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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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(25 April 2020) Mail which has travelled across the Atlantic and cannot be delivered is found with “Unclaimed”, “Deceased”, “Left the Island” etc handstamps or manuscript endorsements and assumed to be returned to sender, when known, free of further charge. Mail which has crossed “both ways” falls into two groups. Unpaid mail, as a result of the Act of 1847 made it compulsory for the sender to pay postage on returned unpaid letters, and short-lived handstamps surmounted by a Crown and inscribed “The Party to whom this letter/is addressed has not Called for it/(date)" were applied at London, Edinburgh, or Dublin. The second group is prepaid additional postage adhesive mail, with illustrations from Barbados (JU 9 1860), and Trinidad (MR 8 1864).
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The PML handbook Page 97 notes that the population of this small island, 9 miles south of Kingstown and first port of call in the Grenadine chain of islands stretching south down to Grenada, was a mere 969 persons in 1871 and 1,118 in 1881, and states “The reason for the long delay in opening the Bequia office has not been explained but on its eventual opening on 9th July 1894 the old “BEQ” datestamp was available for use there". The neighbouring islands of CANOUAN (population 443 in 1891), MAYREAU (population 283 in 1891), and UNION ISLAND (population 889 in 1891) had their extended cds proofed at the GPO, London on 2nd November 1894 and therefore those instruments could not have been present when the offices opened on 1st October 1894. The PERUVIAN VALE cds was also proofed at the GPO, London on 2nd November 1894 nearly seven years after the Peruvian Vale had been opened, and the long gap plugged by provional use of an obsolete ST. VINCENT inscribed datestamp. There appears to have been no request for an extended BEQUIA cds for the mid 1894 opening, and it is just possible that the postmasters were in a quandery, like at the other Grenadine island offices, as to what to do, or use, during the opening days or weeks until an instrument was at hand. Perhaps Bequia left mail uncancelled for the first 10 days as the ERD for cancelled mail is JY 19 94 with the old “BEQ” datestamp, or was the Kingstown Postmaster well aware that sitting in his drawer for the past 22 odd years was the “BEQ” datestamp that had been presumably been proofed alongside the other abbreviates for the opening of mainland village offices on 2nd December 1872. It is possible that any one of these four islands saw a provisional use of the obsolete circled “PP” in black on DLR QV 1d red (SG.48 grouping) as only a single strike is known befitting a very short period of use.
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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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As a consequence of the OC 24 1810 Mutiny at Falmouth, Cornwall (see Britnor P.93, Robertson E.86) the Falmouth packets were transferred to the Hamoaze at Plymouth, Devon on NO 6 1810 where a temporary office was set up by Post Office Agent Saverland and staff at the Fountain Inn until the packets at Plymouth were transferred back FE 4 1811 arriving Falmouth FE 15 1811 - The illustrated NO 12 1810 copied letter was sent from PLYMOUTH by "Express" Jamaica packet on NO 23 but owing to 'bad weather' the sailing was interrupted and the packet put back to FALMOUTH on NO 20 and finally sailed NO 27 arriving Barbados DE 28, the NO 28 1820 copied letter was sent by "Francis Freeling" Leeward Islands packet from PLYMOUTH DE 1 to 3 (sailing dates vary) arriving Barbados DE 28, the FE 13 1811 original was sent on FE 16 by the "Duke of Kent" Leeward Islands packet from FALMOUTH (being the FIRST SAILING of the resumed service packet to the West Indies), written Horse Guards and Golden Square, London to Major General L.S. Order, Commanding, St. Vincents rated 2/- unpaid. Military content respecting the discharge of Private Thomas Booth of the 1st Battalion 90th Regiment.
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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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Yes! The left half of the KG6 ½d Fresh Water Lake definitive is UNDENOMINATED and therefore could not reflect a ¼d denomination. Two covers are known to me and I am curious as to whether the ROSEAU */FE 9 40 and */FE 19 40 cds are genuine! The PAID AT NEVIS Crowned Circle cover is completely bogus albeit the QV 1d carmine stamp is genuine. The author being well aware that genuine strikes of both the Crowned Paid and Nevis cds have an oily appearance at this period has cleverly used his paint brush to simulate the oily stains within the Nevis despatch cds and soiled the cover at top left for good measure to simulate toning. The ENGLISH HARBOUR backstamp is also bogus and on similar covers the author often just used the day slug in different dates like the Roseau cds's. The PAID at NEVIS crowned circle appears on the QV 1d carmine and horizontal pairs QV ½d dull green, but only as "loose" stamps, no genuine covers existing. So why not make one!! To me there exists a similarity in the handwriting style of the Nevis cover and Dominica FE 19 40 cover, and the style of the cds's look as if they have come from the same stable.
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St. Vincent stands apart from its immediate neighbours being Grenada, St. Lucia, and Barbados in that when havoc took its toll during the Queen Victoria and early King Edward VII reigns some post offices could only function with temporary manuscripts or use of obsolete instruments, whilst her neighbouring island post offices seem unscathed. This short article shows the activity of the then functioning St. Vincent and Grenadine islands post offices post the May 7 1902 eruption of the Soufriere volcano in the north of the island which killed over 2,000 people. When there are unaccounted activity periods (unknown periods) one can speculate as to what instrument, if any, was being used in the absence of further earlier dated examples, and in the case of Georgetown (8 weeks unknown period) one could fully understand if a re-introduced "G" abbreviate turned up!!
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The collecting of cancellations showing full extended village name and full date has always been an attractive proposition, but numeral strikes less so. Bob Topaz, in the USA, completely changed that situation when he contacted all fellow collectors of Jamaica and asked for a complete breakdown of all their numeral cancels on Pine wmk, Crown CC, Crown CA, QV keyplates etc. Armed with all the replies he established a chart which he published in 1967 showing their scarcity and allocated ER (extremely rare) down to C (common) for all the combinations. Later, in 1981, he completed his project by added £ sterling prices being the premium for fine strikes on top of catalogue value of the actual stamp. Blank spaces in his chart indicated that the obliterator had not been noted and "Topaz unrecorded" was always, and still is, a joy to find. Charles Winand of the UK probably amassed the finest collection of all known combinations but even he with all all years of collecting failed to acquire a single copy of the large vertical "A80" oblit, and not having ever seen one his album page of small vertical "A80" oblits were separated as either small or large if they looked just slightly different! Bozo Ivanovic acquired the Winand collection and kept it intact for many years adding new additions to a stock book rather than mounting them on the Winand pages. Bozo, in turn, sold me the complete collection. Before breaking it up I felt that it should be recorded for posterity and used to illustrate every known combination. Mike Rego prepared the template page for me, and with the help of Paul Hancock, also living in Dorset, scans of all strikes known to us were placed in each square and stepped up in quality when better strikes turned up. Photocopies of the Winand album pages were taken but have never been released. Blank squares show stamps not yet acquired and those squares with "Not Seen" are still Topaz unrecorded. Over 2,000 combinations of numeral/stamp are possible!
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Preparation of 175,000 First Day Covers - each cancellation had to be near perfect and covers were piled up in the centre of the table as they could not be boxed until cancelling ink dry, and more importantly that there was absolutely no chance that moisture from the reverse flaps would connect with the souvenir sheets affixed to face of each envelope if boxed too early.
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The three members are Annette (?), Lizbe Gonsalves (centre) and Sharon Fairburn (right). The final count of the Bureau staff at the time of my leaving was 126 girls and 3 guys manually servicing some 30,000 collector accounts worldwide in the days prior computers. Wonderful times!
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