Rookie Here Seeking Some Help

Hey gang! Excited to be new to the game of philately after inheriting a small collection. Nothing crazy but some interesting pieces. A bit overwhelming since the book I had was in Miskus numbers instead of Scott. Anyway, I have this Scott 184 with a pink target "killer" cancellation I can't seem to nail down, can someone help? I've ordered Billigs 33 edition of fancy cancels but it wont come for another week, then the fun begins with a bunch of the collection.
Also, the paper itself seems interesting to me as well. Would anyone happen to know where I can get authentic wove or laid paper of the era? I have a 1879 American Bank Note Company Letter sheet which is cool.

I do not believe it is possible to identify the town of use for yours.

The killer of concentric circles or a "target" was used at many hundreds (if not thousands) of towns across the U.S.

They came is two broad types:
1. a separate killer device such as this, typically earlier

and 2, attached or "duplexed" with the town mark, common in the last half of the 1800s

As seen in the last scan, they can vary in the number of rings, thickness of the rings, total diameter, whether the center is hollow or filled or contains a letter or number, and in all the typical colors and shades - black, blue, magenta, etc. Only the very unusual ones can be identified to a city when removed from their covers.

abscout,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby. Sounds like you are a perfect candidate to become a postal history collector?

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Welcome abscout:

The Stamp Smarter website has a good deal of information about fancy cancels.

The most useful is the database edition of Cole's book, which is found here:

https://stampsmarter.org/features/F...ls_Home.html

The digital book is also available on the websites of the Philatelic Classics Society, and can be downloaded from this link:

https://www.uspcs.org/wp-content/up...okmarked.pdf

Some experimentation will be necessary to determine which of these resources you find is most comfortable for you to use.

Happy hunting.

Mike