This long On Her Majesty’s Service cover has a purple COLONIAL SECRETARY’S OFFICE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA frank stamp and a duplex SHIP MAIL ROOM/ 2/ FE 2/ 99/ PERTH W.A. with the GPO obliterator, as well as a double oval COLONIAL SECRETARY’S OFFICE/ (—) FEB 99/ PERTH W.A. marking at the lower L. side, plus a circular PAID/ OFFICIALLY/ WEST AUSTRALIA. It was addressed to The Acting Secretary, Civil Service Commission
This unusually fine cancellation of the rays ‘261′ in duplicate on a strip of three of the pale blue Two Pence stamp of N.S.W. is on a cover addressed to T.B. Bennett Esq., Bruton Somerset, England. The dates of sending, the date of receiving and the name of the sender are all identified in the manuscript: 22nd Aug 1867, Mr. Joseph Barling, recd 20th Oct, 1867, and another manuscript shows that this is
This circular served double use from the Solicitor-General, Melbourne to John Laurens, Hotham Hill and back again to the Solicitor-General. There were a total of five of these documents available on Ebay, all sent from the same source, but to 5 different Justices of the Peace in the years 1874-1878. The entire is seen in Figure 1. The O.H.M.S. circular was printed ‘Crown Law Offices, Melbourne, 16th December 1874′ and was
The O.H.M.S. cover was addressed to C.W. Richmond Esq., Assistant Curator Dept. Birds, U.S. National Museum, Wahington D.C., United States America, and was sent from the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 4-9-1897. The 2½d QV stamp of Queensland is cancelled with a poor Brisbane postmark, but in addition there was an octagonal Brisbane G.P.O. cancel with V/ P 5 B/ BRISBANE/ SP 4/ 97 (Figure 1). This does not conform to the
My personal collection of 24 of the 48 Reprint stamps of Victoria shown are in black italics, and I point out that the brown TWO PENCE Half-Length stamp shows the defaced die (with vertical scratches) which was done purposely after the die was damaged. All have the Reprint placed horizontally, except for the pink half pence where it reads vertically upwards for obvious reasons (Figures 1-3). Geoff Kellow in The Stamps of Victoria (1990) pp. 329-332
Yes, I admit to buying First Day Covers (F.D.C.) in the years of my collecting Australian covers, but not in the last 30 years, yet this one was an exception due to a low fixed cost price sale in 1999, plus an interesting display of postmarking. The cover was registered with a blue R6 registration label of CORINDA, S.W.4 Queensland label and the red crayon lines front and reversed. The
Two covers appeared at the same website, one to Alfred and the other to his wife, both sent from Meran, Austria. This town in the South Tyrol (Meran in German, and now Merano in Italian, was Austrian up till1918, but now is in Italy) and both have Austrian stamps totaling 30 kr, but also they have a red manuscript ‘50′ rate. The first was sent ‘Via Brindisi April 29′ (1880)
Neither the cover in its discolored and ‘foxed’ condition, nor the faintness of the postmarks would win a beauty contest, but the present cover must be near unique. It was sent ‘By first mail’ to Mrs. Norton, Shipton House, Edgar Road, Margate, (Kent, England). The stamps are the 1871-85 S.G. 210 (Sc. 53c) pale blue, perf. 10, watermark small crown/NSW (SG w 36), block of 6, each of which had
The cover has a manuscript ‘O.H.M.S’. and ‘Per Esk’ and was addressed to Mr. K. Broadbent, George Town, Bristol Hotel, Tasmania. It was readdressed in pencil ‘Sydney’and the original address was crossed out in blue crayon, as was ‘314′. The blue ‘TWO PENCE’ QV stamp of New South Wales was cancelled with a duplex O/ MR 25/ 79/ 1/ SYDNEY with the 3-ring oval NSW obliterating the stamp. There was a black
This cover leads into a remarkable story told in a total of 4½ pages in the on-line Australian Dictionary of Biography (A.D.B.), a length of biography uncommon for a man of his ilk (a page more than for Ned Kelly). The front shows that it is addressed to John Wren Esqr, Bourke St., City (Melbourne). The 1d rose Victoria ‘Postage’ stamp is postmarked with an unframed sixth duplex SOUTH YARRA/