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