Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Here's one that intrigued me:



I lived at Abbotsford Point for about two years, and can't imagine where the post office there would have been in 1915. As of the early 1970s, the Point had only a small milk shop and one bus stop. The post office was in the main part of Abbotsford.

Later: I looked this up in Hopson and Tobin, and they list this but don't list an office at Abbotsford, so I guess this cancel was used at the main PO in Abbotsford, not just at the Point. I wonder if the Abbotsford post office still calls itself Abbotsford Point?

Greg, I lived fairly nearby at Hunters Hill and agree had not heard that term either.

It does seem to have limited use even today:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid ... ford+point

Here is one I am adding to my list today. Not a scarce cancel I imagine, just perfectly struck on a fairly scarce stamp, with excellent perfs and centering for any 1913 issue.

"Carnarvon JU 15 : 13 Tasmania" (Altho first letter looks more like a G than a C!)

Retail value of the stamp needs to have a premium added for such condition and postmark, and I settled on $A60 for this little gem. Half the price of a current PO year album.

Yours has prettier perfs, but my favourite 4d roo has a prettier postmark:

Magic!

Do you know the story of Eaglehawk Neck?

Nope. Do you?

This is a clue!

Guide to Tasmania's Historic Places - Eaglehawk Neck - A Brief History

A line of ferocious dogs and detachment of military guards once kept a constant watch along the narrow isthmus at Eaglehawk Neck. They were on the lookout for escaped convicts from Port Arthur.

The military station was established at the Neck in 1832 under the command of Ensign Darling. It was a vital link in the strict security system which operated throughout the Tasman and Forestier Peninsulas during the convict period. Appropriately, it was referred to as 'the key to the peninsula'.

The infamous dogline

The dogline which ran across the Neck was devised by John Peyton Jones:

It occurred to me that the only way to prevent the escape of Prisoners from Port Arthur in consequence of the noise occasioned by the continual roar of the sea breaking on the beach and the peculiar formation of the land which rendered sentries comparatively useless, was to establish a line of lamps and dogs.

I therefore at once covered a way with cockle shells so as to show a brilliant light on the ground at night and proposed that a certain number of Lamps be supplied and rations for a certain number of dogs (9) to be so placed that they could not fight although eat out of the same trough, and render it impossible for any one to pass through.
(Peyton Jones, 1852)


Any break of the scrub, movement or slightest noise would set the hounds barking and alert the sentries. Dogs were also placed on stages out in the water to detect absconders attempting a sea crossing. They made an impassable barrier.

When one of the sergeants foolishly decided to test the effectiveness of the line he was attacked, receiving a severe wound from one of the dogs.

Melville described the guard dogs as a fierce and motley bunch:

Those out of the way pretenders to dogship were actually rationed and borne on the government's books, and rejoiced in such soubriquets as Caesar, Pompey, Ajax, Achilles, Ugly Mug, Jowler, Tear'em and Muzzle'em‰ There were the black, the white, the brindle, the grey and the grisly, the rough and the smooth, the crop-eared and the lop-eared, the gaunt and the grim. Every four-footed, black-fanged individual among them would have taken first prize in his own class for ugliness and ferocity at any show.
(Melville, c. 1840)

A convict handler was responsible for their care. It was he who 'brought their meat, shook up their beds, was their friend, and caressed them'. Today, a cutting through the sand dunes marks the location of the dogline.

As an additional security measure constables' huts were positioned along both sides of Eaglehawk Bay. A similar, but smaller, detachment of men also guarded East Bay Neck (Dunalley).


Military settlement

By 1836 there were an officer, a sergeant and 25 soldiers stationed at the Neck. The settlement was quite substantial. Officers' quarters, a military barracks, store and jetty had been erected.

Communication with the rest of the peninsula was by way of a semaphore station. A hut served as a schoolroom for the children of the military. Today, the only building which survives is the Officers' Quarters.

It was a lonely outposting, especially for the soldiers' wives. In one instance, Harriet, the wife of Ensign Isdell, complained that she had not spoken to another female except her maid for three months.

Others relished the solitude. Henry Bunbury, the commanding officer in 1835, apparently 'liked the place extremely'. He kept himself amused by hunting kangaroo and gardening. Of his official duties he wrote:

Neat -- thanks! By the way, you were cut off in mid-story there.

Well you did not add another quarter to the meter .............

Didn't realize this was a £5-a-night British hotel.

Others relished the solitude. Henry Bunbury, the commanding officer in 1835, apparently 'liked the place extremely'. He kept himself amused by hunting kangaroo and gardening. Of his official duties he wrote:

The only things I have to do are write my name on the back of letters leaving the Peninsula, and not to leave home when any prisoner has absconded; just as any sensible man would wish as he might chance to be murdered if he met the ruffian in the bush.

(Bunbury, 1835)

Bunbury left Van Diemen's Land the following year bound for Western Australia (where a seaport town has been named in his honour).

Semaphore station

A chain of semaphore stations once relayed important messages between Port Arthur and Hobart Town. Smaller stations, such as the one at Eaglehawk Neck, were part of a system which operated throughout the peninsula.

Moveable arms attached to a mast-like structure were positioned to send numerically coded messages. These were deciphered with the use of a code book which listed up to 3 000 phrases.

At Eaglehawk Neck the semaphore was principally used to convey information about absconders from Port Arthur. At night, or when visibility was low, alternative means were found for passing on urgent information:

Should it occur that a signal cannot pass from the badness of the weather, or should prisoners abscond during the night much time may be gained by a soldier or constable being despatched to the head of the railroad, and discharging two shots, one quickly succeeding the other, which will be passed on in a similar manner, that is by firing a double shot from station to station until it arrives at Eaglehawk Neck, when the sentinel on the jetty will answer it in the same manner, and immediately report the circumstances.

(from Booth's code book)

Attempted escapes

Desperation drove many convicts to attempt escape from Port Arthur, but only a few ever made it successfully via Eaglehawk and East Bay Necks.

Some 'bolters' perished in the dense bush or drowned whilst attempting a sea crossing in makeshift canoes and rafts. Others were caught in the act and subjected to severe punishments for their efforts. A belief that the bays were shark-infested acted as a deterrent to sea-based getaways.

Some of the escape plans were quite bizarre. In one case, the convict Billy Hunt disguised himself as a kangaroo and attempted to hop across the Neck. His plan was brought to a sudden halt when one of the soldiers decided to shoot the large boomer. Billy was forced to reveal his true identity.

Martin Cash and fellow convicts, Lawrence Kavanagh and George Jones, made a carefully planned and executed escape in 1842. On reaching the Neck they tied their clothes in a bundle on their heads and followed each other silently into the water. Cash lost sight of his friends and feared that they had been eaten by sharks.

On reaching the opposite bank, however, they were re-united, though all had lost their clothes during the crossing. The men stole provisions and clothes from a nearby road-gang's hut. After spending several months at large, living as bushrangers in the Derwent Valley and Midlands, all were re-captured. Cash and Kavanagh were transported to Norfolk Island 'for life' whilst Jones was hanged in May 1844.

The escape of Martin Cash and gang prompted the authorities to tighten up security arrangements at the Neck. Additional guards were placed at strategic points along Eaglehawk Bay.

Thanks.

Another 4d roo that I've kept because of the Tasmania postmark. Not quite as flashy as the last two, but...



The stamp was issued in Sydney on February 17, 1913, and the earliest known covers from there are dated February 19. For some reason, the post office in Hobart released them to the public on February 12. (Arthur Gray had a February 19 cover, but didn't seem to have one of these earlier strikes, unless for some reason they put it in the remainder lot.)

VERY early date ... may well be THE earliest .. who knows? Nice piece.

That final Arthur Gray lot had some AMAZING things left in it. I Think they just ran out of time to lot and tossed it all into a box.

It sold for about $A75,000. I bid up to about 50K, but just could not see where the others saw the 75K value! Neither could Juzwin or Dunkerley when we talked about it later.

I've had tremendous luck buying remainder lots of name collections. Usually, every stamp was there for a reason -- spectacular condition, or a printing flaw, or a good cancel, or a rare shade. If the Gray remainder sold for in the region of $A70,000, it went for about the full catalogue value. I bet when you have the chance to go through it stamp by stamp, it was a still a good buy.

Admin,

That was a nice story on Eaglehawk Neck and the scan of the dog is quite a fitting tribute to man's best friend. Dogs though they be, they did their duty....(to the end)?

Regards

Nice cancel Andrew,

Congratulations on your 750th post

I had my hundreth earlier - YIPEE

Kimberley

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Cheers for now

Thanks Kimberley,
and congratulations on your 100th, I noticed it was below 100 when I logged off a few hours ago and just got back.

Cheers and happy posting.

These three Victoria cancels were in the pile of stamps I was sorting tonight. The last few years I've been finding the cancels at least as intriguing as the stamps.

Agree with you Greg,

Have been doing the same only recently as I find the cancels more interesting. Actually nice clear cancels are even so much harder to find, especially with the modern machine-cancelled ones. Sometimes you go through 100 stamps just to get something that looks decent enough. The one I got above was a real gem. It went through the normal mail and I took advice (given on his Website) to place stamps about (in my case) 2 to 3 inches away from the right margin and voila, got that gem of the frog stamp.

Cheers

I'll get two for the price of one with this picture as I have already posted it on the Stamp Images Thread. It was going to be my avatar until Glen sold me the Tre Skilling Yellow.

It is from the 1858-1872 Arms set from Sweden and has a perfect cancel.

Mod - Dead link deleted

As I said before I think a well cancelled stamp looks far nicer than a mint example. That 4d 'Roo with the Eaglehawk Neck cancel is just gorgeous, and so much more interesting than a mint one would look sitting on an album page. All of the images on this thread look way nicer than a board of just mint stamps would look IMHO.

The bad news is your credit card was declined.

I thought $3 million post free was pretty fair?

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

I spent literally 30 hours doing research on the history of this stamp;

http://www.glenstephens.com/snmay05.html

http://www.glenstephens.com/sndecember04.html

The weight has been measured to 0.02675 grams (0.0009 ounces), which gives the stamp the staggering price of $US85.98 billion per kilogram. (I had a client who is a Math Professor in Illinois check my figure, and he agrees it is correct!) This makes the stamp the most valuable thing in the world per weight or volume - as far as I am aware.

It was last auctioned at a David Feldman Zurich auction November 1996 to a dealer in Sweden for a sum of Swiss Francs 2.87 million. (Approx $US2.3 million at that time)

This realisation is listed in the 'Guinness Book Of Records'.

Keeping on topic, the DATE of this postmark helped verify it was what it is assumed to be.

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

A nice Bulls eye strike in 1907 on a New Zealand stamp

Stamper,

Gotta luv the Chistchurch Exhibition set and that strike is a beauty but, you need a scanner badly

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Tony

We all know how enthused the German Government has ALWAYS been about great Philatelic cancels. Well here one on piece from 1938. One of my favorites and a reall killer for the Horse fans out there. Hope you enjoy

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david b. potts

Dave,

Nice piece

I've got a few of the "Brown Riband", "Blue Riband" and "Grand Prix" issues and they are very well-produced stamps.

The Nazis issued about 15 horse-race stamps between 1936 and 1944 and I always wondered why they had this apparent obsession with them. Have you any ideas or information on the background to this?

Nice eh? (Queensland speak) Each one free to a good home...

QldCds,

That's a bunch of really nice cancellations. Especially like the last and second last ones, in that order. Was trying to look for some more Malaysian ones to put but can't seem to find the ones I specially kept aside to scan.

Looks like you are getting the hang of posting images though the there seems to be too many [img]s around, which you could easily delete using your edit button on the top right hand corner of your post.

If you want, I'll provide a nice home for the last one or second last one, if they are still available.

Thanks for showing these lovelies.
Andrew

Very generous offer Ted. Andrew is a keen collector and a MOST worthy home if you can spare those.

i went in and tidied up all the extra code Andrew mentioned. But remember all members can edit their own posts, and use the "preview" window to make sure you have succeeded.

The Military Camp one is a VERY nice piece.

Here is one I found today when lotting up a stockbook of CRETE to list cheap on my Rarity page in the next day or so.

Now I NEVER see this stuff, and took me hours to do, but this one literally jumped out at me.

1910 Geek overprint 1 Drachma. Michel 62, SG 40. A valuable stamp, and my guess is it would be IMPOSSIBLE to get a nicer looking used one! Superb perfs and centering too which on this set were all over the place on the other values.

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

Glen,

Thanks for that nice word you put in for me. You bet I'll treasure those and QldCds.

That cancellation on the Greek stamp is a beaut, Glen.

Cheers
Andrew

That's a beautiful thing Glen.

GEES there's some nice strikes for the postmark enthusiasts to drool over in this thread!

Sometimes the cancel can make the stamp I reckon.

Regarding the 4p orange in the third post above, I know there is a Carnarvon in WA. I s there / was there a Carnarvon in Tassie? That C REALLY does look like a G

Glen, is it just me, or does that 'ELLAS' overprint on the Crete stamp you have pictured above look like it is on top of the postmark?

Plus the postmark year reads 190X, when the overprint in question wasn't issued until May, 1910 (according to my Michel catalogue anyway). Even given the vagaries of the Gregorian vs. Julian calendars, I don't think the cancel could be pre-1910.

I know zero about Greek/Crete stamps, so I'd be interested in any opinions from those who know more than my five minutes of research in the Michel catalogue.

The original 1905 1Dr. stamp catalogues (at) 75 Euros and the overprint is 80 Euros (in my 2001/2002 catalogue), so hardly seems worthwhile. Unless the forger was practicing for the 3Dr. & 5Dr. values which are a bit higher priced overprinted vs. not.

Scott .. yes on the scan is does look little that I agree. I have no idea. This stockbook has Russian overprints, French overprints, Greek overprints and Austrian issues etc ... never knew Crete philately was so complex!

On the stamp is does looks like cancel is cover the ENNAV. And to me it appears in central areas there is a 3 line dated cds. 29/month/year .. but i am not familiar with the cds. The 190 at base might well be year .. or maybe a region code or r something .. again have no others to compare it with. Where is Dave Benson??!

A faker with a fake cds will not have dome a full face cds, if he knew date was wrong.

And if adding a fake OP would have made sure it was done on a stamp with NO central cancel. Also this is cat the same mint or used in Michel. So no reason to cancel it with anything!

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

Something has been erased at the top of the Crete stamp -- the postmark covers the erasure.

Norway, anyone? Here's a pretty one I sold on eBay a couple of years ago:



Greg

Greg,

Have not the tiniest idea what that stamp costs, but that blue is really striking and that cancellation is really nice. Just curious, what is its catalogue value?

Cheers
Andrew

The stamp catalogues $12. That guy sold for well over $200 on eBay. (I was pleased -- and so, apparently, was the buyer.)

Greg

Good for both of you then,

It's a really nice stamp. That is one really nice shade of blue.
Thanks for showing it. Learned something more today.

Andrew

That HEMNÆS cancel is rated at '3R' rarity-rating in my Norwegian catalogue. That coupled with the superb strike means that US$200+ is certainly the right ball-park for a stamp that would sell for only a few bucks with a less well-placed cancel.

Here is another example that sold at auction in 2004 for 650,- NOK + 20% commission = AUS$150.



That same auction house sold a similar quality 4Sk King Oscar stamp with a nice LOFOTEN cancel (rated 4R, still two ranks below the highest RR rating) for about US$1000 a few years back, but I couldn't find a picture of that one.

This just goes to show you what a good cancellation can do. Happy collecting SOTN cancellation stamps.

Andrew

Swden is the same as Starling can hopefully show us via some scans.

Superb SON cancels on 19th Century issues can bring 100 times the base price of the underlying stamps.

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

You Rang,

took me some time and I had to edit what I had written previously.

It originally had the common 1922 Greek Revolution overprint 50L. on 1D. s.g. 370 which has been bleached out and a fake large ELLAS overprint applied with a fake Heraklion cds.

David Benson

Here is a perfect cancel on a perfect stamp (5,5,5 quality rating).

It is a realtively common Swedish 1877 30öre perf. 13 Ring-type stamp (Facit # 35g, catalogue value about $5) that sold for 1100 Euro in March this year at the Postiljonen auction.

(That's about AUS$1750, and that is without the commission etc. that the auction houses heap on).

If the centering was even slightly off, the price would've been only about 5% of what it realised.

Mod - Dead link deleted

Superb example of Sweden quality Scott .. thanks for sharing that. A GEM! What a price.

David .. thanks for that .. boy you certainly know your Europe backwards!

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

It's not often that I am able to obtain a unique item on Ebay but it happened last week and it was at about 1/5th. of my snipe bid.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r256 ... /Bonny.jpg

I was speaking to one of the English " gentlemen " dealers at the Sydney show at the weekend and he said that if he had it for sale it would be in the vicinity of 2000-2500 Pounds.

It arrived today and will look good on the page when I get around to mounting it,

David Benson

Thanks Glen,

that one was fairly easy as the large ELLAS overprint wasn't issued until 1910 and the faker used an earleir date, if he has used a 1910 date it may have slipped by. The clue that Greg gave helped as the area at the top which has the scuff marks is where the top of the Greek 1922 was.

What this proves is that all overprints & cancels have to be carefully studied especially if the basic stamp is worth much less,

David Benson

Well done David.

My hunch is that 99.9999999999% of dealer and collectors (me included!) seeing this piece below in a general GB stockbook would not cast a second glance at it.

"Bonny River" was Oil Rivers use or somewhere West Africa wasn't it?

We are trying to coax you to hit that "IMG" box in the posting template so your link will then become :



If I owned it, my scissors would be out and it would look like this already:

Glen, thanks, I will remember to use the IMG in future.


Yes, somewhere in West Africa, Niger Coast to be exact and British stamps used there are extremely scarce but used in the Niger territories with the company's marks are much commoner.

It may look neater trimmed but it will staying the way it is,

David Benson