Number Out Handcancels

I have seen a few handcancels with a device number outside the dial, at the top of the space between the dial and the killer. I've seen seven examples from Newton Center, Massachusetts, with numbers 3, 4, 5 and 9, between 1915 and 1930. Newtonville used numbers 3 and 8, between 1914 and 1921. West Newton used numbers 2 and 3 between 1914 and 1915. Did any of the other post office in the city of Newton, all of them branches of Boston at the time, use any number-out cancels? Auburndale, Chestnut Hill, Newton, Newton Highlands, Newton Lower Falls, Newton Upper Falls and Waban were the other offices.

I've also seen two Greenfield, Massachusetts, with the number 11, both used in 1953. What others have been used??

I've seen another town's steel duplex device, with a hole in which a number like Greenfield's 11 would have been inserted.

Station numbers?

Definitely not station numbers!

Station numbers are the identification of contract stations which use a number, rather than a name. They are always clearly identifiable as such, as they always say "Sta. No. 1" or something comparable, in the postmark.

The post offices in Newton were branches of Boston, so any numbered stations in Newton would have been stations (or branches) of Boston. Greenfield did not have any numbered stations in 1953.