This is a listing of the different Queensland receiving office manuscript and other cancellations found on Queensland (Chalon, Sideface and Commonwealth) postage stamps. To find the receiving office you are looking for select from the alphabetical tabs above or the labels at the right.
While hundreds of receiving offices existed for various lengths of time, almost all did not use distinctly recognisable markings. Most receiving offices followed the instructions of either not cancelling the stamp but letting the first "Official" Post Office that the mail arrived at do this, or they followed a later instruction to write the receiving offices' name on the envelope or postcard near the stamp. To see this you would need the envelope or postcard.
However, if the letter was a "local" mail, that is used in the same town / area, then postage stamps were to be obliterated by lines drawn diagonally across the stamps with a pen and black ink, and the name of the office and the date written on the upper left-hand corner of the letter. This is where most of the crosses, wavy lines, names and initials come from. Occasionally this was applied to mail destined for outside the local area as well.
All identifiable manuscript cancellations are therefore extremely scarce and hard to find, with the possible exceptions of Cania, Mt Larcom, Parson's Point and San Jose.
The rarity rating, given this caveat, is Scarce, for the most commonly found cancels, Rare, and then Very Rare where only 1 or two examples have been seen by me. All covers and postcards (with the possible exception of Parson's Point) are extremely rare and desirable.
Information about the receiving offices comes from Joan Frew: Queensland Post Offices 1842-1980 and Receiving Offices 1869-1927, published in 1981. Stampboards material can be seen at the Queensland Receiving Office Manuscript Cancels on stamps page here.
Railway numeral cancellers were also in use for material sent by rail and using railway stamps. Sometimes these were inadvertently used for postal purposes, especially when the railway station and the post office was co-located. This usage has also been noted when the railway office was located with a receiving office, the use of the railway numeral being the only implement on hand to cancel postally used items.
The postal use of railway cancels is covered in my Queensland Catalog of Numeral Cancellations on Postage Stamps here and therefore I have not duplicated this usage in this blog
However, if the letter was a "local" mail, that is used in the same town / area, then postage stamps were to be obliterated by lines drawn diagonally across the stamps with a pen and black ink, and the name of the office and the date written on the upper left-hand corner of the letter. This is where most of the crosses, wavy lines, names and initials come from. Occasionally this was applied to mail destined for outside the local area as well.
All identifiable manuscript cancellations are therefore extremely scarce and hard to find, with the possible exceptions of Cania, Mt Larcom, Parson's Point and San Jose.
The rarity rating, given this caveat, is Scarce, for the most commonly found cancels, Rare, and then Very Rare where only 1 or two examples have been seen by me. All covers and postcards (with the possible exception of Parson's Point) are extremely rare and desirable.
Information about the receiving offices comes from Joan Frew: Queensland Post Offices 1842-1980 and Receiving Offices 1869-1927, published in 1981. Stampboards material can be seen at the Queensland Receiving Office Manuscript Cancels on stamps page here.
Railway numeral cancellers were also in use for material sent by rail and using railway stamps. Sometimes these were inadvertently used for postal purposes, especially when the railway station and the post office was co-located. This usage has also been noted when the railway office was located with a receiving office, the use of the railway numeral being the only implement on hand to cancel postally used items.
The postal use of railway cancels is covered in my Queensland Catalog of Numeral Cancellations on Postage Stamps here and therefore I have not duplicated this usage in this blog
