Below is a Parcels certificate of posting for which Enhanced Compensation for up to £100 has been paid (by four 10p stamps on the reverse). The certificate is cancelled with a "CHESTNUT TERRACE BURNHAM ON SEA / SOMT" single ring handstamp dated December 2002.
Here is another Coaching Flyer/Receipt, this time from the Bell & Crown Inn, Holborn.
There are two coaches going into/through Somerset - The Hero and The Traveller. The receipt includes charges of 1/4d Carriage plus 8d Porterage.
Note that there was an additional charge for the carriage of valuables, varying by value and by distance travelled.
Perfins were used by companies to prevent pilferage of their postage stamps - it used to be possible to exchange postage stamps for cash at a Post Office. Below is an example of the "W/G" perfin, used by the Western Gazette Co. Ltd, Yeovil on a windowed commercial cover in October 1941.
Here is a nice advertising envelope for S. Rawlings & Son Ltd. from Frome used in January 1909.
Auctioneers required Licences from 1845 to 1949. Below is an example of a Licence issued by Customs and Excise in Bath in 1911.
The Flyer below has been used as a receipt for Carriage and Porterage, and is dated October 1840 on the reverse. It is from the interesting period when services were moving from Coaches to the Railway. The history of the Bolt-in-Tun inn is shown on the second sheet.
Having had a year off, I'm starting to post up a few items here again, though I won't be posting as regularly as before as I don't have that much new.
On a contrary note (the current situation makes me feel a bit contrary), I thought I'd start with an item that is not Somerset Postal History but is HMS Somerset instead. The envelope below commemorates the commissioning of HMS Somerset in September 1996, with a couple of nice cachets as well as the "PLYMOUTH AND CORNWALL / DEVON" cancel.
