Bob G sent me this pic. I told him I think the hole might indicate revenue usage. But that is a guess on my part. Can any GB collectors chime in with their thoughts? Thanks Mike / meostamps
If it follows the same pattern as its Berbudian cousins, it looks like a revenue usage. However, the fact that it has a cancel is somewhat different, as I have not seen a Bermuda stamp with both a hole punch and an ink cancellation.
Vic, that is what I am thinking now that Bob was able to send me the scan. We spoke about it on the phone yesterday and I just got the scan shortly before posting this topic. Does the cancel (?) in the upper right something that might indicate non-mail use? It looks strange to me.
"Does the cancel (?) in the upper right something that might indicate non-mail use? It looks strange to me."
It would appear to be a barred numeric obliterator such as used in Britain during the Victorian era. The number, if it was visible, would indicate the posting post-office.
Your example would seem to be a "duplex" cancellation which combined a circular date stamp alongside the obliterator.
As for the hole, sorry can't help you there.
Clive
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I think Smauggie's suggestion is the most likely but Gordyboy's post reminds me of seeing in a museum many years ago toy snakes that had been made by stringing together hundreds of penny reds.
musicman,
The block of four bister coloured stamps in the middle, and the Republic of Peru pair to the right, as well as the North Borneo pair below are all imperforate proofs with security holes.
The £1 Southern Rhodesia at the top left, a revenue stamp, looks mint. In which case the punched hole would indicated that it is a "specimen". If it was used then it would most likely have been cancelled by pen or by a violet (but occasionally black) oval date stamp. A perfinned Southern Rhodesia stamp would also indicate fiscal usage, but I think that this practice was stopped earlier than the George VI era.
There is no doubt that OP's stamp is postally used as indicated by the partial barred numeric obliterator along with the postmark in the form of a circular date stamp. But this still does not explain the hole.
Clive
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I worked in an office where part of the filing was done by punching a hole on the corner of the correspondence, then putting a brass split-pin sort of thing through the holes and seperating the splines of the pin on the back. This kept all the correspondence on one subject together in date order. Several such bunches were then put in one file relevant to one customer or department.
We always stapled the envelopes to the correspondence. Before the digital age it was the most efficient way to keep the narratives of various correspondence together, and seperate from each other.
Taking a wild guess I am 99% certain that this is the case here - although the mechanics of the stapling system is obviously dfferent to the one from the 60s I describe.
Regrettably the damage to the stamp is probably terminal, but if you had all the correspondence complete on the filing thingy who knows.......
Malcolm
P.S. Thinking further about this does anyone remember a filing "system" consisting of 2 thin pieces of metal connecting by cord ( or wool)? You pushed one pin through the holes punched through the paper then turned both pins round to prevent the cord going back through the hole. The size of hole in the stamp would indicate something similar. The "split pin" method would likely not grip.
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