re: Great Britain Stampless Cover with "tombstone" marking
From my "Collect British Postmarks" it says;
Tombstone paid marks, single (morning)or double (evening) from 1800, red.
But does not state what is double or single, presumably the actual stamping once or twice.
re: Great Britain Stampless Cover with "tombstone" marking
I kept putting tombstone in quotes because I didn't know what they were called. Turns out I was calling them correctly. Thanks for all the great information.
Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 03 Apr 2021 01:33:39pm
re: Great Britain Stampless Cover with "tombstone" marking
One of my favourite items is a packet (ship) cover from Pictou N.S. to Sanquhar Scotland. It has a really great tombstone postmark from Liverpool England for 1853. It is a stampless cover! I'm wondering, since N.S. started using stamps in 1851, how long stampless covers were still used. That's not counting government mail that you didn't have to use stamps for. Does anyone have that information among our group of experts, or do I have to resort to Mr. Google?
re: Great Britain Stampless Cover with "tombstone" marking
Harvey, it all depends on how quickly postage stamps got distributed to all the post offices, and how regularly they were resupplied. One can imagine that early on, many smaller post offices may have taken some time to order and receive postage stamps. Also, at times, there may have been stamp shortages for periods of time when covers would be sent without stamps. I have seen stampless covers from the US from the 1860's.
To know for sure you would have to do a massive survey of thousands of stampless covers posted after postage stamps were available to see which locations were still sending stampless covers and when.
Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 03 Apr 2021 02:45:03pm
re: Great Britain Stampless Cover with "tombstone" marking
If someone had access to thousands of stampless covers it would be an interesting study to do. I have a suggestion to make. I have a couple stampless covers, not an area I collect. How about the following - when you have a chance check postmarks for your stampless covers and post the dates of any that are newer than the production of stamps in the areas you collect. Post the results here and I'll try to keep track. Since we are stamp collectors most of us probably don't have too many stampless covers. I think I only have a few, but I'm sure some of you have many more. It might be an interesting study!
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