Japanese Postmark From 1953 Assistance For New Forum Member

Hellooo! I inherited many Japanese stamps years ago from my fathers' time in service and with the American Mail Lines. They are mostly air mail from start to around 1985 and I starting investing some time in making both an insurance list and a collection list for, maybe one day, completing the missing items (found one last year, a Scott A41 MNH Ceremonial Cap which was blank in the book of hinged stamps).

My questions are regarding one of the few postmarked stamps. It is on a National Park Souvenir Sheet. Shikotsu-Toya 582a

The postmark appears to be dated prior to day of issue, something my father mentioned to me was an oddity he witnessed at purchase counter on site in Japan.

As I remember the story, my father was with one other Japanese man he knew in line waiting for the Post Office (Tokyo?)(My father spoke little Japanese, and dealt mostly with one dealer in Tokyo, so I guess this is where he was) to get stamps on the first day of issue. He never had much money to spend, but on his first attempt to buy stamps on his own, watched an argument at the counter when one of the stamps were mis-canceled. The postal worker had made a mistake and the man in line set this souvenir sheet aside. My father was able to purchase this sheet for face value of 15 yen? He bought a few other stamps that day as well.

What is the kanji for this postmark? I was always curious as a child looking at this one stamp that was cancelled. Is it a real postmark that was a mistake? I have only my memory of the few times we spoke about his stamp collection.

Thank you any and all responders!

Hello, and thanks for the nice story behind this souvenir sheet !

The post mark is from "Keio Gijyuku Ma-e" post office, which literally means "Post office in front of (or near) Keio Gijyuku
University". What I can see from the post mark is that the postal clerk was indeed not so skillful to apply the post mark beautifully, and the bottom part became so vague - which is not a good thing for the first day collectors. This is why the man in line (obviously a first day collector) set aside this sheet.

Hope this helps !

- Hironobu

Thank you for the information Hironobu!

Now that I have some idea of where this was post-marked, I am very happy! I would guess the original post office location is no longer there ( A quick Google search showed a few P.O. nearby and the ones "in front" or "nearby" were very much newer buildings )

I thought the cancel mark looked normal, but I can see how a more serious collector (there were collectors of first day cancellations in 1953, mind-blowing!) would be upset.

Jon

My father met my mother in Yokohama. Where his ship(s) harbored was unclear. I will have to do more research about the harbor in all of the surrounding areas of Tokyo and Yokohama. Somewhere in the many containers of stamps I've also found the original stamp seller he worked with. Perhaps that address may be another clue.

V/R, Jon

[ I regret posting here due to the final line in this post. ]




Postmarks are created by humans (even if a big fancy machine is used--what made the machine? human), made by humans and humans make mistakes. In the USA pre-first day cancels are an active collecting area. But like the collector in your story, so dislike such oddities.

Japan cancels come two ways, transit in country and foreign transit. In country cancels such as yours is properly dated, but date as a measurement since the current emperor rose to the position. Thus the cancel is a misdated real cancel without fear of not understanding the kanji.

I will post this now and when and if I find what I am looking for, I will edit this.

Edit:

Here is visual example how to equate the two cancellation date systems.


The Japanese Cancel reads 37 6 23 = 37 June 23 or June 23 37th year of Emperor
The English Calendar Cancel reads 23 IV 62 = 23 June 62 = June 23 1962

It is the 31st year of the emperor thus 1962-31 = 25 or when you see the in country cancel you need to add 25 to the year of the Emperor to get the normal calendar year date. Of course the counting resets to 1 for each new Emperor.

So your sheet shown is cancelled on July 12, 1953 (28+25) thirteen days prior to the July 25, 1953 FD of issue.

A cancellation oddity such as this is usually worth a few dollars more than the correct date but, hey, good luck with your $25,000.00 price on ebay...

Thank you for your additional info, Parcelpostguy.

Yes I do have an ebay listing for this item, mostly fishing for information. Two people on ebay have contacted me to share input on the error cancel. And I do realize the selling price would (probably) never reach more than $50. I have it listed as an "accepts offers" listing.

Does this type of cancellation error happen frequently? I would have thought postal workers were more careful.

I am also curious about the lack of any printing in the lower part of the circle. Is this just a oops forgetful moment, another example of poor cancellation technique, or something else? Most cancellations like this appear to have stars or kanji in them.

Thank you all again for your input.

Jon

Welcome back to Earth.

Postal cancel errors happen frequently due to human error. As the elements is a canceler are usually inserted one letter,number or figure at a time things go wrong. Also remember that when you do it and look to check everything is type backwards. Also as an example I was mailing a registered item at a window later one night and the clerk grabbed the registry canceler and properly beat the heck out of my envelope only to realize the canceler had not been updated for a couple of weeks. This night window was one of two which could be opened which she chose rather than the one normally open first as minor construction was blocking her easy access. In another case, I have a postcard mailed with a stamp which was cancelled August 16, 1912. The stamp was even designed in August 1913, it was dome later in the year. The post office was seasonal (summer) and no one had changed the year.

It is the same phenomenon as when you buy a car, before the purchase you notice very few, after the purchase, where did they all come from? Same with the postmark errors, start looking for them and they show up with reasonable frequency. Likewise if an error can be made somehow with a canceller, there is an example out there somewhere.

As to what the full cancel would look like, that will have to wait until such an example appears. However, as this is a souvenir sheet, the images of the stamps are flat, not raised by the thickness of the stamp paper which can cause ink voids when cancelling. Likely there was no design intended for printing in the cancel.

I suggest you contact a moderator and (1) request the word error be added to your title to read, "...Postmark Error From..." and (2) perhaps move the entire thread to the non-country specific Errors, Freaks & Oddities (EFO) section. You contact a moderator by using the blue text in the lower right corner of a post which reads, "send note to staff"