CoGH Barred Circle Numeral Canceller

#1 · January 8, 2023, 1:41 pm

I have been contacted by Kloof who is hoping to purchase a CoGH BCNC (Barred Circle Numeral Canceller) ideally on cover or on stamp. I have reproduced the relevant section from Robert Goldblatt's 'Postmarks of the CoGH (Reijger Publishers 1984). If you have something like this to sell, please email me and I will have Kloof contact you.

As an aside, many postal historians and postmark collectors continue to use Goldblatt's book. I continue to do so because it is a useful and relatively inexpensive reference that is simply presented and easily understood. Many second-hand copies come up for sale from time-to-time. However, it is no longer THE definitive history of CoGH postmarks. That honour now accrues to Franco Frescura's "The Post Offices of the Cape of Good Hope 1792-1910". There is, I believe, a new edition but good luck finding it! Nevertheless, the 2002 edition is more up-to-date and more accurate than Goldblatt's 1984 book but is not as easily found and purchased at an affordable price.

So, here are a few examples of the BCNC with a few more easy to find related or similar postmarks.

Image 1.
Extract from Robert Goldblatt's 'Postmarks of the CoGH'.

Image 2.
Top: PC to Worcester from Riebeeck West cancelled with dumb BCNC 4 'JA 30 04'.
Below: Lined Circular Bar dumb defacer of 1872 used Du Toits Pan 'FE 2 187 (3)'.

Image 3.
Examples of BCNC

Image 4.
Lined Circular Bar dumb canceller on cover top and a Barred Oval Diamond Numeral below.

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Kloof has reacted to this post.

#2 · January 10, 2023, 8:53 pm

Hello Steve

Thanks for the BCNC info - most useful. Hope it produces an offer!

Cheers

Kloof

#3 · January 12, 2023, 7:30 am

Quote from Steve on January 12, 2023, 7:30 am
Franco Frescura has emailed me to clarify my comments about Robert Goldblatt's and his books. I originally wrote and it went out as an email that Franco's books was the "REVISED LISTING OF THE POST OFFICES AND THE POSTAL MARKINGS OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE 1792-1910". That was a mistake which I corrected immediately. (See above.) Franco had other concerns also.

I have posted Franco's email for the sake of clarity lest I have confused or offended anyone with my comments. Franco writes: "Peter Thy has passed on to me your recent enquiry, and I thank you for your compliments offered in regards to my work. Perhaps, if I may, you can allow me to offer some additional information.

1. Michael Nethersole and I believed in the collaboration of all interested postal historians in large-scale projects such as this one. As a result we used to discuss our ideas quite frequently with friends and colleagues such as Tom Berry, Bob Goldblatt, Merwyn Emms, John Inglefield-Watson, Ian Matthews, Tom Mullins and Douglas Roth, and were quite happy to share our findings. As a result, you will find that we provided our latest and massively revised listings of BONCs to Bob for his fine work, and conversely benefitted from his new findings once Bob's book began to elicit new discoveries from many of his friends and acquaintances overseas.

2. Bob also benefited from our findings that the experimental ODSs were in fact "experimental" something that was only supplied to him relatively late, just before publication, and thus received scant referencing. We did not mind. By the way, in my latest book, "Postal Cancellers of the Cape, 1853-1910", I was able to also include the first issues of the double circle ods to the class of experimental, something that we had never considered at the time.

3. By 1992 we had superceded Bob's BONC listing with our own "The BONC Cancellers of 1864", and that book also established our research methodology for the rest of the project, until the publication of my "Post Offices of the Cape of Good Hope", in 2002.

4. As I have stated elsewhere, the book on post offices effectively brought my interest in sich matters as new BONC discoveries and earliest and latest dates of ods usage to an end as, as far as I was concerned, the project had been taken to its final end, and barring any future discoveries of major archival sources, all that would be possible had been achieved. All that was left was the refinement of the data. As a result I have since given over the custodianship of the Cape archive to my friend and colleague, Prof Alex Visser who should now be considered to be the "meister" of all matters BONC, as well as other ODS dates of usage. My name will appear on future editions of any manuscript as originator of the basic data, but that is an academic nicety as eventually enough new data will have been added as to make my original framework almost unrecognisable. Alex has my blessings in his worthy efforts, he deserves all the assistance we can give him.

And just to prove me totally foolish, in my last book just published, "Poste Restante at the Cape, and Other Essays", one of the chapters deals with my latest conclusions regarding the nature of some post offices I had previously listed as post offices in my opus of 2002. But for that may I suggest that you buy a copy of that book. I do not believe though, that its findings will be of much interest to BONC collectors.

Franco Frescura has emailed me to clarify my comments about Robert Goldblatt's and his books. I originally wrote and it went out as an email that Franco's books was the "REVISED LISTING OF THE POST OFFICES AND THE POSTAL MARKINGS OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE 1792-1910". That was a mistake which I corrected immediately. (See above.) Franco had other concerns also.

I have posted Franco's email for the sake of clarity lest I have confused or offended anyone with my comments. Franco writes: "Peter Thy has passed on to me your recent enquiry, and I thank you for your compliments offered in regards to my work. Perhaps, if I may, you can allow me to offer some additional information.

1. Michael Nethersole and I believed in the collaboration of all interested postal historians in large-scale projects such as this one. As a result we used to discuss our ideas quite frequently with friends and colleagues such as Tom Berry, Bob Goldblatt, Merwyn Emms, John Inglefield-Watson, Ian Matthews, Tom Mullins and Douglas Roth, and were quite happy to share our findings. As a result, you will find that we provided our latest and massively revised listings of BONCs to Bob for his fine work, and conversely benefitted from his new findings once Bob's book began to elicit new discoveries from many of his friends and acquaintances overseas.

2. Bob also benefited from our findings that the experimental ODSs were in fact "experimental" something that was only supplied to him relatively late, just before publication, and thus received scant referencing. We did not mind. By the way, in my latest book, "Postal Cancellers of the Cape, 1853-1910", I was able to also include the first issues of the double circle ods to the class of experimental, something that we had never considered at the time.

3. By 1992 we had superceded Bob's BONC listing with our own "The BONC Cancellers of 1864", and that book also established our research methodology for the rest of the project, until the publication of my "Post Offices of the Cape of Good Hope", in 2002.

4. As I have stated elsewhere, the book on post offices effectively brought my interest in sich matters as new BONC discoveries and earliest and latest dates of ods usage to an end as, as far as I was concerned, the project had been taken to its final end, and barring any future discoveries of major archival sources, all that would be possible had been achieved. All that was left was the refinement of the data. As a result I have since given over the custodianship of the Cape archive to my friend and colleague, Prof Alex Visser who should now be considered to be the "meister" of all matters BONC, as well as other ODS dates of usage. My name will appear on future editions of any manuscript as originator of the basic data, but that is an academic nicety as eventually enough new data will have been added as to make my original framework almost unrecognisable. Alex has my blessings in his worthy efforts, he deserves all the assistance we can give him.

And just to prove me totally foolish, in my last book just published, "Poste Restante at the Cape, and Other Essays", one of the chapters deals with my latest conclusions regarding the nature of some post offices I had previously listed as post offices in my opus of 2002. But for that may I suggest that you buy a copy of that book. I do not believe though, that its findings will be of much interest to BONC collectors.