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...