New Zealand: Chalons - 1855-1873

An O21 of Popotonua in the Otago Postal District:





Dave

Tic Tac Toe ms of Wellington Postal District:





Dave

A PB 4 & 5 of Mongonui and Bluff Harbour :





Dave

An SG141 NZ wmk with damaged '070' Wellington obliterator:





Dave

A small lot of 8 SG9 with perhaps the 2nd one being SG10:





Dave

Amongst the hundred or so Chalons I received in from the last Mowbrays sale were 3 tatty covers and 2 - 3 on pieces.

The best of the 3 covers has a damaged SG134 but a lovely clear example of the 'damaged' Wellington duplex '070'.

The LHS side of the datestamp and the RHS side of the obliterator is squeezed in - as though it has been in a vice, under a little too much pressure!







Dave

NB: Bull's was named 'Rangitikei' from 01/07/57 until 06/09/73 according to Wooders as well.

Perhaps with the impending name change the postmaster 'jumped the gun' and used the 'new' canceller a bit earlier than the 'official' date of the name change!


Dave

I found this one the other day.





Cheers,

Neil

Yes, looks good to me.  Here's another to compare with cert.  Note the comment "as far as can be determined."  

No problems with the regumming - some can supposedly crack and take the paper with them so they preach caution and often recommend soaking - but you know that.  Looks great.

Thanks Clayton. I always forget about Craddock!! lol

Question remains though - why do Wooders & Startup differ from Craddock as to dates of the office being open?

Are they not using the same records? Or are they not comparing apples with apples?

Wooders has Rangitikei as open from 01/07/57 until 06/09/73. Rangitikei didn't use an 'A' class nor a Type A precurser. (presumably it used the PB '13' or, possibly, the local Wellington Postal District W 13?).
And Rangitikei was renamed Bull's from 06/09/73.

Interesting history with this office, and I just wonder about the use of this Type A precursor cancel.

Anyway, Craddock certainly says 1872 and earliest recorded as JU 22 73 - so cannot argue with that :-)

Only 8 weeks off earliest then.



Dave

I have just taken a look at the 'New Zealand Stamp Collector- Celebrating 100 Years 1919 - 2019' where on page 69 it says :

"According to McNaught the Rangitikei office closed from about April 1867. This is not consistent with the historical changes in the name of the Rangitikei Post Office provided by Startup. The office was known as 'Rangitikei' from 1857 to 1861. It then became known as 'Middle Rangitikei' from 1861 to 1867, after which it changed back to the name 'Rangitikei' from 1867 to 1872 (the period in which the cover shown in fig.36 was posted). Later it was known as 'Rangitikei Ferry' and 'Scott's Ferry'.

So a rather convoluted history with its name really!!



Dave

Craddock at least states at beginning of his book "A datestamp impression in the Post Office Establishment or Impression Books is generally sufficient evidence as to when a datestamp was issued. But where there is no proof impression, the date when Money Order facilities were added gives a reasonable indication as to when the datestamp could have been issued."
Given he then notes the M.O.O. date I would assume in this case he has made use of this reference. Wooders at least comments on the limitations of data used and produced when referring to opening and closing dates in his publication.

As we have seen before the actual name of an office can change a lot but this is not readily apparent when the office uses an Obliterator. However when the Post Office required town names to appear on cancels it was necessary to formalise naming and to avoid confusion with other towns or districts this often required name changes.
An interesting article in NEW ZEALAND MAIL, ISSUE 17, 20 MAY 1871, PAGE 2 relates to this as the Post Office had then Gazetted a change which was under discussion.












Then finally after spending some time as Middle Rangitikei and Rangitikei, this short notice appeared in LYTTELTON TIMES, VOLUME XXXVII, ISSUE 3442, 26 JANUARY 1872, PAGE 2




A month later some feelings as to the change MARLBOROUGH PRESS, VOLUME XIII, ISSUE 789, 28 FEBRUARY 1872, PAGE 2

While looking at my 'Richardson' prints on white paper today, I wondered about the shade groups found within them.

I collect my Commonwealth collections by SG in the main, but for my NZ Chalons I also use the CP Catalog.

I was wondering about SG11, Dull deep blue, on thick, soft white paper - CP A2c(4) - that CP lists as Deep blue.

Do any of you have a certified copy of this stamp? And if so, could you please post a scanned image of it in at least 600dpi?


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In thinking about this group of 'Richardsons' (the white paper issues of 1857-1861) I also had 2 other questions arise.

1) The Perkins Bacon (PB) supplied brass and wooden obliterators that were supplied in 1854 came in 18 numbers in pairs - ie 2 of numbers 1 - 18.

Numbers 10, of Wellington & 12, of Wanganui (Whanganui) suffered damage to them fairly early on in their lives.

I have both 'PB' numbered oblits on 'London' prints and 'Richardson' Blue & White papers but nothing on any 'Davies' prints - 1862 on.

Does anyone have a complete 'PB 10' or 'PB12' on a Davies print at all?




2) Which 'PB' oblit could this be? - an example of a broken 'PB12' ? I haven't heard of a broken 15, 16 or 18 before! It looks a little like a backwards '6' in '16' but these numbers were 'fixed' so not adjustable!
Or perhaps it was just not 'flush' when struck?

On a 2nd point about this stamp, what do you make of the separation along the bottom edge?





Dave