Precancels of Great Britain

This part of the web site is to consolidate information on GB precancels.

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The main point in these would seem to be the 'S' in a diamond. The examples I have seen have the outer ring of the Alcock & Holland version with the '71' in diamond
of the Dagnall & Chandler illustration. The '71', though being ostensibly Catford, according to Chandler & Dagnall, was the number
in the P.O. series allocated to the N.P.B. this would then follow '70' used on the precancels of 'The Times' newspapers.

Compare this to the 1886 wrapper (old style address) to H.M.S. Neptune at 'Mediterranean Station' illustrated on StampDomain (3rd cover down) using a 3d embossed and with the usual 'FB' cancellation.
This cancellation appears to be about 1¼" wide by 7/8" high (31.8 x 22.2 mm).
I will refer to it as Type-I, they appear to have been used on newspaper wrappers to Ireland and maybe Scotland.

This is another example of this precancel apparently dated 13 Nov 1875 (which is earlier than the date given by Hendy so I think it must be 1876 ?) with a clear '71' in diamond. This one is on a wrapper marked W.Mitchell & Co., 39, Charing Cross, London, S.W. (a Publisher) and posted to Londonderry, Ireland (again). This time the cancellation is complete (perhaps due to the unusual location) on a halfpenny red. This image was found on the GBPS Discussion Board but John does not remember it and suggests it may have been an auction lot.
The original picture shows it with a newspaper of the time which looks like it is dated 18th (or perhaps 13th) Nov. 1875).
was the newspaper a prop or are they both actually dated 13 Nov 1875 (earlier than the date of issue given by Hendy)?

Under the Act of June 30th 1855 which abolished Newspaper Duty, newspapers and periodicals could pass through the post for 1d under certain conditions. One of the conditions was that the wrapper should have no writing on it apart from the name and address of the recipient, the printed title of the publication and printed name and address of either the publisher or vendor sending it.
It is usual to see W. H. Smith & Son on the wrapper as the vendor, but below we see the name and address of W.Mitchell & Co., a publisher although with the W. H. Smith & Son precancel.
 

Certainly an interesting item, if anyone reading this has more information on it or knows its' current whereabouts, I would really like to know.

Another W. Mitchell example, again to Captain Cochrane, but clearly dated 27/5/79 and with an updated letterhead.
 
Click images for a larger version. These are courtesy of Michael Driver.

I am guessing that perhaps W.Mitchell & Co., had the same sort of arrangement with W. H. Smith & Son as
Grindlay & Co., had with Smith, Elder and then H.S.King & Co.
Perhaps W.Mitchell & Co supplied W. H. Smith & Son with their wrappers to deliver their orders.

This is perhaps more interesting. The date plugs say 1 October 1870, but the date on the cancel is frustratingly hard to read.
It is difficult to believe that W. H. Smith & Son was using six year old wrappers with the turnover they must have had, even if this is
another case of them using wrappers supplied by another company. Is Hendy really correct with his date of 1st August 1876 ?
Images courtesy of David (huggins3215 on ebay).

Other values found:

On 1d Brown	On 1½d Yellow	On 2d Blue	On 2d Lake

On 2½d Grey-Blue	On 4d Vermilion	On 6d Violet

On 1884 2d	On 1884 5d	On 1s plate 13	On 1887 ½d	On 2s6d	On 5s

I will refer to the small one as Type-II, and the large one as Type-III, they were used on 'Foreign' mail.
This is most commonly found on the 2s6d value. I have also seen it on four of the 5s value.

The other two types illustrated by Fernau are shown below, the first with 4-bar sections, the last with 5-bar sections:

4-Bar Type:

The similarity of the 'Fernau 2nd type', (which is the same as the illustration given by Alcock & Holland), and the Hendy version including the dates, suggests that they are intended to represent the same precancel.

Hendy uses this illustration when he says 'In August 1876, an arrangement was made with the firm of W. H. Smith and Son by which the postal authorities granted them the use of a special obliteration stamp to cancel at their own offices the wrappers of the newspapers which were sent direct to Euston Station for transmission by the early day mails on the London and North-Western Railway.'

The differences bring out two points; firstly, these illustrations were all hand-drawn and each was one of many such, F. Hugh Vallancey author of Billig's Handbook on Postmarks Volume 9 'British Postmarks' wrote in the preface "I wish to express my indebtedness to my daughter, who has drawn every postmark by hand ...".   Secondly, Hendy was writing a book published in 1909 and the illustration may be influenced by the type he was familiar with. There does also seem to be gaps in the official records.

I have not seen any examples of the 4-bar type.
I suspect it may be just a poor illustration of the type below, but I have not seen any of those earlier than 1894.

I will refer to the 4-bar type as Type-IV. There may be sub-types.

Again similarities and differences.
It would appear that there are lines each side of the date, but that they are sometimes very feint (see examples below).
I will refer to the 5-bar type as Type-V. There may be sub-types.
Compare the dates on the Type-IV and Type-V illustrations.

According to Chandler & Dagnall this type replaced our Type-I in 1891.

It looks like the Victorian one is the Fernau 3rd type, but the Edwardian one could well be the Mackay version.
This Type-V precancel appears to have been used on newspapers to Ireland and Scotland.


Here is a similar wrapper that I have obtained, addressed to the same person, dated '22 AU 02'.

That gives two examples, dated 22/8/02 and 8/9/02, then on 19/9/02 (again to the same person) we have the one below:

Interestingly the Eason & Son wrapper below is 255mm wide, whereas the one above is only 126mm wide.
It also has a Milled-Edge precancel instead (Letaillieur Type C8, Chandler Type 4b code 13). Note the offset showing through.
I find it puzzling that a wrapper sent ostensibly from Dublin to Cork has a London postmark !!!!

Either a 'London' postmark was being used in Dublin, or W. H. Smith & Son were in fact still sending out items on behalf of Eason & Son, using Eason wrappers.
If that is the case, the Type-V precancel above may in fact have been applied by W. H. Smith & Son rather than by Eason & Son.,
did the larger wrapper somehow cause a different mailing procedure to be applied?

The inner circle measures 20mm diameter. A virtually identical precancel with an inner circle diameter of 19mm
is recorded by the Perfin Society used with an 'R' perfin on a halfpenny vermilion dated 9 JY 9?

W. H. Smith & Son,     Type-I Precancel

W. H. Smith & Son,   Type-II  Small SS/F   from February 1880

W. H. Smith & Son,   Type-III  Large SS/F   from February 1880

W. H. Smith & Son,     Type-IV
NONE.

W. H. Smith & Son,     Type-V (1891?)

By 1905, W. H. Smith & Son were using the Milled-Edge precancels.
Also note the 1902 Eason wrapper above.

The earliest up until at least 1893.