Cancel for June 30: Schuylkill Valley Bank

Likely used to pay the tax on a bank check by applying the stamp directly to a portion of the check, the Schuykill Valley Bank in Reading, Pennsylvania used a handstamp to cancel this check 109 years ago.

Mercantile Cancels: D. M. Moran & Company

D.M. MORAN & CO.

Importers of Dry Goods

12x & 122 Sixth Street,

xxx, Natoma San Francisco

Enhanced version of stamp above with increased cancel legibility.

Cancel for June 28: Ralph Pomeroy, Brooklyn

I've found one possibility for a Ralph Pomeroy in Brooklyn, but I can't understand why he would have used and handstamped a 2 cent documentary revenue. Maybe his work required repeated use of such stamps. It is possible to trace a Ralph Pomeroy to Brooklyn at the turn of the last century. He was a gynecologist, and oddly, invented tubal ligation without publishing or taking credit for developing the procedure. Two other doctors presented his work at a medical conference after Pomeroy's death.

Cancel Styles: Shields

5 cent documentary roulette with partial handstamp federal style shield

4 cent documentary roulette

4 cent documentary roulette with handstamp federal shield

Cancel for June 26: South Eastern Line

Atlanta railroad company South Eastern Line. Left bottom arrow and guideline at right.

Cancel for June 25: Brainerd and Northern Minnesota Railway

Brainerd, Minnesota was started as a logging town, and is famous regionally and beyond for its connection to Paul Bunyan, the lumberjack, and the town's giant statues to the man. The statue above is at the Brainerd welcome center.

June 25 Brainerd and Northern Minnesota Railway Cancel with guideline at left. The B&NM was built as a logging railroad. By September 1895, the journal Railway Age reported that The B&NM was the greatest logging railroad in the world.

American Express Printed Cancels: Pair with Subtypes F and E

American Express printed cancel pair with cancel subtype F on top and subtype E on bottom.

American Express Printed Cancels: Subtype H

American Express 1901 printed cancel subtype H, where the first 1 of 1901 is under the left leg of the X in AM. EX. CO.

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype G

American Express 1901 printed cancels, subtype G, where the two stamps below have the first 1 of the 1901 year date directly under the EX portion of the cancel. The first stamp below is "normal" with rectangular equal size periods and normally formed letters and numbers.

Subtype G where the first 1 in 1901 is heavy.

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype F

American Express printed cancel subtype F, with 1900 year date. Each of the seven stamps below has the 1 of 1900 directly underneath the EX. of the AM. EX. CO. portion of the cancel. The stamp immediately below is the "normal" variety of subtype F, with 3 roughly equal size and rectangular periods.

Subtype F with rounded period after "AM".

Subtype F with large period after "AM".

Subtype F with small period after "EX".

Subtype F with square period after "CO".

Subtype F with large rounded period after "CO". General overinking of cancel.

Subype F with large rounded period after "AM" and skeleton period after "CO".

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype E

American Express printed cancels subtype E, 1900 year date. Each of the three stamps below has the 1 of the 1900 under the left leg of the X in EX. The following stamp is the "normal" variety of subtype E, with three rectangular equal size periods and normally formed letters.

Subtype E, large periods under AM. and CO. Cancel is overinked.

Large rounded period after CO.

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype D

American Express 1900 printed cancels (1900 and 1901 sans serif only) subtype D, where each of the three stamps below has the 1 of the 1900 under the E in the AM. EX. CO. portion of the cancel. The first stamp below is the "normal" variety of subtype D, with 3 rectangular equal size periods.

Subtype D, large periods after AM and CO. Overinked cancel.

Subtype D, large period after CO. Overall cancel is overinked.

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype C

American Express 189x sans serif printed cancels subtype C, where each of the seven stamps below has the 1 of the 189x year date under the right leg of the X in the AM. EX. CO. portion of the cancel. The following stamp is the "normal" variety of subtype C, with three rectangular equal size periods and normally formed letters.

Reference blog entry from June 14 in which the general scheme used to classify the the different types of American Express printed cancels is shown.

Above stamp: "normal" rouletted variety.

"normal" subtype C hyphen hole stamp.

Subtype C with 3 large periods.

Subtype C with large period after "CO".

Subtype C with square period after "EX".

Subtype C with shortened left leg of X.

Subtype C with shortened right leg of X.

American Express Printed Cancels: Pair including Subtypes A and B

189x roulette pair, subtype B above and subtype A on stamp below. Mansucript 9 added to complete year date.

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype B

American Express 189x sans serif printed cancels subtype B, where each of the seven stamps below has the 1 of the 189x year date under the center of the X in the AM. EX. CO. portion of the cancel. The following stamp is "normal" with three rectangular equal size periods and normally formed letters.

Subtype B, "normal"

Subtype B, rouletted stamp with large period after "CO".

Subtype B, hyphen hole stamp with large period after "CO".

Subtype B, thin period after "EX".

Subtype B, no period after "EX".

Subtype B, rounded period afer "EX", appears somewhat like doubled vertical oval.

Subtype B, round period after "AM".

American Express Printed Cancels: Varieties of Subtype A

Below are examples of three different varieties of Subtype A of AMEX printed cancels under the classification scheme used by Henry Tolman in his collection. See the previous post for background. Subtype A includes stamps with the sans-serif 189x format, with the 1 of the 189x year date under the left leg of the X in AM. EX. CO.

Stamp above is classfied as normal, with three rectangular or near rectangular periods in the AM. EX. CO. portion of the cancel.

Stamp above has a large period after CO.

Stamp with vertical oval period after EX.

American Express Printed Cancels: Henry Tolman's Sans-serif Typology

Approximately 2 years ago, part 4 of the Siegel auction of the Henry Tolman revenue collection included a 2 binder lot of proprietary printed cancels on the 1898 series. The main body of that is a gold mine I will be exploring in future months. But in the back of the second volume were several pages of cancels on documentary stamps, notably American Express printed cancels. The late Mr. Tolman had his collection of the sans-serif variety of these cancels classified according to year and the relative placement of the date under the AM. EX. CO. portion of the cancel. I don't know if this typology derives from the work of other philatelists; Tolman left no note to that effect. Whatever the case, there are 8 subtypes of the sans-serif printed cancel according to the classification scheme:

Subtype A: 189x year date, 1 of 189x under the left leg of the X in EX.
Subtype B: 189x year date, 1 of 189x under center of X in EX.
Subtype C: 189x year date, 1 of 189x under right leg of X in EX.
Subtype D: 1900 year date, 1 of 1900 under E of EX.
Subtype E: 1900 year date, 1 of 1900 under left leg of X in EX.
Subtype F: 1900 year date, 1 of 1900 between E and X of EX.
Subtype G: 1901 year date, 1 of 1901 between E and X of EX.
Subtype H: 1901 year date, 1 of 1901 under left leg of X of EX.

Below are examples of these 8 subtypes. In future posts I will show examples of multiple "sub-sub-types," as each of the subtypes below has minor variations which Henry Tolman put in the collection.

Subtype A: 1 under left leg of X.

Subtype B: 1 under center of X.

Subtype C: 1 under right leg of X.

Subtype D: 1 under E.

Subtype E: 1 under left leg of X.

Subtype F: 1 between E and X.

Subtype G: 1 between E and X.

Subtype H: 1 under left leg of X.