I Bought My First "Rare" Tasmanian Pictorial Cancel!

[Luis M.]

Hello all. I received my first Tasmania pictorial "rare" cancel stamp in the mail today. This will be my first in my new collection! I know that it has a "RR" rating. If I read right, the "Mount Hicks" PO was active between 7-1907 through 6-1910. I presume that this means that the date on the cancel must be "APR 24, 1909". Is there anymore that anyone can tell me about this cancel (please don't tell me that it is a counterfeit! LOL! )? Any tidbits of information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Luis M.

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[Ross Ewington]

Hi Luis,

The Mount Hicks Type 2 you have purchased is indeed dated 24.APR.09. The earliest recorded date of use for this postmark is 22.JAN.07 and the latest 18.AUG.10.
Sometime between the August and October 1910 the letters "LWR" were added as the office had been re-named MOUNT HICKS LOWER (there was also a Mount Hicks Road that was re-named MOUNT HICKS UPPER around the same time).

The words "UPPER" and "LOWER" used in Tasmanian post office names (locations) does not usually
refer to altitude but to latitude; e.g. LOWER LONGLEY is south of LONGLEY (but about 300m more above sea level).

Mount Hicks is situated inland on the North West Coast - note the position in relation to the large coastal town of Wynyard and the city of Burnie.

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[Luis M.]

Thanks for all the very interesting information Ross. And thanks for the map. I downloaded several Tasmania maps a while ago and have been able to find only "Lower Mount Hicks". So now I know that they are the same place. Another question. How accurate are the rarity numbers? Only 13-24 copies of this cancel are known to exist (not sure if that applies to my Type 2). I find that hard to believe. Thanks again! Luis M.

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[Ross Ewington]

A very useful site for maps and post office locations is provided by Australia Post on their main website. It's their "Post Office and Street Posting Box Locator"

http://apps.nowwhere.com.au/austpost/po ... fault.aspx

The maps are good and provide the locations of many long-closed post offices. It also passes my "Bulgobac Test" which is to search a website with Tasmanian maps requesting the location of Bulgobac ...... if it's included ...it's a good map!
[attachment=1]bulgobac.jpg[/attachment]

Here's the Australia Post map with Mount Hicks:
[attachment=0]mt hicks map 2.jpg[/attachment]
I'll add some information about judging rarity and quality in regard to Tasmanian postmarks on Pictorials when I can ..... I'm a bit behind with the number of auction descriptions I have to do today!

[Luis M.]

Thanks for the link and the maps Ross. No rush on answering my question. Luis M.

[John Shepherd]

Another question. How accurate are the rarity numbers? Only 13-24 copies of this cancel are known to exist (not sure if that applies to my Type 2). I find that hard to believe.

Luis, the rarity rating is reasonably accurate in a relative sense. Mount Hicks Lwr is "RR". The rating system is however not accurate in a numerical sense i.e. there are more than 24 examples in existence.

This is due to a number of factors - there have been more discoveries since the "Greenbooks" were published. And, the authors of the Greenbooks didn't physically count "a million" strikes, rather they surveyed the major collections that existed in the 1960s. That said, the rarity ratings have stood the test of time although there are a few exceptions that will need adjustment in the future.

The TPS webmaster Peter Allan is compiling an illustrated census of RRR and RRRR postmarks with a view to illustrating all of the recorded examples. It will be very revealing when it goes online.

[Luis M.]

Hi John. I figured that since the "Rarity Ratings" were done many years ago and new discoveries were bound to happen. Peter's census should be very interesting. Luis M.

[Peter Allan]

Hi John. I figured that since the "Rarity Ratings" were done many years ago and new discoveries were bound to happen. Peter's census should be very interesting. Luis M.

The Census of RRR and RRRR cds uses the original Courier census as a base and will add new strikes not originally included. Although not yet showing all the known (to me) examples, and there are probably numerous others, the census is nevertheless indicating that the original rarity classification is pretty accurate in a relative sense, that is, those rated 4R are generally scarcer than those rated 3R. However, even for the 4Rs, new examples not seen by collectors before continue to appear, so there will most likely be very few 4Rs in the 1 - 6 catagory, and so on down through the other catagories . The census also shows that within each catagory some post Offices remain scarce while some should be re-allocated to the lower catagory. Many serious collectors believe the 4 rarity ratings are too broad and there is enough information to confidently split these 4 ratings into more catagories. There are after all some 500 + postmarks which appear on Pictorials.
As far as 2Rs are concerned my guess is that there are more of most cds than 13 - 24, but not by a large margin. I think Mt Hicks is at the scarcer end of the spectrum of 2Rs so you have one of the less common RR postmarks there.

Another interesting issue is that within the most commonly seen towns, such as Queenstown and Wynyard, not to mention Hobart and Launceston, there are some very scarce postmark types, but little attention has been given to these as they were all lumped together by Lancaster in his list( the usual reference these days) and not given any rarity rating overall.
If you find any 3R or 4R strikes I'd love to include them in the census.