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[josto]

Hi!

How can I see if a manuscript is a numeral allocation or just a fiscal? Here are the candidates I have! Is there anything like a manuscript numeral within? Rating?



Greetings

[josto]

Any ideas?

[admin]

Josto,
You may well be aware of the following, but if not it may help. Stamp duty was first introduced into Tasmania in 1863, on 24th September. Before that time, stamps were only used to pay postage. From Sept 1863, stamp duty could be paid either by reveue or postage stamps, hence the commonly seen chalons with pen cancell dates. So, any marking on a stamp before then is most likely a postal marking.
During the First Allocation of Barred Numerals, from 1853 to 1861, postage stamps were often cancelled in maunscript, either with the numeral of the Post Office or with a squiggle, cross, hatching, wavy lines etc. Sometimes the name of the post office was written accross the stamp in full.During the second allocation of numerals, from 1861onwards, stamps were mostly cancelled with a Barred numeral canceller and manuscript cancells were much less common. From 1863, manuscript dates on stamps are almost certainly revenue cancells and as such significantly reduce the value of the stamp as reveue useage was far more common than postal useage.
If you dont have the stamp on cover so as to be able to identify the date of posting, you will need to check your catalogue to see when the stamp was issued. If before 1863, it would not have been cancelled for revenue purposes. Obviously if you can read the date as per the pen cancell, then you know which period you are in.
You could safely assume any pen marking on a Courier, Star or no watermark imperf stamp is a postal marking, hence, if its a number, its most likely a manuscript numeral, such as the 13 you have displayed, which I think is numeral 13 of Bothwell.
It gets more tricky with the later imperf chalon issues as they could conceivably have been cancelled during the stamp duty period. Anything on a perf Chalon or sideface is most likely a revenue cancell.Where its a hand-written date, its pretty much certain to be a reveue cancell, as is the case with the rest of the stamps you have listed.
As for rarity ratings of first allocation numerals including in manuscript, theres a very useful article in the Courier, no 29, by Randall Askeland, which revises the rarity ratings given in Vol 1 of the "Green Books". This article gives rarity ratings for the numeral hand stamp, numeral in manuscript, Manuscript Town Name, and also the various suiggles, cross hatches and other pen marks sometimes seen. I think this edition may still be available form the Tas Philatelic Society for less than $10. It also has other useful articles on frank Stamps and semi-official post cards.

Pete

[Ross Ewington]

Hi Josto ...... sorry for delay in looking over your items but I am rather busy with my next auction catalog at present.

Regarding your postmarks, the "13" is a manuscript cancel (Bothwell), the rest are fiscal cancels.

I think Pete has filled in all the "necessary information" in the previous post.

[josto]

Hi!

Thanks very much for that help!

Has anyone also some information about rating of the above shown numerals? I`ve made single scans of each stamp!

Greetings

[admin]

Josto,
The chalons you showed are all first allocation 60, which is Launceston and not rated. The fact that you have several copies shows that 60 is fairly common.The other scans of sidefaces appear to be second allocation numerals and as Ross says, a detailed set of articles will apprear in the Courier over coming editions. Currently published ratings for second allocation are pretty much out of date.Personally I dont feel qualified to suggest any ratings for these.
The rating for your manuscript Numeral 13 (Bothwell) is R according to the article by Askeland which I mentioned in my post above. 13 was initially rated RR in the 'Green Books" (Tasmania: The postal History and Postal Markings, Campbell, Purves and Viney) .

Cheers,

Pete

[Ross Ewington]

BN33 was used at Fenton Forest (later Glenora) was rated R but is unrated in the latest listing (to be published
in The Courier during June 2010.

BN60 (as Pete mentions above) was used at Launceston (Tasmania's second largest city) and is very common, even on Chalons

BN144 used at Gould's Country is rated R* (the quality of your example is below average for this postmark)

BN311(and yours is a beauty!) was used at Turner's Marsh and is rated RRR .

BN321 (on the 2d Pictorial) was used at Riversdale and is rated RR ..... clearer examples than this one are hard to find

I hope this info is of use to you Josto.

(highest rarity rating for BN postmarks is RRRRR)

cheers, Ross

[Luis M.]

Hello all. Was wondering about this postmark. Can anyone figure it out? Thanks in advance. Luis (Sorry for the poor scan)

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[Ross Ewington]

Hi Luis ... it's one of the many datestamps used at the Hobart GPO.

[Luis M.]

Thanks Ross.

[Luis M.]

Hello all! Is this cancel a Strahan Type ii with an upright "L" code? Any other comments would be welcome. Thanks in advance. Luis

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[Luis M.]

Could someone help me identify this Queensland cancel? Thanks in advance. Luis

QUEENSTOWN CANCEL (SMALL).jpg (368.4 KiB) Viewed 151231 times

[admin]

Luis,
its a Queenstown type 1. There are in fact at least 4 variations on this Queenstwon type ( 4 different type 1 date stamps have been identified). There are not enough letters visible to say which one it is. The type one is not rated and is quite common.
Cheers,
Pete

[Luis M.]

Thanks Pete! How about the Strahan cancel above the Queenstown? Luis

[admin]

Luis, the Strahan is Type 1. Type 2 has the date all in one line. I do not believe Strahan is found as type ii.Of the type 1s there were a number, up to 4 different cancellers have been recorded. This one appeasr to be the type with circle stops (between the Tasmania and the Strahan,) and is recorded with code letter L, including with the "L" inverted and sideways. It does not appear to be uncommon.

Pete

[shatten]

Hi folks,
I picked this item up on eBay recently. It was listed as "Colonial Treasury" but that is doubtful. The "Treasury" is clear enough but the word on the lhs starts with "CO" and the next letter isn't obvious. It could be "COU..." . The date is "1 Aug 1 1867".

Can't find anything in the Green books - over to the contributors!

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[admin]

Hi Allen,
Its Colonial Treasury. Not uncommon, and a fiscal cancellation rather than postal usage. It was used for Stamp duty cancellations by the Treasury Dept ( obviously !). Interestingly, this cancel seems to have attracted some big bids in auctions over the last year or so, although its not particularly scarce. I really like this cancellation as its usually very crisp and clear. The Treasury obvious kept their date stamp very clean

Pete

[Ross Ewington]

footnote to Pete's post:

the "Green Books" cover postal history and postal markings. As fiscal cancels are not postmarks, they
weren't included. Therefore, as a general 'rule of thumb' ..... if it's not in the Green Books, it may not be postal.

[shatten]

Aha!! We are never too old to learn. Is there a reference of any kind listing types of fiscal cancellations?

[admin]

Aha!! We are never too old to learn. Is there a reference of any kind listing types of fiscal cancellations?

As far as I know there isnt. But there were very few "official" duty date stamps. I can only think of the Colonial Treasury canceler mentioned here and the "Stamp Act" canceler much later. Otherwise, duty stamps were canceled in manuscript usually with the date. So theres not much to document. Dave Elsemore's on-line catalogue and the Craig and Ingles catalogues would be the the standard references for the stamps, but I cant think of anything for the cancellations.Maybe someone else can offer a suggestion?

Pete

[David McNamee]

I have recorded the following dated fiscal cancelers: Colonial Treasury, Stamp Act, and Board of Education (this last is illustrated).

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[Ross Ewington]

The various STAMP ACT datestamps have their own topic over in the REVENUES forum

http://tps.org.au/bb/viewtopic.php?f=13 ... =1028#p593

It's a worry that these are often mistaken for postal cancels (or conveniently
disregarded!! ) by some eBay sellers.

[RogerKinns]

Can anyone help me with this Type 1 cancel? There's not much to go on, so it's something of a challenge. The stamp is a 1d thin paper and the postmark date is 11 February 1913. The '11' is in manuscript black ink. There is a clear circle stop between the T of TASMANIA and the S. The circle stop appears to be rather closer to the S than the T. The place name must be quite short, as the S slopes diagonally downwards towards the date. I cannot match it any other examples in my collection. SPRENT seemed to be closest, but the latest known date for the Type 1 cancel is (or was) in 1911.

[griffofromtas]

Hi
Can anyone tell me where this postmark originated?

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[Ross Ewington]

Used Valetta, MALTA .... probably used as paquebot cancellation

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Nice item ... I haven't seen this cancel before on a Tasmanian stamp.