps were often put on larger documents which are not the easiest to collect. That is why many were taken of the document and can be found as a single stamp.