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Coded postal obliterators are a type of postmarks that had an obliterator encoded with a number, letter or letters, or a combination of these, to identify the post office of origin. They were introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1843, three years after the first stamp was issued. They became common throughout the nineteenth century but very few remained in use until the twentieth century.
Contents
- United Kingdom and colonies
- British Post Offices abroad
- Antigua
- Australian colonies
- Bahamas
- British Guiana
- British Honduras
- British Virgin Islands
- Canada
- Cyprus
- Dominica
- Egypt
- Gibraltar
- Grenada
- Hong Kong
- Jamaica
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Montserrat
- Nevis
- Saint Christopher
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent
- Seychelles
- South African colonies
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Denmark
- France
- German states
- Netherlands and colonies
- Venezuela
- References
The practice of cancelling a stamp on a letter with a device to prevent reuse and applying alongside, or on the reverse of the article, a dated stamp including the post office name, began in 1840 when postage stamps were introduced in the United Kingdom.
Soon, in many countries, various systems developed where the obliterator had a code identifying the post office of origin. Most such codes were enclosed within a design of dots, rays, bars or concentric circles or ovals to ensure the effective cancellation of the stamp. Similar designs without an enclosed code are known as dumb or mute obliterators. Later the duplex canceller with the datestamp on the left and the obliterator on the right came into common use. Coded obliterators were used throughout the nineteenth century but few persisted to the twentieth century.
Coded obliterations are collected by philatelists and rare examples can command high prices.
Postal administrations which used coded obliterators include:
United Kingdom and colonies
The first coded obliterators were numerals within a Maltese cross design used at the London mail centre from 1843. From 1844 distinctive and different barred designs were introduced for England, Scotland and Ireland. England and Wales numerals were within a circle of bars, while Scotland used a rectangular form and Irish codes with in a barred diamond. Codes corresponding to London postal districts e.g. W21 were also used.
British Post Offices abroad
Coded obliterators were used at many British post offices operating in foreign countries (mainly in Central and South America and the Ottoman Empire) using British stamps. They include:
Antigua
Antigua used barred obliterators "A02" (St. John's) and "A18" (English Harbour), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Australian colonies
Prior to federation, the Australian colonies all used coded obliterators:
Bahamas
Bahamas used barred obliterator "A05" (Nassau), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
British Guiana
British Guiana used barred obliterators "A03" (Georgetown) and "A04" (New Amsterdam), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
British Honduras
British Honduras used a barred obliterator "A06" (Belize City), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands used a barred obliterator "A13" (Tortola), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Canada
Canada and the provinces of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia used numeral obliterators.
Cyprus
Cyprus used barred obliterators "982" (Famagusta), "974" (Kyrenia), "942" (Larnaca), "975 (Limassol), "969" (Nicosia), "981" (Paphos), "D48" (HQ Camp, Nicosia) and "D47" (Polymedia Camp, Limassol), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Dominica
Dominica used a barred obliterator "A07" (Roseau), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Egypt
Egypt used a barred obliterator "B01" (Alexandria) or "B02" (Suez), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar used the barred obliterators "G" and "A26", originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Grenada
Grenada used a barred obliterator "A15" (St. George's), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong used a barred obliterator "B62". Also the "62B" supplementary killer. The treaty ports of China or Japan, where the Hong Kong stamps were utilised by the British administrators and consulates acting as local post masters for the traders operating in China, were issued with their own barred obliterators
AMOY 1844 "A1" (1866-85) & "D27" (1876-85)
CANTON 1844 "C1" (1866-85)
FOOCHOW 1844 "F1" (1866-85)
HANKOW 1872 "D29" (1879-85)
KIUNGCHOW (HOIHOW) 1873 "D28" (1876-85)
NINGPO 1844 "N1" (1866-85)
SHANGHAI 1844 "S1" (1866-85)
SWATOW 1861 "S2" (1866-85)
KOBE 1869 "D30" (1876-79)
NAGASAKI 1860 "N2" (1866-79)
YOKOHAMA 1859 "Y1" (1867-79)
Jamaica
Jamaica used the barred obliterator "A01" for the capital Kingston, originally on the stamps of Great Britain. The obliterators "A27" to "A78" were used by various district post offices, once again also originally on British stamps.
Malta
Malta used the barred obliterators "M" and "A25" (both Valletta), initially on British and later on Maltese stamps:
Mauritius
Mauritius originally used a "B53" barred obliterator, and later other "B"-prefixed codes and barred numerals.
Montserrat
Montserrat used a barred obliterator "A08" (Plymouth), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Nevis
Nevis used a barred obliterator "A09" (Charlestown), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher used a barred obliterator "A12" (Basseterre), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia used a barred obliterator "A11" (Castries), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent used a barred obliterator "A10" (Kingstown), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Seychelles
Seychelles used a barred obliterator "B64", originally on the stamps of Mauritius.
South African colonies
The British South Africa Company, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal used numeral obliterators.
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago used a barred obliterator "A14" (Scarborough), originally on the stamps of Great Britain.
Denmark
Denmark used a series of numerals (to 286) within three concentric circles. Some duplex obliterators were used. They were all withdrawn in 1873.
France
The obliterator was as a diamond or trapezoidal shaped grid of dots, measuring about 20 millimeters (0.75 inches) on each side, with a set of numbers at its center. The number consisted of anywhere between one and four digits, and was unique to the post office that used it. For this reason, such numbers are sometimes referred to by philatelists as "town numbers."
Two main types of the losange were used, the "losange à petits chiffres" (small numbers) from 1852 to 1862, and the "losange à gros chiffres" (large numbers) from 1862 to 1876. Distinguishing the two is based largely on the size of the numbers and the size of the dots in the cancel. The dots are noticeably smaller in the "losange à petits chiffres" and its numbers measured approximately 4 millimeters high. Town numbers between 1 and 4494 are documented. Town numbers from 3704 to 4018 and 4222 indicate use at a French Post office abroad.
The "losange à gros chiffres" obliterator had numbers twice as big being nearly 8 millimeters tall. Since the overall size of the cancel remained the same, a larger portion of a large number obliterator consisted of the town number. The list of numbers used increased as the number of new post offices opened, with numbers known up to 6449. Town numbers 2387 and from 5079 to 5156 were those assigned to French post offices outside continental France.
German states
Prior to unification, various German states had numeral obliterators:
Netherlands and colonies
Netherlands and its colonies Curaçao, Suriname and Dutch East Indies used a numeral series.
Venezuela
Venezuela used a series of barred numerals.