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The Admiral Stamps of Canada: Cancellations on the Admirals.
by Randall W. Van Someren (ENA3K)

During the 16+ years the Admirals were in use, many different cancellations were used on Canada's mail. Older canceling devices first used in the 19th century - the squared circle, for example - were being phased out and new types of cancellations were introduced. While cancellations are properly collected on cover or document, the collector of the Admiral stamps can also make an interesting collection of cancels on single stamps.

This page shows some of the cancellations that can be found on the Admirals. Hans Reiche's book Admiral Cancels mentions many of these cancels. Some cancels shown here are not in his book, and some shown in his book are not shown here, so neither is a complete listing. The postal cancels on this page are in alphabetical order by type of cancel. Postal cancels are shown first, then fiscal cancels.

Postal Cancellations.

1. Acknowledgment of Receipt. This cancel is rarely found on stamps.
2. Bars. Cancellations consisting of bars are often part of another cancellation such as the duplex cancel (see below). However, some bars cancels are stand-alone cancels that are not part of another type of cancel.
3. Circular Date Cancels (CDC). CDC cancels show the city / town name, province, and date of mailing. There are several diameters of the circle. Of special interest are the CDCs that come from post offices established for government institutions such as the PARLEMENT PROVINCIAL QUEBEC cancel shown above as 3b. Circular date cancels can be part of a duplex cancellation (see below).




4. "Cork" Cancels. The canceling device was usually made of cork or brass. These were more popular in the 19th century and are not common on the Admirals.
5. Dotted Circle. The seven examples I have are from Montreal.




6. Duplex Cancels. Duplex cancels consist of a circular date cancel and a group of bars. Sometimes letters and words are found in the bars. There are also several different styles. The letters A - J & S and the numerals 1- 13 are found in the duplex cancels from Montreal. All these variables combine to make duplex cancels a specialized field in itself.




7. Field Post Office Cancels. These originate from post offices established for servicemen on active duty.




8. Machine Cancels. The "wavy lines" of the International Rapid Machine cancels are probably the most common cancel found on the Admirals. Even these can be of some interest because various numbers and letters are sometimes found between the lines. The circle part of the cancellation can be identified by its diameter (about 21 mm) and the complete year at the bottom.

Pictorial / Slogan cancellations (see below) were also machine cancels.
9. Paquebot Cancels. Letters mailed onboard ship received paquebot cancels. At the next port of call they were delivered to a post office where they entered the mail system.




10. Precancelled Stamps. Bar precancels (photo 10a above) exist on the following Admiral stamps:
    
    10¢ blue

    1¢ yellow	4¢	10¢ blue
    2¢ green	5¢ violet	10¢ bistre brown
    3¢ brown	7¢ ochre	20¢
    3¢ carmine		1¢ yellow coil

    
    At least 51 city and town precancels (photo 10b above) are found on the Admirals. There are several different styles, all of which also exist inverted, doubled, etc.




11. Registered Cancels. There are several different types of registered cancellations, but the most common is the large R in an oval. Registered cancellations also come in different sizes and different colors. The example of the R in an oval (photo 11a above) is a fairly small example of this cancellation; they usually are much larger.




12. Return to Sender Hand. I suspect this is not a genuine postal marking but I can not prove it. The hand seems a bit small in comparison to those found on covers of the Admiral era.
13. Rings. Cancels with various numbers of rings exist. Ring cancels were used more in the 19th century and are not often seen on the Admirals.
14. Roller Cancel. Not popular with stamp collectors because they do such a good job of obliterating the stamp, roller cancels were nonetheless used extensively during the Admiral period. Several different styles exist. Nice clean, clear examples are hard to find.
15. RPO Cancel (Railroad Post Office). The Admiral era coincides with the heyday of railroad post offices. Probably several hundred RPO cancels can be found on the Admirals.




16. Slogan / Pictorial Cancels. There are hundreds of these cancels, many of them with one version in English and another in French. They promote everything from the War effort to tourism (photo 16b above). They publicize Post Office directives & services as well as advertise various events and anniversaries. These are usually a type of machine cancel and could be listed as such.




17. Smears and Smudges. The two examples shown above (17a and 17b) are quite representative of this type of cancellation.
18. Split Ring Cancel. This cancel was first used near the beginning of the Small Queens era or before. By the time the Admirals were in use, most larger towns and cities had moved on to other types of canceling devices, but the split ring cancel continued to be used in many small towns.
19. Squared Circle. The squared circle cancellation was introduced in the early 1890s, but by the Admiral era, it was rarely used. The example shown is from Port Arthur.




20. Star. I suspect this cancellation is not a genuine postal cancellation, but I can not prove it at this time.
21. Three-Ring Cancel. This cancel comes with at least two diameters. Ottawa is the most common, but other cities also exist.
22. Two-Ring Cancel.
23. Way Letter.

Fiscal Cancellations.

Although revenue stamps were available, postage stamps were regularly used for fiscal purposes. A wide variety of fiscal cancellations exist, often in bright colors. Fiscal cancels can be divided into two groups: those that are manuscript (done by hand with pen, pencil, or crayon) and those that are handstamped with a canceling device. The following pictures show just a small sample of the types of fiscal cancels found on the Admirals.

Manuscript Fiscal Cancellations.

24. Initials, Names, and/or Dates.
25. Crayon. Cheques were often cancelled with a heavy line made by a crayon. This often ended up on the stamp(s) affixed to the cheque.




26. Miscellaneous signs, symbols, etc. Included here are strokes of a pen or pencil, asterisk, Xs, and "pound sign." Many others can be found.

Handstamped Fiscal Cancellations.

27. Bank Cancels. There are two types: small usually rectangular cancels (photo 27a above) or large cancels often containing the word PAID (photo 27b above). Both types of cancels have the name of the bank in them.
28. CANCELLED. The word CANCELLED is usually too large to fit completely onto one stamp.




29. Numbers and/or Letters inside a Small Circle or Triangle.
30. Straight-Line Date Cancel.
31. For lack of a better term: "Multiple Squares."

Introduction |  Formats |  Printings |  Dies |  Paper |  Straight-Edges |  Coils |  Fakes |  Forgeries |  Varieties |  Cancellations |  Rates |  Bibliography