Wednesday 7 August 2013

Somerset UnDated Circular (UDC) handstamps

The majority of undated circular handstamps (henceforth referred to as UDCs, though pedantically it probably should be UDC handstamps) were issued to minor offices after the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post.  The earlier marks, from the mid 1820s, were in seriffed capitals and mostly larger (29mm, though there were some smaller 24mm handstamps).

The handstamps in these minor offices were supposed to be applied on the reverse, or after 1840, away from any postage stamp, with any postage stamp being cancelled at the post town (so to be pedantic again, they were definitely handstamps rather than cancels).

In the middle of 1844, the larger marks with seriffed capitals gave way to standardised handstamps in sans-serif capitals, which were smaller (25mm); this is the same period as when the barred numeral obliterator cancels were introduced for the Post Towns.

Then in the second half of 1857 to August 1859 smaller (19mm) single-arc and single ring UDCs were issued.  The stamping of letters at all offices using UDCs came to an end in 1860.  By then many letters were being posted in letter boxes and it became less relevant to identify the place of posting.

There were 42 early seriffed UDCs issued in Somerset (mostly the larger type) - or 43 if you include one issued for Broadwinsor, an office in Dorset that came under Crewkerne.  Of the 42, no examples are known of three and two others only have a single example known.

The next few posts are my examples of the earliest UDCs (I may have shown a number of these already, under different subject headings).

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