Chard Skeleton

A nice example of a Chard skeleton handstamp used as a receiver in 1843.

Newton St. Lo[o]e UDC

Up until 1862 Newton St. Loe (or Newton St Looe as it used to be called) came under Bath as its Post Town.  An undated circular (UDC) handstamp was known from 1848 according to the British County Catalogue, but here are two more examples that extend its date range from 1841 to 1858.

The Maltese Cross in the first example from 1841 came from Bath.

In this second example from 1858 the handstamp was probably bought back into use just to indicate the misdirection of the letter, with manuscript "not for" endorsed in the centre of the handstamp.

Trouble with Cancels

I'm currently looking through a number of Bath "53" three-bar horizontal oval single cancels (known as 3HOS) to work out which handstamp in the Steel Impression Book (SIB) has been applied.

I thought it was going to be straightforward, just take the date of the strike, look back in the Steel Impression Book to see when the handstamp was proofed before that date and Bob's your uncle !

Nope.

Even though some of the proofs in the SIB are marked as "recut", it does not appear that this means that the previous handstamp has been recut or made into the new one - so one has to compare a strike with all the previous handstamps to see which one it most closely matches, which is obviously a somewhat subjective process.

Here is a fairly clear example showing that one cannot just assume the previously proofed handstamp has been used.

"BATH / 109" circular handstamps

Moving on to the "BATH / 109" circular handstamps, the ones with small circles between the "BATH" and the "109", the British County Catalogue identifies five different types, with the angle of the "BATH" as a significant distinguishing feature, along with the diameter.

I have always had problems with this as (a) the diameter is difficult if either the top or bottom of a strike is not clear, and (b) I never know where the centre of the handstamp is to measure the angle from.  Add to that a lack of clarity of where the serifs, if any, on the "B" and "H" stick out to, and I really struggle.

So I've bitten the bullet and scanned in all my examples on to my computer and used Photoshop to investigate the diameters (by superimposing circles over the strikes), and then used the centre of the circle I identified as a base to measure the angle.

All this proved was that I could not measure the angles consistently, certainly not to the level of distinguishing 109° from 112° from 108°.  I could manage 143° and 120° reasonably well.  I also had troubles differentiating 32mm circles from 30 mm circles.

But all is not lost - I managed to identify some alternative distinguishing features as follows - as well as a new early type of "BATH / 109" circular handstamp !  See below for the different types, types II to VI corresponding to SO 90, 93, 96, 99 and 102 in the British County Catalogue.

1. 1810 - 3½ mm "BATH" height, circles as dots. Diameter 31 mm.
2. 1812-1813 - 4 mm "BATH", circles level with year (left higher than right if year is level), wider “109”. Diameter 30-31 mm.
3. 1814-1815 - 4 mm "BATH", circles level with year (left higher than right if year is level), narrower “109”. Diameter 30-31 mm.
4. 1816-1818 - 4 mm "BATH", circles mid-way between day/month and year. Diameter 31 mm.
5. 1818-1819 - wide-angle "BATH" (147°-155°). Diameter 30-31 mm.
6. 1821-1822 - 4½ mm "BATH", mid-angle "BATH" (121°-125°). Diameter 32½ mm.

Here is a scan of the new handstamp from 26th October 1810, with dots instead of circles.

As well as the basic types above there are a number of variations:

1. Type II (SO 90) can have dates in either "ddmmdd" or "mmdd" format,
2. Type III (SO 93) can have dates in either "ddmmdd" or "mmdd" format,
3. Type IV (SO 96) has the middle "18" digits of the year inverted in 1816 (OK in 1818),
4. Type V (SO 99) can have only the last digit of the year showing,
5. Type VI (SO 102) can be missing the last digit of the year.

Bath Straight-Line Handstamps 1706 to 1808

According to the British County Catalogue [1992], Bath used 15 different straight-line handstamps between 1706 to 1808, plus one re-use in 1832 (this does not include the four single-line and two-line mileage marks). Within this list there are a number of date ranges where no handstamp is recorded in the BCC (1717-1720, 1727-1729, 1735-1741, 1743-1749 and 1762-1771). The handstamps recorded are of different sizes, but one is never entirely clear on how squarely the handstamp was struck or how the sizes in the BCC were measured (eg. does one include the serifs ?), so matching a handstamp to the BCC, or identifying a potential new handstamp, is not easy.

It is also a little strange to see handstamps overlapping, for example SO 77 (1798-1807) overlaps with SO 83 (1804-1805), with the "BATH / 109" mileage mark SO 80 (1801-1804) in the middle as well.  This leads me to suspect that maybe the marks labelled as SO 77 are not all from the same handstamp.

Click here to see a pdf document that illustrates the Bath straight-line handstamps in my collection, along with their assignment to a BCC catalogue number where the approximate sizes and dates match.

Can you help work out which handstamps match the BCC and which are potentially new ones ? Where do your examples fit (and can you fill the gaps) ?

Potential changes to the BCC are identified below in red.

	Cat No	Type	Handstamp	Comments	Size (mm)	Colour	Dates	Rarity
	29	4	BATH		16x5	Black	1706-08	G
	31	4	BATH		18x6	Black	1708	G
	32	4	BATH-X	for Cross Post letters only	27x5?	Black	Jun 1710	H+
	33	4	BATH		25x6	Black	1712-16	G
	36	2	BATH	in one line	15x4	Black	1721-26	F
	39	4	BATH		31x8	Black	1730-34	F
	P 41	4	BATH		26x8	Black	1738-39
	43	4	BATH		26x12	Black	1742	F
	48	4	BATH		27x8	Black	1750-57	F
	50	4	BATH		31x9	Black	1760-61	F
	P 51	4	BATH	Medium width “A” Usage sometime May 1764 to May 1766, & ?61 or ?68	30x8	Black	1765 ?
	P 53	4	BATH	Wide “A”, pronounced serifs	30x8	Black	1768-72
	55	4	BATH	Small serifs, 1777 & 1782	30x7	Black	1772-82	E
	58	4	BATH	T has large serifs	32x8	Black	1766-67 & 1781	E
	P 59	4	BATH	Tapered	23x5-8	Black	1781
	61	4	BATH		25x6	Black	1776 & 1783	D
	64	27	113 BATH	single line	33x5	Black	1784	F
	66	26	BATH / 110	figures 6½ mm high	26x16	Black	1784-86	F
	68	26	BATH / 110	figures 5mm high	25x14	Black	1786-87	F
	71	4	BATH	was 1788-95	23x5	Black	1788-91	D
	P 73	4	BATH		24x5	Black	1791-95
	74	4	BATH		30x4	Black	1795-96	D
	P 76	4	BATH	split from SO 77	30x6	Black	1798-02
	77	4	BATH	altered dates	30x5	Black	1802-04	C
	80	29	BATH / 109		19x10	Black	1801-04	E
	83	12	BATH		24x4	Black	1804-05	D
	86	4	BATH		28x5	Black	1805-08	C
	P 87	4	BATH		29x4	Black	1810

Another straight line Bristol handstamp - with a Bath / 110 mileage mark

The wrapper below has a scarce "BATH / 110" mileage mark as well as a straight line "BRISTOL".  It is undated but the Bath mark is only known in 1786-87.

The wrapper is to Dublin, with another intellectual exercise to work out the postal charges and match them to the markings.

Another early Bristol handstamp

From 1773 to 1798 Bristol had a series of straight-line handstamps - below is an example from 1774 going to Maidstone and then being redirected back to London.

Working out the postal charges was a slight challenge !

Early Bristol handstamp

Here's an example of an early Bristol handstamp from 1721, a two-line handstamp with a hyphen.

The double sheet entire was originally charged 8d, then uprated to 1/4d, and then appears to have been charged 8d.