Bisected stamps

[bill]

The books by Basset Hull (1890) and Tinsley (1986) discuss bisected stamps.
However, Tinsley's book largely rehashes what's already in Basset Hull. In
particular, the recorded bisects only go up to 1886 if these sources are
correct.

Do any readers of this BB have any scans of bisects used on Tasmanian
covers (or pieces)? Also, are there any other bisects that are not listed
by Basset Hull or Tinsley?

[Malcolm Groom]

Bill,

I have some hidden away in my files. Give me some time and I will try and resurrect the.

Malcolm

[David McNamee]

A bisected 2d Pictorial on envelope was offered on eBay some years ago.

[admin]

Going through the Letter Book for the Postmaster Generals Department, 1858, in the Tas Museum Archives earlier this year ( as reported in The Courier, Issue 49), I came across the following regarding a 2d Chalon bisect. I am fairly certain these have never been seen, however, but maybe somewhere out there an example exists:
"In a letter to the Postmaster at Waterloo Point, dated 12 July, 1858, the Secretary of the Post Office writes the following:
“… the officers of the Police Department at Waterloo Point have been in the habit of cutting their 2d postage stamps into halves in order to use them for the purpose of District Post letters. Such a case is a most extraordinary invention and the secretary [of the Post Office] is considerably surprised that the Postmaster at Waterloo Point did not submit the matter to his notice. In future Mr Mills is required to take care that no letter stamped in this peculiar manner be allowed to pass through the post office under his charge but give immediate notice to Headquarters of all such irregularities.
J. Hardinge, Secretary”
It is a great shame we do not have more than a few of these letter books. I have the distinct impression more were held in the old Post Office museum which was established in Hobart back in the 1960s but closed some years later. One can only speculate where they might be, as there would have to be a deal of very useful material - the letter books contain a copy of all letters written by the Postmaster Generals Department each year, plus some statistical returns, including numbers of stamps issued to all current post Offices for that year.
On the question of new bisects, I saw recently a KGV 3d Brown bisect for sale in an Australian Auction House. Nothing to do with Tasmania, but is shows that new examples come up from time to time right through into the mid 20th Century.

Pete

[Malcolm Groom]

Bill,

The RPSV library should have the Habsburg, Feldman Australasia sale of November 16-21 1987. In the 'Maxwell Hayes' sale lots 20896 (2d Chalon bisect on cover used at Sorell) and lot 20907 (2d Chalon bisect with 4d Chalon used to Launceston) are illustrated in colour. Both have mss, cancels. It was also the sale that the Rod Perry classic Victoria was offered in.

Malcolm

[bill]

Many thanks to David, Malcolm and admin for feedback

It would be interesting to see some details of the 2d Pictorial bisect
on envelope offered on eBay if these are still available.

Malcolm's lead on the Maxwell Hayes sale (1987) and the Habsburg, Feldman
sale (1987) should be valuable. Most likely these should be in the RPSV library
so I'll have a look early next year.

The archival details from admin will be valuable. Apparently, bisecting stamps
was more common than previously suspected.

Bill

[David McNamee]

The collector who owns the bisected cover graciously provided a scan. My memory was faulty -- it is a bicected 1d used with a 2d for the foreign letter rate 1906. Backstamped Launceston 29 August; Vancouver, BC; New York; and West Hoboken, NJ 6 October.

Bisect sm.jpg (141.76 KiB) Viewed 5660 times

[bill]

David

Many thanks to yourself and to the owner of this item.

It is clearly dated 27 August 1906 at King's Island. This
place would now be King Island and the largest town is
Currie on the western side of that island. I will have to
check the green books at home.

It is a very nice item. It does not look philatelic.

Bill

[Hobbit123]

I have a 2d bisect on wrapper from King Island (again) sent to Hobart and redirected to Burnie. Fortunately it was not too hard to retrieve from my Pictorials display sheeets. It is dated 12 October 1905 and I have added a scan that includes my write-up, which convinces me that it is authorised as it was sent to the Audit department and not disallowed.

1905 2d bisect on wrapper

2d bisect on cover.jpg (699.96 KiB) Viewed 5635 times

[admin]

As a collector both of anything from King Island and postmarks on pictorials I find both David and Patrick's items very interesting. I was unaware until now that there were bisect pictorials. Does anyone have any other examples ?

Pete

[David McNamee]

Thanks, Patrick. Did not know there was another example around. Note the captal "M" has the same distinctive beginning loop -- I would say that the writer of both of these items bearing bisects was the same person. Patrick says the person was the Postmaster. Odd that the PO was out of ½d stamps August 06 and 1d stamps the year before in October 05. It might be that the Postmaster enjoyed doing this even when there was no official shortage. Someone with access should pull up the P.O. archives and the newspapers for these time periods to see if stamp shortages had been reported on King Island.

[Ross Ewington]

Just noticed this bi-sect included in the Status International auction closing on January 28th 2011

Lot 1710
[attachment=1]2d bi-sect.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]2d bi-sect 2.jpg[/attachment]

Personally, I would have added "as is" to the description as I cannot think of a valid reason the
Launceston post office would have to bi-sect a stamp as a legitimate usage.

[Revenuer]

Chatting with David McNamee has prompted me to show this bisect i have here.

I would welcome any comments as this is not my field but have had the bisect some 20 years or so.

dm1.jpg (46.72 KiB) Viewed 5280 times

[John Hardinge]

There are a few bisects from Scottsdale, done prior to 1893 and in many cases on cover. They are philatelic but interesting none the less.

[Ross Ewington]

......and here's another Ellesmere bi-sect cover as John has mentioned above.

ellesmere bisect cover.jpg (154.75 KiB) Viewed 4602 times