#5
Post
by admin » Mon May 16, 2011 7:15 pm
As a relative newcomer to this fascinating area, here is my 2/- worth.
I should add that both Ross and John have years of experience.
As they have said, the thing is to do what pleases you. Even for a formal Postal History exhibit, I dont think anyone is going to tell you exactly hoe you SHOULD do it, as long as you have a rationale.
For your own collection you can do what you like really - but having some guiding principles I find useful.
The standard method of collecting postmarks on Pictorials has been alphabetically by Post Office Name, IE from Abbotsham through to Zeehan East.
For the vast majority of offices, there is only one type of postmark during the period of issue of the Pictorials, IE December 1899 to early 1913. For a few there might be two different postmark types, and a smaller number there might be three EG, Wynyard has a type I, II, and III.
For a few offices, the 'standard' list as per the TPS website, which is from Keith Lancaster's book does not show all types, again, Wynyard, Burnie, Queenstown and a few other offices have a few different types and variations not listed. For Hobart, Launceton and Zeehan there are many variations and types. To work through these you need the "Green Books" - "Tasmania, The Postal History and Postal Markings . A lot of people do not collect the Hobart, Launceston and Zeehan types - its more of a specialisation, but nothing to stop you.
Some people like to collect the post marks on all the different Pictorial stamps, EG, the 1/2d, 1d, 2d, 2 1/2d, 3d, 4d. etc. I very much doubt anyone will ever get all postmarks on all stamps, but you can get complete sets of some on all stamps if you try.
Because the less common values were issued in far fewer numbers than the 1d and 2d, finding even common cds on these is a lot harder.
The barred numerals on Pictorials could presumably be collected by Post Office along with your cds's. Some people just collect the numerals and as far as I have seen, arrange them numerically. Personally I'd put both numerals and cds plus any manuscript cancels for that offices together but its purely a matter of choice.
For instance, where there may have seen an initial cds what was lost, then a period when the office used a manuscript cancel, then a new cds turns up.
You could conceivably collect the cds based on when they were issued, rather than alphabetically by post office . They were issued in batches throughout the period really from the first issue of date stamps in 1865 onwards.
Apart from Randall Askeland I don't think anyone has ever done this ?
Personally I was attracted to Regional collections and have a "King Island" collection trying to show all types from all offices for the Island. I did set out to do similar with Bruny and Flinders, as well as SE Tas. I'm still working on that but have learned the hard way some areas have extremely scarce postmarks. Still, with something like this you dont need a complete collection of everything .
You can of course go right back to the earliest postmarks even the markings of the pre-stamp era. Outside of the Pictorials, there are far fewer collectors and in theory less competition, but some mighty hefty prices too for very scarce items. Still, there are plenty of early barred numerals and circular date stamps especially form the second allocation period 1861, and the early date stamps from 1865 onwards ( there are a couple of earlier ones).
You will find a wealth of information in the last two Couriers by John Hardinge on the second allocation of barred numerals, to be concluded in edition 51, out soon !
The idea of a "Regional Collection" is a lot of fun, i reckon.
Pete
Does anyone have the best way to display Tasmanian postmarks?? Is it in postmark order or town order or by stamp denomination and now I’m hooked “ HELP”…..
