Manuscript cancellation 34 "unrecorded"

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songenaz
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Location: Passy, France

Manuscript cancellation 34 "unrecorded"

#1 Post by songenaz » Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:40 am

On the last Prestige Philately sale ( November 2014), lot # 604 feature some manuscript cancellation
with various cancellation and # 34, "unrecorded"
Why do they say that?
Prestige #604.jpg
Prestige #604.jpg (51.64 KiB) Viewed 929 times
Do they speak about the first or the second allocation?
Thanks for your help
laurent

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Location: Hobart, Tasmania

Re: Manuscript cancellation 34 "unrecorded"

#2 Post by admin » Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:19 am

Laurent,
They refer to the First allocation numerals. There were many cancels in handwriting, just writing the number on the stamp.
This is an interesting area to collect if you like postal history.There are a few manuscript, or hand cancells in the Second allocation, but not many. You also need to be sure you do not confuse the pen cancells on stamps paying stamp duty after September 1863 - there are a great many, but they only show the date, not the number denoting a Post office.

Its worth remembering that in the 1850s, Tasmania had only been settled for around 50 years; many people were quite un-educated and could hardly read and write. Many of our postmarks from this period suffer form poor ink, un-even application, and when the canceller was lost or broken, a pen was used to write the Post Office numeral or even just scribble on the stamp with a cross, a wavy line or similar.
In comparison to France, where the postmarks seem to be generally well and neatly applied to the cover, ours and much more variable in quality.

All the First allocation numerals are recorded by Randall Askeland in an edition of The Courier ( and you will see this article on P 20 when your CD arrives, but I cant recall which Edition off the top of my head).
Numeral 34 was allocated to Great Swanport which is on the E Coast of Tasmania. However, as far as I know there is some doubt and it has never been conclusively tied on a cover to this Post office.
The numeral cancel 34 has been found on at least one stamp and there is some evidence its actually tied to the Grove Post office which is near Huonville South of Hobart.
When Prestige says the numeral 34 is un-recorded they might be referring to Askeland's article from the 1980s, where it is certainly not recorded, or a more recent article by David McNamee, where again, while the barred numeral cancel has been recorded, the hand cancelation in pen has not been recorded.
I will send you a copy of the above articles.

Pete

Someone may have more recent information than I and be able to say it has now need seen but so far no-one has documented an example as far as I know.

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