Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Cape of Good Hope Hooded Circular Datestamp - 1888

The Hooded Circular Datestamp

The Hooded Circular Datestamp was yet another datestamp based on a proven British design. According to Goldblattt, it was issued to eight of the larger post offices in the Cape Colony in 1888 (but NOT Cape Town) as an experiment in one strike obliteration and dating as well as backstamping. Its name derives from an enclosed semi-circular hooded area that contains the town name above the central circle.  I once heard someone refer to this datestamp as a "coat hanger". I have subsequently never been able to disassociate it from Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It is said that this datestamp was not popular with all the post offices that received them and as a consequence it was not chosen to be widely distributed to the smaller Cape post offices. Nevertheless, some of the experimental HCDs that were distrbuted had relatively long working lives in the post offices that received them. A number of varieties can be found within the towns that used them ie. stars and time-code letters transposed top and or bottom or missing altogether.  These were probably introduced when the HCD had its date or time code changed on a daily and or the time code letter changed to reflect the time or period of day. Changes like transposing the asterisk and the time code letter may have happened when the HCD was taken apart and cleaned by postal clerks and not put back in the same format. See: https://southafricanphilatelyclub.com/forum/topic/the-hooded-datestamps-of-southern-africa-1888-1903

Uploaded files:
  • HCD_Page1.jpg