A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska Uses

Handstamp from Denver, Colorado.  The B&MRRR lines went as far west as Denver, Cheyenne  Wyoming, and Billings, Montana.

Handstamp by Wells Fargo.  It's not clear to me why a Wells Fargo cancel would appear on a two cent B&MRRR stamp, but there are numerous copies of this stamp with a Wells Fargo cancel.

This is not a usage example, but it is an interesting example of a Burlington Route multiple.  I've seen hundreds of one and two cent Burlington Route precanceled stamps; this is the only multiple I know of.  The company's management must have kept closer accounting of their stamp inventories compared to some other railroads.

Omaha was the most significant eastern terminus on the B&MRRR mainlines.  Walter G. Clark was a sporting goods company, and sold guns and ammo among other items.  I guess the shells listed above could be shotgun or other gun shells?  Wahoo is close to Omaha.

Live stock contract/bill of lading for what appears to be 76 live hogs shipped in a 30 foot railroad car.

Payment to the Chicago & Western Railway of Grand Rapids, Michigan for service on one or more B&MRRR cars.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Document Printed Precancels: The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska's Collectible Types and Varieties

While a major component of The Burlington Route, the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska appears to have used a different printer than most of the other Burlington Route railroads.  Their precancels are in bold nonserifed full caps and use a dotted line to indicate a space for writing or stamping the date.  

There are only three main collectible precanceled stamps: one cent roulette and hyphen-hole stamps, and a two cent roulette stamp.  An invert exists of the one cent roulette.  Fullerton reported a two cent hyphen-hole but I do not believe this stamp exists.

One cent roulette

One cent roulette invert

One cent hyphen-hole

Two cent roulette 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Uses

CB&QRR precancels with additional handstamps showing their business in Illinois and Iowa; on-document uses further below:

"Burlington Route" handstamp

Albia, Iowa handstamp

Elliott, Iowa handstamp

Mt. Ayr, Iowa

Rockford, Illinois haandstamp

Bill of Lading for a box of brass lamps sent from Chicago to Billings, Montana via the CB&Q and the Missouri Pacific

Drafts to settle costs between the CB&Q and the Western Maryland Railroad

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's Varieties of Questionable Collectible Value -or- CB&Q Curiosities

In my review of the Fullerton List, the 70+ year old catalog of 1898 documentary precancels, I critiqued the varieties included by Fullerton, suggesting that some belonged in a new, revised list, and that some should be deleted.  The trick is establishing exact criteria for inclusion, if possible.  

The CB&Q, and some of its Burlington Route sisters, produced more varieties than any other railroad or railroad system.  Below are several print precancel varieties, some that could merit potential inclusion in a revised list, but some that definitely should not.  I am still working out where to draw the line!

The first variety is the high period after the "Co".  The stamp below shows an unambiguously high period, and would qualify as Fullerton's high period variety.  

High period after "Co"

Maybe a high period after "Co"?  Certainly an inking issue as the period is not a rectangle. Unlike the round, low period variety, many of the high period varieties are variable and subject to interpretation, making classification of a cancel a high period problematic.

No period after "Co".  Is this an inking issue or a typeset issue?  This is the only missing period variety I have found.

No periods after second "R" and "Co".  Clearly an inking anomaly.

Damaged type: first "C" looks like a Greek gamma; B has a hole in lower loop. This is morphing yet somewhat persistent damage as multiple stamps are known with this damage with some variation.

Damaged type: hole in the left leg of the first "R".  This is persistent damage as multiple stamps are known with this hole.

Damaged type:  bent righ leg of second "R", bottom of second "C" planed.

Ink anomaly:  filled "o" in "Co."  This is like Fullerton's "smeared period" variety.  

The cancels below are the smaller type 2 and 3 varieties.  The type set of these cancels was also used on several other Burlington Route railroads, including the Hannibal & St. Joseph, the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, and the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern.  The typesetters of these cancels were a bit more careless than those for the type 1 cancels, as there are errors of punctuation placement that don't happen with the type 1s.  These varieties probably should belong in a new list?

Type 2, Comma after "CO"

Type 2, Comma after the first "R"

Type 3, No period after the "Q"

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad's Collectible Varieties

The CB&Q's precancels have seemingly endless variations, some more or less collectible.  This post features what I consider to be the unambiguously collectible varieties and for this post, excludes more ambiguous and transient varieties and varieties subject to individual interpretation.  

The first two variants are the most eye-catching, and as usual these are the varieties caused by errors during the process that printed the cancels on the stamps.  The first example is an inverted cancel; the second is a doubled cancel.

1 cent roulette with C.,B.&Q.R.R.Co. invert precancel

1 cent hyphen-hole with doubled C.,B.&Q.R.R.Co. precancel

This cancel looks very similar that the example provided by Fullerton in his list, though examination makes it clear they are slightly different.  I suspect this cancel came from the same sheet of stamps as Fullerton's example.

The four stamps below represent a single variation, one that repeats with great frequency on the battleship stamps with the type 1 precancel.  All four of the stamps below have a small, round, low period after the "Co" in the cancel.  These periods have a different shape than all the periods that preceed them on the same stamp; the normal periods are vertical rectangles, these are round, and significanly smaller.  They are also set much lower than the rectangular periods.  

Some years ago I acquired packets of HH copies of the type 1 cancel, totalling nearly 200 stamps, all apparently soaked from bills of lading by a single person, where roughly 25% of the precancels have the low, round period.  This is a consistent and regular variety, intentionally created by typesetters, who I would guess ran out of periods from their principle set of type since the CB&Q cancels used six periods each.  The typesetters made an executive decision to place the odd periods at the end of the cancels on multiple stamps rather than using all odd periods on a limited number of stamps.

In the next post will be discussed what I consider to be the less collectible varieties.

1 cent roulette; type 1 cancel with low, round period after "Co"

1 cent hyphen-hole; type 1 cancel with low, round period after "Co"

2 cent roulette; type 1 cancel with low, round period after "Co"

2 cent hyphen-hole; type 1 cancel with low, round period after "Co"

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad's Normal, Collectible Types

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad's precancels include six regular collectible stamps, that include three different cancel types.  The first type consists of large typeset letters, approximately 4mm high that read C.,B&Q.R.R.Co.  The second type consists of small typeset letters, approximately 2mm high, that read C.,B&Q.R.R.CO.  The third type consists of small typeset letters, approximately 2mm high, that read C.,B&Q.Ry.Co.

Type 1, 1 cent blue, roulette

Type 1, 1 cent blue, hyphen-hole

Type 1, 2 cent carmine rose, roulette

Type 1, 2 cent carmine rose, hyphen-hole

Type 2, 1 cent blue. "C., B. & Q. R. R. CO.", smaller font than type 1

Type 2 is only known to exist on hyphen-hole stamps

Type 3, 1 cent blue.  "C., B. & Q. Ry. Co."

Type 3 is only known to exist on hyphen-hole stamps

This is the rarest of all the regular CB&Q precancels

The CB&Q changed its official name to include "Railway" rather than "Railroad" after the CB&Q's acquisition by James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railroad.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Burlington Route

The Burlington railroads, or The Burlington Route, likely printed and used more precanceled 1898 documentary stamps than any other railroad group or single railroad.  Eight different Burlington railroads produced printed cancels, with many types and varieties stemming from those eight.  The following eight stamps represent the eight railroads that will feature over the coming weeks in a review of the collectible cancels from The Burlington Route.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, the mother road of The Burlington Route, with headquarters in Chicago.  There are three types of CB&Q cancels, and the railroad also precanceled two cent battleships.

Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska, the CB&QRR's mainline west of the State of Missouri.  The B&MRRR also precanceled two cent battleships.

Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Railway.  CB&KC precancels are quite scarce.

Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad.  CB&N cancels are rare.  

Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines Railroad.  This is the rarest of the Burlington Route precanceled stamps.

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad

St. Louis, Kansas City & Northwestern Railroad