Rhinelander
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22 Jul 2009
12:57:41pm | A recent offering on our member auction prompts me to briefly introduce a distinctive postmark style used in Switzerland from 1898 to the 1930s. It is called a "razor blade" postmark (Rasierklingenstempel) due to its distinctive appearance. Here an example of such postmark on a postcard from Geneva, Rue Du Stand, 7/31/1907;
The card also shows a CDS in the regular "bridge" style, the Zug received marking, which was the predominant style in use at the time.
These postmarks have only been used in eleven towns: Aarau, Basel, Bellinzona, Bern, Chur, Geneve, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchatel, St. Gallen, and Zürich. These cancels have been intensively studied and are avidly collected. Since in some of these cities razor blade postmarks have been used in more than one post office and because of the occasional replacement of worn cancels with slightly changed cancels, maybe up to 60 varieties can be distinguished.
Check out siem's offering for a set of the 1900 Swiss UPU issue for another example, a beautiful razor blade cancel from Neuchatel:
http://www.stamporama.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl?category=europew&item=1248878146
Who else can show some of these postmarks?
?
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