Stamp_amp_amp_Coin_Mart_-_February_2016__

http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk FEBRUARY 2016^33

Your monthly guide to specialist stamps, stamp-related material and postal ephemera

to have only been used within the

British Isles and to Naval ships.

On 13 February, 1880 the firms

of WH Smith & Son together with

William Dawson & Sons were issued

with the obliterators ‘SS’ over ‘F’

(figure 4) and ‘DS’ over ‘F’ (figure

5), respectively. They were each

produced in two sizes, the largest,

about an inch wide being by far

the commonest, with the smaller

being only 5/8 inch wide and much

rarer. The ‘F’ is believed to stand for

‘Foreign’. Many of these are found

on WH Smith & Son ‘stamped to

order’ embossed stamps that have

the advantage of date-plugs, both of

which are in 1879 on the illustrated

examples. Presumably ample supplies

were kept in stock. The small cancel,

shown on the far right, is the only

example I have seen; Dawson & Sons

type are even more scarce. About

half are on stamps that have one of

the several types of Dawson & Sons

perfins. I have not seen any ‘stamped

to order’.

The next type used by WH Smith

& Son is subject to differences of

opinion by previous authors, but

no clear statement of date. They are

often illustrated with a date of 1891,

but I have not seen any earlier than

1894. They are also often illustrated

with four lots of four bars rather

than four lots of five bars. The first

illustration (figure 6) is by John G

Hendy, the second is by James A

Mackay (figure 7). A line above the

date is sometimes visible, but weak.

Note the lack of an ‘F’ now, the ‘S’in

diamond standing for ‘Smith’.

William Dawson & Sons on the

other hand seem to have a well

documented date of 13 May, 1890

for their next type (figure 8). These

are most often found on the 2/6d

stamps (often in pairs), but other

values down to 2d are known to

exist. Again they are frequently in

conjunction with perfins.

Post Office Act

With the passing of the Post

Office Act in 1870 implementing

a cheap rate of ½d per 2 ounces

for newspaper and circular postage,

all but The Times and the Stamford

Mercury elected to use normal

stamped wrappers. Because of this,

there was a sudden increase in the

daily cancelling requirements. The

Post Office came up with a scheme

whereby publishers and newsagents

sent in wrappers (addressed or

un-addressed) early in the day for

pre-cancelling, so they could then be

taken back, sorted for the different

routes and then used to enclose the

papers when available, to be put

in mailbags and sealed by a postal

official. As an inducement, the pre-

cancelled mail would be accepted for

posting later than for ordinary mail.

This proposal was laid before the

Provincial Newspaper Society during

their annual together with meeting at

the Crystal Palace on 10 May, 1870

and accepted.

There was also provision when

necessary for a post office clerk

to take the pre-canceller to the

customers’ premises to stamp the

wrappers there. There is quite a range

of these types. They were referred to

as ‘milled edge postmarks’ by John

H Chandler & H Dagnall in a 1981

attempt to classify them, and more

recently as ‘Ailes de Moulin’ (windmill

wings) by Michel Letaillieur in an

article for the French 2012 conference

of l’Académie de philatélie.

Figure 4. Note the smaller example on the right

Figure 5. The ‘DS’

and ‘F’ variety used by

William Dawson & Sons,

the ‘F’ is believed to

have stood for ‘Foreign’

Find out more about

precancels at:

http://www.gb-precancels.org

Figure 6. WH Smith variety

Figure 7. Another

precancel variety used

by WH Smith & Son, with

the ‘S’ for Smith now

seen in a dimaond

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