2003 Endo-Koseki study on cancels ...

this is a signifigant collection that all japan collectors should appreciate ... it is available online.
I am surprised the JPS did not decide to edit and produce a monograph on the subject.

the chart below, details the number of cancels reviewed by JPS 2008 handbook groups...

the lower numbers reflect the early period of dragon and cherry blossoms; to roman letter foreign mail.

signifigant to specialised collections are the number of imitative cancels in each group.   the city "letter" cancels are complex as many types appeared, as well as many imitative cancels.

generally, all FM cancels were reproduced, and are dangerously close to genuine...  in each case, the value must be authenticated against a genuine unused copy.   the imitations below show fancy cancels that predate the koban period ... 1876-1899

this occurence and others points to outsourcing of serigraph work to subcontractors ...  maeda would offer paper and screens to assistants for production orders ...  not being expert philatelists, they quite often juxtaposed the incorrect cancel screen to the sheet ...

the study is online via the blog link :"the kobans stamps of japan"

note : group 215 denshin offers the least imitaions of koban era.

a new 5sen sheet discovered ...

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a new 5sen sheet discovered offers again 25 new positions ... I am appending these to my spiro study ....

historically, little has been written to describe these woodblock koban sheets ... analysis of the 15 spiro koban sheets has revealed some interesting patterns ... I have compiled results with images and rationale. it is also a collectors guide: pdf album pages for each value and anotated catalog of 340 positions...


to enjoy the full experience of CD, be sure to download Picasa3 ... to view the image library.   some positions remain unallocated ... and I am always looking for new ones !    registered users receive free upgrades ...  anyone who sends a signifigant number of spiro imitations can trade for the study - otherwise.

FAKE cancels.

NUJIMARU STUDY - TOURIST SHEET KOBAN IMITATIONS

 

 

USPA Japan 1864-1875 ...

the excerpt is from robson-lowe pamphlet - Riddell  n.d.    interesting observation for cancel specialists ...

MAEDA 50sen varieties ...

Maeda Kihei formed these imitations from woodblock, then transferred the 5x5 value to a serigraph...
there is some shade variety ... also note 3 items offer an ovpt that was unknown until 2012.  see enlargement ...

the origin are the K series sheets, outlined in monograph 17 of the ISJP .

prints are also known cancelled ...

MXC screens ... and rotation

the reports of common cancels has dominated the koban repro-plate design and printing for some time ...
Kristian Wilhelmsen  began a cancel study in his 1981 study ... in 2003, the Endo-Koseki study was signifigant in extending this research ...   compiling and analysing the art-repros  is fascinating.

an important screen technique used by maeda - was screen rotation, or inversion ...   as a collection is formed,  the actual MXC set - or positions can be reduced by respecting serigraph screen rotation.

  by example, the most common bota is the 5-band tokio ...   forms are 2BB or 4BB ... 2nd or 4th band broken ...  4BB = 2BB inverted

kobans ... and trading

I specialise in koban imitations and foreign mail cancels ...   botas in particular. please enquire...  if you have material to trade, please contact me ... 

UFM ... unidentified FM cancels ...

over many years, I have encountered some cancels that are unclassified - JPS 2008 handbook ...
however,  viewing the US fancy cancels on the Kodera site, and relating finds to the FM obliterators Bryan brought to japan ... one can solve some examples ...

the problem then becomes, assigning them to a PO ... or finding them on an entire.  in weeks ahead, I will post some examples ...

1879 yokohama 20mm thimble ... 2 forms

    note the JPS roman cancel shows serifs on date ...   the entire below, shows date /wo serifs ... this can only mean 2 daters were active. my assumption : dater for receiving mark; and duplex canceller for outgoing ...  however, ....  here are adhesives with the 18/9 receiver :

in returning to original nishino study, basis of 2008 JPS handbook ... I discovered the duplex -  since 2 were active, did something happen to the serif dater ??

outgoing FM duplex

incoming FM transfer mark  18/9

it exists also /wo break in 7 ...

JPS letter cancels on foreign mail ...

the tokio JLB or large bota is listed in the table below, as it does appear as duplex cancel on foreign outgoing mails.   generally, sorting these requires some patience and skill ...  many  also exist as imitations ....    when bidding on items, please bear this in mind - get to know the existing imitations.

Tokio botas ...

From Japanese kobans 1876-92

this is an example of a Meiji Tokyo bota and n3b2 nujimaru or double circle cancel ... a.k.a. duplex cancel ... during the early period of the IJPO the foreign mails were handled by a separate FMPO in the city ... in modern times, with routing procedures and labeling, substations in the tokyo district can now handle foreign mails ... the JSCA catalog features the above and a reverse image form of the bota ... surprisingly, the 2008 cancel reference does not go further ... many substations used the TB form as an obliterator ... on imitation kobans - there exist 2 cancel forms ....

Horst Mueller of Japan, is a lifelong koban specialist. we share a common passion ... Horst has hosted a site "Kobans" for many years ... within the bota section, he shows the many forms of specialised TBs ... do visit ...

2009, JPS offered a new monograph by M Sawa on this era...  

meiji portraits ...

the lepach site in germany is unique ...  follow the postal history pages...   he links the postal covers and postcards to biographies of the sender-recipients ...

readers should assist the author with new items of postal history.

determining if false ... (faux)

1. imitations show irregularities in the frame lines. (askew)... using metrics software I have discovered V/H variances between positions ... i.e. no standard size exist as genuine.
2. compare image to that of genuine example ... and look for sanko marks ...
3. TC : torn or cut perforations :  no booklets were issued; imitations often show cuts to perfs.
4. multistrike cancels are rare on genuine, more common on reproductions
5. negative image :  the genuine inks are more transparent, than imitations (opaque) ...  look for extraneous dots from tooling or air bubbles in ink on imitations

15sen /w denshin ... genuine or imitation ? "demmukyoku denpo chosa sho"

fig 1

fig 2

 

florian eichhorn replied ...

This 15 S. NK is a genuine stamp. The top left mark is a non-postal reddish-brown bisected circle. The bottom right black cancel is one of the "telegraph business telegram control dept." (demmukyoku denpo chosa sho ) which checked the telegraph forms for :

a. correct postage (and sued the senders in case, which had to pay the missing amount on special "telegraph supplementary charge forms".

These forms come in native and roman letter styles and are very scarce.

b. weak cancels and placed its marking in case. Shape is like an extra-large telegraph double circle. The text of the cancel is "demmukyoku

denpo chosa sho" with a period . in-between. A bisected circle with the same text was used, too. Both cancels were used simultaneously and

are uncommon.

There is also a large telegraph double circle with the text "demmukyoku dai1ka" or "telegraph business office No. 1 dept."

A "koban postcard blog" had a comment on it, stating the dept. was newly formed in 1891.8.12 when the "demmu kyoku" got divided in two sub-divisions, one "correspondence" and one "engineering". The former was the "telegraph business telegram control dept.", the latter a "electricity experimental dept."

Pictures enlarged

A blog on telegraph double circles gives more details re. the administrative reorganizations, and shows more examples of this large double circle and also the bisected variant:

He also states:

- telegraph double circle style (large) latest known date 26.5.28 (1893, taken from the weak bisected circles); 

- bisected circle style earliest known date 25.9.26 (1891)

The top row shows the well known small size telegraph markings with the inscriptions:

"naishinkyoku dai2ka" (domestic correspondence office No. 2 dept.) resp. "komukyoku ikka" (engineering office 1 dept.).

These are probably forerunners of our large double circle resp. bisected circle.

Stamp pictures with the large telegraph double circle:

UPU koban 5 sen has the "demmukyoku dai1ka" inscription.

NK 15 sen has the "demmukyoku denpo chosa sho" inscription. Same as Your copy.

here I compiled a 100% cancel ...

MAEDA 50sen CCCC ...

the 50sen shows cuts to perfs on all sides

an M2 (maeda) imitation...

old kobans were first offered as sets on the K-series tourist sheets

a few survive as obliterated singles