Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

This one has been waiting far too long for resolution - help required please!

NZ Express Delivery stamp - 1903 - SG E1





but with Hobart, Tassie cancel?

Lakatoi 4

I have two US stamps from around the the turn of the 20th century on piece with Queensland cancellations. I believe that the practice was that if the country of origin did not cancel the stamps for overseas mail, the responsibiity fell to the receiving country.

This could be the reason for the cancellation you have.

Norm

Thanks for your comment.

Could indeed be the reason.

Lakatoi 4

Paquebot use.

Pretty common actually.

Mail lodged on BAORD a ship to purser could in most cases bear the STAMPS of the country you just left, and they were turned over to the port you ARRIVED in.

And hence the foreign cancel.

Lovely upright cds by the way.


----------------------------

http://www.island.net/~rjbw/Paquebot.html

In the days before air travel became commonplace, people did much of their international travel by sea and, during a 5-6 day trip across the Atlantic, for instance, had ample time to write letters and postcards.

These letters would be handed over to the Ship Steward who would then turn them over to the postal authorities at the next Port of Call.

The use of an official mark to denote mail posted at sea was regulated by international agreements at various meetings of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The first rules were drawn up at the 1891 meeting while the first mention of the word "Paquebot" came in the 1897 meeting. The clause, translated from the official French, reads:

"The Post Office which receives correspondence posted on board, provides same with its common datestamp, adding handwritten or by a stamp the word Paquebot."
("Paquebot" cancellations came into use in 1894, however.)

In 1924 a further UPU agreement stated that:

"Correspondence posted on the High Seas or between two ports of embarkation, and handed to officers of vessels carrying a mail,......., postage may be paid by means of postage stamps and according to the postage rates of the country under whose flag the vessel sails. But if the mailing on board occurs during the stay of the vessel at one of the two terminal ports of the voyage or at one of the ports of call, prepayment is valid only if effected by by means of postage stamps and according to the rates of the country in whose waters the vessel happens to be."

The Paquebot Era lasted from the final fraction of the 19th century through the first half of the twentieth (with time off for bad behaviour during the WWs) but subsequently, commercial use, what with the growing popularity of air-mail and air-travel, slowly declined. Modern Paquebot marks are almost all "philatelic" (like First Day Covers - a drug on the market if ever there were.)

Thanks,

That makes a lot of sense now - and yes it is probably one of the best clear, centred, upright cancels I have (must have been done by a paquebot philatelist! )

Lakatoi 4

That small hobart cds is a GEM! These I sold recently .. really nice cancels!

_________________
.
Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

The same cancel on the wonderful frame crack SG listed variety:

_________________
.
Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!