tps.org.au

Hi, do any members have info on the Launceston August 1923 machine cancel for the "British Empire Exhibition London 1924" and is it particularly scarce ?
regards

I have seen this but my collection is just a 'hoard' at present and I cant easily locate whatever examples I have.

These Slogan cancels are not widely collected at all. I doubt anyone can offer you an accurate idea of Rarity which is a pity but they are not widely collected.
The Standard text on Slogan Cancells, R. C.Occleshaw does show an example of "British Empire Exhibition/Always ask for Australian Products" from Melbourne but I think yours is slightly different as it reads simply "British Empire Exhibition London 1924" and does not appear in this standard reference. This suggests it was not common. The example from Occleshaw was later modified to simply "Always ask for Australian Products".

A Western Australian collector, Brian Whittaker has recently studied Tas slogan cancels and does record your slogan from Launceston, so it has been seen before, but does not suggest any rarity rating though it might be scarce. He says it was produced on a Norwegian "Kragg" machine which was in regular use in Launceston from before 1920 for all machine canceling including slogans.

It seems it was a National slogan, as most of them were. Use in Launceston would represent maybe a quarter of the Tasmanian use based on population and Tas would have been around 3% of national use so you could safely assume there are not a lot of them around.

Sorry I cant be more helpful.

Do you have a photo or a scan you could up-load so we could see your example?

If you re interested I am sure Brian would not mind if I sent you a copy of his list of Launceston machine cancels and slogans. You can send me a private message or email if interested.
Pete

Many thanks for your informative response, it is appreciated.
I will post a scan of the cancel after 21 March when I return from the USA
Kind regards