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New early date for Hobart Duplex Hardinge type 1(v), fig. 74 in Green Books: Nov 2, 1891

And here's an 1860s version of the PRE-PAID stamp for comparison.

But I have just noted that the dumb obliterator wasn't recorded before the 1860s. Comments please!

ERDs for Hobart Town Pre-Paid Outwards and Launceston Pre-Paid Inwards: I am 90% sure that this envelope has new ERDs for both these stamps. The Hobart pre-paid stamp could be taken for a "6" as in 1864 but I think it's actually a "5" making a date of 18 OC 1854. The Launceston Pre-Paid mark on the ...

I have found a third example. It's faint, but undoubtedly the same stamp in violet, dated 10 Mar 93.

New early date for M.O. & S.B. LAUNCESTON - MR 24 (18)96. Previous early date in JH's book was 9 APR 1897.

And I found a similar cancelation in Mr Courtis's Wrapper books. Possibly used only on wrappers?

Greetings all, a scan of an international wrapper follows. I can't find any info about the postmark. Green Books mentions one example of thick bars (part 1 chapter 6 section E, Fig 89) but the letters are sans serif. This postmark has serifs and the lettering is quite different. Any info would be mu...

Here is a new early date for the WELDBOROUGH Type 1 cds. This date is 26 Oct 1882; the previous early date was 17 Dec 1887, over 5 years later.

By the way: the reference to "Welborough" in Mr Hardinge's book is a typo.

Hi all, I recently purchased this fascinating cover at Ross's auction: scan0010.jpg scan0011.jpg Grenn Books part II says that CANNOT-BE FOUND "has now been found!" and is RRRR. It also says that RETURN TO SENDER has "been seen on cover accompanied by a red hand." So these two markings may be rare. ...

John, thank you for the lucid clarification. But my faith in the green books has been slightly diminished.

Hi all, I have been puzzling over this duplex cancel. The CDS is figure 72 in Green Books (22.5 mm). But the duplex canceller doesn't match. It resembles the duplex canceller in figure 70 but the letters of TASMANIA are at least 1mm higher and they look to be thinner. Also the horizontal lines appea...

Jerry, thanks very much for this information - I have no doubt that it is correct. I will try to source Hosking #1559..............

I have acquired a pictorial stamped "LOOSE LETTER" in a double frame - image below. The measurements are at least 40 mm x10 mm and the letters are less than 3mm high. There is a portion of a New Zealand cancellation on the piece. Green Book vol. II (pp. 149-150) refers to similar markings as Union S...

Does anyone have any information on this item? The colour is wrong and the cancellation is odd. A forgery?

A new ERD for DEAD LETTER OFFICE TASMANIA - 23 Dec 86 - beating the previous by nearly 7 years.

Hi all, Following up on Pete's comments re volume of mails in Tassie and Hobart in particular: The 1889 Post Office report includes the following volumes: "The mail matter circulated was 3,503,194 in-land letters, an increase of 59,820 on the previous year; 1,200,140 ship letters, an increase of 17,...

This a strike of the un-named Hobart Town date stamp with 17mm date, 7 May 1841. Green Book pt II lists early date as 20 Aug 1841.

Hi Pete
I also have a red circular example from Hobart, on a non-official section of a parcel to Sydney. The section is endorsed "photograph only".

Allen

I acquired an interesting official wrapper recently. It was posted in Hobart, OC 11 95 and was stamped IN BLACK "TASMANIA OFFICIAL PAID". These strikes are normally in red. The green book part II states that "...at Launceston ....one strike has been seen, in black ...." but this one is clearly from ...

Thanks Ross, I tried lots of searches but none with a G.......

Hi folks,

The postmark in the image has defeated two of us.

The date is clearly DE 4 02.

The four letters above right look like FIOH but under a magnifier they could be FICH. The F might actually be an E.

Help !!

Cheers and thanks Allen S

I have an unused 1d QV postcard that is very neatly perforated "T" -see below.

I doubt that it is genuine, and I understand that Ross has the same doubt. Is anyone able to throw some light on this anomaly?

Hi again, I am replying to myself. I looked up the Green Books and they confirm the 4-bar assumptions I made. Part I has a good set of descriptions and illustrations on p55 et seq. to help identify originals and replacements.

Greetings all, referring to John Hardinge's definitive works on BNs: In 1891 14 numerals ".. were remade in a very distinctive 4 bar type .... BNs 222-225 were also issued for the first time." The only example I have from this set is BN225 (image supplied) which has 4 bars on each side and I assume ...