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My current count for the different combinations of obliterators on QV Pine, CC, CA wmks, QV Keyplates, QV Falls, QV Fiscals, and 1903 Badge issues is 1,916 items. Although I am not a collector I have my own form of collection in that I now have 1,602 scanned combinations, and 314 missing for completion. These counts do not include Kingston Head Office A01 but only cover the town cancels A27 through to E. Included are coloured inks (only blue,and violet) and the two manuscript numbers of 36 and 37 and the possible A67 on QV 1/- CC Ex Duffus. Bisects are not included as they mainly come on complete cover. In mentioning coloured inks I have seen two examples red A01 supplied to John Buckner, Florida in the 1980s. Most elusive, for me, are those which fall on the 1903 Arms issues as I do not have a single scan. Lucky is the collector I sold a wonderful Arms cover cancelled by one of the oblits. many years back. Ideally 106 pages can be allocated for these 1,916 combinations so that all A27 fall on one page, and blue inks, or manuscripts, have their own pages. Probably the most diverse range are those for Cold Spring 193 - no examples are known on Pine wmks so far (the office opened end September 1874) but extremely rare examples of the QV 2/- (SG.14) and QV 6d orange (SG.23) have been found used at this office. Some offices give me quite a shock when I look at my pages. Probably the worst is Richmond A79(J) where I find I have 9 scans and 14 missing scans to complete the page. Added to these 106 pages are pages set up to show examples of the FALMOUTH cds (P11); MILE GULLY cds (P9) SAVANNA-LA-MAR manuscript X overstruck A01, SAVANNA-LA-MAR cds (P11); brass ½ on QV 2d Pine possibly used Spanish Town; manuscript assisted A67 used Port Royal; the newly discovered manuscript Manchioneal dated by Kingston cds A/JY 29 76 which all contribute to the obliterator story. Double and Inverted surcharges have been included in the count.
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These bootheel cancels, issued in 1863, offer a spectacularly colourful display when collected on the Britannia issues. The 2 and the 9 are the most elusive, and 10 and 11 the commonest. There are many stamp/bootheel combinations, and many rarities. Fun for many years!
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(2 May 2020) LCC Nicholson in 1949 mentions the A80 (K) with larger figures and suggests it may have been sent out earlier than the A80 (K) with smaller figures known employed at Mount Charles with later name changed to Hagly Gap. The reality is that the A80 (K) larger figures obliterator has proved so elusive that even the Charles Winand collection (of 1531 different combinations with stamp/numeral on Pine wmk to Keyplates A27 to E) contained not a single example, and Winand himself confused, even tried to separate his five examples A80 (K) small into smaller and larger versions of the same instrument! Confusion is further extended in the Proud handbook with the A80 small shown as a Type H horiz. obliterator. There is no evidence linking A80 (K) large to Mount Charles or elsewhere due there being no covers or dated pieces.
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(30 April 2020) Specialised collectors love to own the most important auction catalogues for their collecting areas. When it comes to the cancellations maybe a few items will get illustrated allowing provenance to be attributed when owned and included by you. Few records have survived showing the complete postmarks pages as owned by these famous collectors. The Osborn K3a page is now shared with all for the first time.
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(28 April 2020) Two spectacular covers dated MY 8 1871 and NO 7 1874 showing the two distinctly different accountancy handstamps. On the earlier cover the accountancy triplex was used as a "killer" on the 8c stamp, but as it could not be applied twice the 2c stamp is tied by black "A03".
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(27 April 2020)
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(Updated 27 April 2020 thanks to emails from Ed Barrow and Mike Kitson) It is becoming clear that not only the stamps of Great Britain were used at their postal agencies abroad but a more formal arrangement existed covering mail arrangements to and from those territories in the Caribbean basin. Early Jamaica QV stamps exist pmkd C51 (St. Thomas), D60 and red D63 (whereabouts unknown), E88 (Colon) and one 1876 ingoing cover shows a spectacular Cuba 50c, Great Britain 4d. and Jamaica 2d combination.
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(25 April 2020) This newly discovered unique example of the two different K3 2 duplex obliterators on 1880 QV 4d orange-red Crown CC wmk (SG.20) will challenge the thoughts of every specialised Bermuda collector who imagined that all there is to know about the numerals had already been written. There is undoubtedly a story to be told and only a careful watch of covers and dated stamps might eventually reveal its secrets. The enlarged illustration shows the differing measurements between the top of the tail of 2 to vertical inner bar at right as 4.75mm (handstamp I) and 3.75mm (handstamp II). A clearer test is that the upright serif of the 2 in handstamp II sticks out further to right than top right side curve of the 2. The current recorded period of the short-lived handstamp II is OC 21 1880 to DE 22 1880 but Ludington Page 139 recorded a second period of use with a single date of AP 14 1889 (not seen by me, and after the K4 series was issued on JA 1 1889). Ludington records use of the handstamp I from JU 3 1879 to AU 9 1888 with alternating bands of both black and blue ink. The established period for handstamp II (only found in black) is flanked by black ink periods of use of handstamp I for JU 25 1880 to OC xx 1880 and MR 2 1881 to MR 20 1882 as gleaned from covers, but there has been no study of loose dated stamps to determine whether handstamp I was also being used during the OC 21 1880 to DE 22 1880 handstamp II period.
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(Updated 25 April 2020) The illustrations below review all the measurements of the two duplex obliterators, and update the short-lived life span of handstamp II.
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The Circle of Dots, as described in the PML handbook Page 129, is only known struck in black ink and only found on the 1880 QV 1d olive-green (SG.29, 60,000 stamps invoiced May 13 1880). Of the 12 copies known to me the key stamp to assist in establishing where this mark was applied is the Ex Messenger copy overstruck black CA (at Calliaqua) dated JY 30 81. Only 4 offices were using the black ink pad at this time being Barrouallie, Calliaqua, Kingstown, and Mesopotamia. A chart has been prepared to show the nearest known strikes either side of the JY 30 81 date as gleaned from either loose dated stamps or covers. Barrouallie had use of both vertical A10 and BAR datestamp, the Calliaqua CA datestamp is so commonly applied on SG.29 that a single dated strike effectively rules out its use at that office, Kingstown had use of horizontal A10, GB/40c, K datestamp, ST. VINCENT cds, which leaves by elimination Mesopotamia as the most likely candidate. The chart shows no dated strikes for Mesopotamia period JA 12 81 to SP 7 82 (21 months) and Peter Jaffe in a Stamp Collecting magazine 18 November 1950 article (no copy of same retained) reported that there was no Postmaster at Mesopotomia at DE 23 80. Only four strikes of black MES are recorded after that date on SG.29 being xx JA 81, 9 JA 81, JA 10 81, JA 12 81 and then comes the unknown period until SP 7 82. Mail from the village of Mesopotamia would have continued and initial copies may have been killed in manuscript before it was thought to apply the wafer seal impressions. The 9th illustration shows perhaps an early combination. Activity at the other black ink offices is shown for the Mesopotamia unknown period JA 12 81 to SP 7 82.
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High priced postmarks on catalogued stamps will always attract the forger and it is no surprise that forged cancels exist in all shapes and sizes on GB used abroad stamps. Those wishing to benefit financially from their endeavours have cleaned manuscript cancelled REVENUE issues and applied forged cancels to make them look postally used. Apart from those two groups the village cancels for all of the British West Indies remain largely unscathed (and virus free!). If you look to Bermuda numerals on QV issues you will be hard pressed to find any forgeries as no catalogue value was ever applied to them. Bob Topaz, in the USA, however produced his rarity chart for Jamaica numerals back in 1967, and in 1981 added £ sterling premiums to all the known combinations. Some of the rarest of the Topaz combinations may not exist at all unless in forgery/fake form as one keen individual took a fancy to forging Jamaica numerals on what would appear to be almost exclusively OFFICIAL issues, many with bluish ink tinge. Whether this was a result of the Topaz pricing, or whether they were prepared to be included in the counts supplied by collectors to Topaz we will never know. I stumbled across these as they appeared in bulk in a Jamaica numeral collection auctioned in the UK which I recognised as belonging to an American collector with initials ABN, possibly a totally innocent party. Around about the same time, perhaps earlier or later, I purchased the Charles Winand collection of Jamaica numerals and noted that a few forgeries from the same stable had found their way onto his album pages. The fakes from the two collections were eventually merged and set aside, and now are presented for the first time. If genuine the group would have been worth a small fortune as most are listed as rare, very rare, extremely rare. For the time being these are held safe, and the illustrations now provided should help to act as a safeguard to collectors in the future.
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Whilst preparing this for inclusion in my BLOGS section, as there must be many collectors who have not joined the British West Indies Study Circle (details on their website), I am reminded that there are many collectors who would just love to see a breakdown for the K1 numeral combinations!! Watch this space!
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Despite the opening K5a 5 typo this chart was prepared and recently published in the BWISC Bulletin. Counts of 442 different combinations for K3a 5-19 and 347 different combinations for K4a 5-19 embrace both the Ulrich collection and all other items personally handled by me over the years. This chart does not include items in the David Pitts collection.
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The George Ulrich of Bermuda was broken down into 1,367 lots and came under the hammer June 26/27/28 1989 in Guernsey, Channel Islands and was offered by Bridger & Kay auctioneers. I attended and was determined to acquire his numerals offered at the attractive estimate of £400/500 not expecting to secure them at £6,500 plus 2½% buyers premium. Previous to that sale I had zero experience at selling Bermuda numerals and no clues as to their individual value! Having taken out the commoner K3 1-4 and K4 1-4 I first set about drawing up a chart of the holding (as illustrated below) to establish individual scarcity and then set about the daunting task of pricing them. Over the years they all sold!
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Some collectors will go far beyond the extra mile to record what is absolutely essential information for future students, and in 1998 David most kindly and thoughtfully published an exceptional lengthy colour illustrated booklet entitled "A Beginning Collection of Bar and Duplex Cancels on the Victorian Stamps of Bermuda" based on his own collecting activities. Charts were prepared detailing breakdowns of the combinations presumed only in his collection. Unlike the charts I have prepared these swell the combinations as the K3 1-4 numerals and K4 1-4 numerals are included. As I meticulously describe each numeral I handle I cannot embrace counts of items in other peoples collections as this could include, in haste, wrong descriptions, my inability to see watermarks, and may include items sold to that collector.
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Collecting numeral combinations can be great fun, stepping up quality of strike as you go along, and acquiring those deemed extremely rare because you, and not many others, appreciate their rarity. Time flies and the rarity chart I prepared for all the Mauritius numeral combinations back in July 2006 has not been updated. At that time I recorded 1,010 different combinations and showed how some office numerals were far rarer than the Mauritius "B64" used in Seychelles, and "B65" used on the island of Rodrigues. It is amazing what a catalogue listed price will do for a combination, and how neglected much rather items are simply because there is no catalogue valuation or official guide. More recently I have been utilising the Mike Rego template, prepared for Jamaica numerals, to illustrate those Mauritius numerals that have passed through my hands. Below are the commoner Curepipe "21" numerals, as I would have a plethora of blank squares if I picked some of the towns where the numerals are hardly ever seen.
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Although I have massively long text files of cancels I have handled, or seen, I do not have any postmark collections of my own. Written details of St. Vincent abbreviated and extended cds, with their incorporated dates and differing coloured inks in places are easy to understand, but even with years of experience I often stumble when it comes to the commonest obliterators on common stamps in my trying to remember just how common, or how scarce, they actually are. As a consequence I have recently undertaken trying to get an illustration of every different St. Vincent possibility on every different issue up to the end of KGV. The attached page for the PB QV 1d drab shows how far I have currently reached, and the item which is probably less common than all the others is the strike of the black vertical "A10" - which I would have overlooked thinking it much commoner!!
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Illustrated are all the combinations currently known to me on these DLR Perf. 12 QV 4d blues Crown CA wmk. The latest discovery is the vertical red "A10" applied Georgetown, not the best of strikes but currently unique.
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(Updated 28 April 2020) Not enough covers have survived to pin-point with accuracy when this rare red inked small A07 on stained perfs. QV 1d lilac CC wmk P.14 (SG.5) was struck, but records may help in that a red inked DOMINICA 20½mm cds dated FE 21 83 on "loose" stamp QV 4d blue (SG.7) was offered almost precisely 100 years later in the 1983 BWISC auction lot 76 which Simon Goldblatt will without doubt remember describing. A return to black ink 6 days later is recorded on "loose" stamp QV 2½d red-brown Crown CC INVERTED wmk (SG.6w) dated no code/FE 27 83, and 4 days later also on QV 2½d red-brown (SG.6) but with NORMAL Crown CC wmk.
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