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Greetings all, I purchased a nice entire from Mr Juzwin recently. It has a good example of the General Post Office Hobart Town cancellation, 6 Jan 1844, togerther with various arrival markings in the UK.

The cancellation is different to the illustration in the Green Book part 1 (p10, fig 7). The crown is quite different. The alignment of "VDL" to "Hobart Town" is different. There are extra bars above the town name and below the date. A side-by-side illustration is attached.

The diagram in the Green Book appears to be a drawing, so perhaps the Green Book is Wrong (horror!) Has anyone else got an example that we could check?

Here is another example which appears to be similar or identical. It is on an entire to London, hand stamped "Ship Letter" with London arrival hand stamp in red
I don't know the provenance ( but it has very annoyingly been pasted on to backing card and some one has added hand-written annotations on the cover itself in ink. I cant find words to express my irritation with this practice ).
A typed note accompanying the entire says "The large "GENERAL POST OFFICE - HOBART TOWN" with crown inset in top of oval is known in both black and red from 1 Feb 1840 to 30 July 1846. It was used on outward ship letters only and "SHIP LETTER" markings on letter above was probably applied in England upon arrival.
Black ink was used for handstamps up until 1840, then red was used ( but not always) to indicate pre-payment, black to indicate fees were to be collected from the addressee.
It would be interesting to see if anyone has an example exactly as in the Green Book drawing ( or tracing) ??
Pete