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Cape of Good Hope: The most beautiful cancellation on a card to Heligoland

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The fairest and most beautiful of all cancellations in the whole world is undoubtedly, the compass wheel ODS that appeared in the Cape of Good Hope in 1892.  As far as I know no similar postmark was introduced in the UK or anywhere else in the world. So the Cape was one up on this. 

The cover is addressed to Heligoland and written on a German Empire ship (with a lot of history), 3 years after Heligoland was traded for Zanzibar ... more on the pdf. 

 

 

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I have never thought about which datestamp I like most but I guess this will be up there.

I attach a display sheet from my section on COGH experimental datestamps. I see that I say that it is based on a British design which contradicts what Yannis is saying. Most Cape designs were based on GB counterparts. However, as it is some years since I have looked at this I am wondering if I copied this text from a reference to another experimental datestamp and forget to delete the "based on a British design" part of it. I cede this point to Yannis!

The Caprivi Strip in northern Namibia was also included in the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890. It was named after German Chancellor, Leo von Caprivi, (1890–1894), who negotiated the acquisition of the strip of land as a part of the Treaty. In exchange for Germany giving up its interest in Zanzibar, Germany received Heligoland in the North Sea and the Caprivi Strip. (Heligoland was home to hundreds of Germans hostile to that country's politics and Counto Otto von Bismarck. They used the island as a base for agitation within nearby Germany. By acquiring control over Heligoland, the Germans removed what they pereceived was a political threat.) The Caprivi strip was annexed to German South West Africa in the hope that it would provide access to the Zambezi River and offer a route to Africa's east coast where it had a colony, German East Africa (now Tanzania). Clearly this was an imperial  'Scramble for Africa' pipe dream.

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  • Compass-Wheel-Display-Sheet.jpg

Just as a point of interest on the Caprivi Strip and to record the airline named after it into Southern African history.  I once hired a DC4 from 'Caprivi Airways' (Registered in Dallas - U.S.A.) to do a catering job at the Amandalbult Platinum Mine.  The hire cost me R1,500 to fly from Vereeniging to Amadalbult, wait for us and return in the middle of the night.  I only found out 25 years later that I had hired the Rhodesian Air Force who used the Caprivi Strip to export beef to Gabon and then after flying down the west coast of Africa entered South Africa and worked there to make funds to buy much needed supplies due the the British blockade.  I will post the story into 'My Writings' when I have looked it out. 

I have a better example than this which I will post when I find it.

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  • Underbidder-SS-Nautilus.jpg

Further to an earlier post on slavery and now the Battle of Madagascar Club Collective display, I must add at the fear of going off piste that Britain gave Heligoland to Germany in 1890 AND ALSO its interests in Madagascar to France in return for those countries surrendering their claims to the African island of Zanzibar. British did this in order to intervene in Zanzibar to suppress the slave trade, which it did. So, to all the woke righteous who think imperialism and colonialism was all bad, this is an example of Britain bringinging Pax Brittanica to the negotiating table in order to pursue an anti-slavery agenda in Africa, something Germany would largely turn a blind eye to in its GEA colony.

@underbidder Very nice example. 

@Steve Rhodes and his club, wanted a totally different type of colonization of the world.  The Germans wanted to expand to Asia and they had this scheme to build a railroad through europe/turkey/iraq etc. They were all nasty people Steve don't let you fool you. But as you said many times you need to see them through the lens of the times they were living.

Back to the compass  wheel cancellation, I was surprised to read your comment that they are considered rare/scarce. I consider the Oudtshoorn one, difficult to find, but the Cape Town one is not difficult at all. I will post a full write-up on them, but I am glad I posted the example I did, to get the conversation going. 

 

 

One of the things that the South African Philately Club has taught me is that comments made on old display sheets are often likely to have been overtaken by new finds and research. This is certainly true of me. A wise man once told me that every philatelic display should be re-written every five years to reflect your new and changing knowledge!

The point I made was that Compass Wheel Datestamp are not rare but scarce. They were only in use for about two years, I think. I spent several years looking before I found a good example of the Cape Town Compass Wheel Datestamp. I might have found one sooner had I been buying at auction rather than from British dealers at stamp fairs. More years of searching went by before I found an Oudtshoorn Compass Wheel Datestamp and finally a Cape Town Newspaper Branch (NPB) example. Putzel rates the Cape Town Compass  Wheel Datestamp at 700 points while the NPB gets just 200. In my experience, the NPB is the hardest to find of all! I recently sold two duplicates of Cape Town and Oudsthoorn Compass Wheels to people who had almost given up looking for them. So, based on the benefit of my collecting hindsight, I disagree. They are difficult to find ie. scarce. I note no-one has posted an NPB yet.

@Steve  What you saying about re-writing displays every few years, is so true not only because new finds and research might come around, but also we accumulate knowledge and expertise as we go along as well. 

As with all experimental hand stamps finding a good copy is difficult. Personally I was more fortunate as I have copies from 1892-93 and the main reason I collected  them was to see if the experiment failed or not (it failed). I will post 4-5 pages when I am done with the re-write. At end of June 1893 or around there it appears they were withdrawn and squared circle datestamps appeared again and soon thereafter there was the "divided inner circle."  I consider this to also be an experimental postmark, considering that it did not see wide distribution and was of  a "novel" design. 

I am posting an NPB one as a prelude to a future thread on newspapers in general. They are not easy at all to find in good condition and the image shows a combination with the argus wheel.

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  • wrapper-03.jpg

This is wonderful combination of two classic Cape postmarks! Newspaper wrappers are often in poor condition with poor strikes. IMO this is about as good as it gets in terms of finding a wrapper in good condition carrying clear strikes.

I attach my NPB postmark. It is a while since I had seen it last and was pleased and surprised to see it on postal stationery cover but disappointed with the faint NPB strike. I wonder how often these were used on cover? And were they used on NPB business only? The date appears to be 'AU 2 95'. This is late for the town Compass Wheel datestamps. Did the NPB's usage last longer? It seems so. Perhaps because they were less mainstream PO?

You have my interest up with talk of experimental Cape datestamps. I can provide a dozen sheets on the subject which are now several years old and which may not have been particularly accurate to begin with. I am willing to post them 'as is' in an new Experimental Canceller thread wherein my ancient assumptions can be dissected and dismised by those who know more and better. I also have at least twelve new covers that I have not written up yet which I can throw into the pot. Is such a thread of interest to you?

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  • Compass-Wheel-NPB-cover-200.jpg
  • Compass-Wheel-NPB-600.jpg

This is a nice example on  cheap rate mail.  I am very interested  in your suggestion to open a new thread for these. These postmarks dominated the 1880s and 1890s and are very important from a postal history point of you. 

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