Late Use of Cape Colony Datestamps
I bought the cover below not because of anything which the previous owner had written in his display write-up but because it was a nice example of late use of the St Helena Bay Single Circle Datestamp. I am attracted to collecting examples of old Cape Colony datestamps which survived to be used past Union in 1910 and into the 20th Century.
Used in 1924, this example from St Helena Bay is one of the 1862 to 1882 Single Circle Datestamps described by Robert Goldblatt (Postmarks of the COGH, page 96-98). These have neither 'CAPE COLONY', a dot nor 'C.G.H' at base. A feature of some is the way the town name wraps around the datestamp, often with the last part of a long town name at the base. Supporting my identification is the same ST HELENA BAY datestamp on a cover from 1889, (bottom).
The write-up in the image below is presumably correct except where it omits to mention that the cover travelled via VREDENBURG on what looks like '25 MAR 24', the day before it was posted in St Helena on Wednesday, 26th March 1924! Clearly weird things happen up the West Coast! I also noticed that the Time Code Letter unusually appears after the Year, not before. This is recorded in Ralph Putzel's 'Postmarks of South Africa' as No. 3 'narrow letter' datestamp.
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Here's a block of six 'Ship' grey and carmine 1d Hyphenated Pictorials, probably 1934 issue cancelled with the 1891 to 1899 or later issue Single Circle datestamp with dots enclosing 'C. G. H' at base. According Goldblatt, "This datestamp survived many years into the Union and was in use in some of the smaller post offices , for example Paternoster, as late as 1935". This example from GREAT KEI DRIFT was used as late as 'FE 26 38'.
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While not a datestamp, BONC 1047 is hugely interesting having had a wide-ranging and long career in Cape Colony and later Cape Province post offices. Said by Goldblatt to be introduced in 1864, (Frescura says 1863), BONCs (Barred Oval Numeral Cancellers) were numbered dumb obliterators, not datestamps, assigned to different post offices.
BONC 1047 was first used in Cathcart to replace BONC 301. Its recorded use in Cathcart is September 1899 to December 1902. It was used in April 1900 at Henderson’s, a nearby hotel. It was returned to the GPO Stores in Cape Town some time after 1902. Its short life suggests it was in good condition, better than others with longer working lives in busier POs. It appears that during WW1 GPO Stores made BONC 1047 available to Simonstown where it was used in 1915 in conjunction with its scarce rectangular Paquebot handstamp.
In ‘Postmarks of the COGH’, Goldblatt lists BONC 1047 as used in Stellenbosch, presumably before 1910. “BONC 1047 found use as an obliterator at the Cape Town Post Office” says ‘Postal Cancellers of the CGH. (Vol. 1. The BONC of 1864’. Frescura and Nethersole). Its period of recorded use in Cape Town is April 1926 to April 1963. Cape Town’s use of BONC 1047 was most marked during the 1947 Royal Visit (see all examples below) when it was used to mark uncancelled stamps that had travelled through the post, as well as lightly or partially struck ones.
All examples shown below are from the 1947 Royal Vist, including the cover. There is a curious relationship between the BONC numeral '1047' and the Royal Visit of 1947. Given that BONC 1047 continued in use until 1963, any association with the date of the Royal Visit is probably mere coincidence. In any event, it is arguably the longest-working BONC. Examples from 1947 - 1963 are welcomed. My thanks to Bob Hill for supplying all the wonderful examples below.
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This Registered cover from CALA is from Mike White, our British dealer resident in Thailand. Mike has recently changed his email address. Anyone wanting to contact him, should request his new email address from the editor.
Cala lay in what was the old Transkei. The place was more than just a trading store. It included a hotel, some public buildings and a bona fide post office. Over the years it used an unusually high number of different postmarks.
Sent at a rate of 7d on a 5½d Registered Letter, uprated by 1½d to Germany, the cover below shows a large, rather than small, Single Circle datestamp from 1921, possibly Putzel's 22mm No. 3b. I find identifying interesting postmarks like this rather difficult. Is it a Single Circle datestamp of 1869 - 1882 issue? It has the attributes and looks a bit like the previous St Helena Bay datestamp. Is it a datestamp of 1885 without its dot? Maybe it is a Single Circle datestamp of 1891+ issue with 'C. G.. H' removed? Putzel's Encyclopedia states that the PO started in CALA in 1883, presumably too late for the 1869 - 1882 issue datestamp. Therefore, it is presumably a later datestamp. Putzel's 'C. G. H' examples are all Victorian but his No. 3b which looks like this is dated 1923. I believe this is not a Cape Colony datestamp. It is most likely a Union-era Skeleton Relief canceller. What do you think?
The handmade registration cachet is particularly attractive and unusual.
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