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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 Hobart.

The wrapper, enclosing Legislative Council papers, was sent to Ulverstone (12 Oct) then redirected via Launceston (14 Oct) and Adelaide GPO (19 Oct) to Semaphore , Sth Aust (19 Oct).

Does any one have any info on black strikes of this canceller??? Or any non-red strikes?

Hi Allen,
I have examples of of this handstamp in red and in black, both sent from Hobart. The black is 11 Aug 1897( Fanked with Governor's Frank Stamp) and the red 16 Ap 94 (On GPO Hobart envelope sig frank "E Hannaford for Secry")
My understanding is that is was applied to Free mail leaving Tasmania, not internal mail to signify to other States/Countries the letter was officially Free Mail. All examples I have seen are to other States or overseas. I imagine there is some convention (UPU?) that Official Free mail could pass jurisdictions outside Tasmania without paying additional postage.
Why both red and black? I don't know. The previous Hobart Free handstamp ( the circular one) is usually black while the Launceston Free diamond stamp is often in red but not always.
Previously, red denoted Pre-paid and black unpaid. When you think about it, both could be true for Free mail.
I am not sure the colour is significant but there are certainty a few of these from Hobart in both black and red.
I can scan my example but will check for any others I may have first.

Pete

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

Motivated by finding this, I thought I would have a quick trawl through my Frank Stamp display to see what I could find.

All the examples were in red, from Hobart.

The dates range from 1894 to 1901 and are

13/02/94; 29/06/94; 20/07/95; 6/04/96; 17/04/99; 12/05/99; 24/07/00; 09/04/01.

I also noticed a number of covers to other Australian States and to New Zealand that had gone through the post without being taxed. There were also a couple of covers to the Postmaster in Berlin that were untaxed. I guess the Post Office looked after their own!

I know that I have some strikes in black, but in another collection. I will record them when found.