Numeral Cancels by Simon Richards FRPSL

Introduction:

Adhesive postage stamps were not the only postal service innovation that Great Britain gave the world. The system of numeral cancellations effectively using a numeric code to identify the office where an item was posted, was introduced in Britain in 1844.

As the advantages of using adhesive labels to denote prepayment became apparent to other administrations in the late 1840’s and early 1850’s they decided to adopt the postage stamp themselves, often copying the coded numeral cancel system. Some of the designs are quite fancy and attractive and have added considerable interest to these early stamps.

In the June RPSL ‘Zoom’ Vice-President Simon Richards examines how the system was taken up across Europe and the Empire. The very success of the postage stamp and the lower uniform rates of postage dramatically increased the amount of correspondence going through the post and educational reforms led to higher levels of literacy further increasing demand for the service. In most countries there was an associated rapid increase in the number of offices and this posed challenges to the coded system which are examined.

Finally Simon looks at how numeral cancels can be collected and even exhibited.

Biography:

Simon Richards FRPSL has been a member since 1990 and a member of Council since 2016 and a member of the RPSL Expert Committee. He is an FIP International Traditional Judge with Gold medal exhibits in the Traditional, Postal History and Postal Stationery classes. His exhibit of British West Indies Maritime Mail was a Grand Prix Candidate at Hunfilex 2022. Simon is the current Chair of the ABPS Exhibitions Committee, a Stuart Rossiter Trustee, President of the West Indies Philatelic Study Group and Treasurer of the National Philatelic Society.