A Century of Cancelling Machine Usage

January 14, 2003

A Century of Cancelling Machine Usage by the US Post Office 1900-2000 By Reg Morris

Available NOW!

"Over the last forty years this Society has been studying postal machinery with the goal of documenting the history associated with this fascinating hobby.

"Actually, it has become more than a hobby for many of us. We have routed out information on the what, why, and how of these machines, studying the people behind the companies, and detailed designs and operations of the machines. We have gathered annually to share our findings with other avid members of this Society, and we have persisted in the pursuit of new specimens to substantiate information that has been garnered from official records and from our own sometimes intuitive assumptions. We have lost some of our partners over the years, but their efforts are now forever memorialized in the extensive documentation we've accumulated over these years. Their accomplishments are a part of the many publications describing applications the postal markings, the machinery designs, the many manufacturers, and the different applications of this postal machinery that has become such an integral and important aspect of our life during this last century.

"This publication is a treatise that reviews more than a century of progress and may be the culmination of everything we've achieved in the past or may achieve in the future. Reg Morris has summarized the social, political, and philatelic aspects related to the development of mail-handling machinery over the last 100 years and has challenged the reader to think what the future may portend. A monumental task, but done so expertly as to make this publication a marvel. The detail is at a level that doesn't miss any of the important facets, but still holds the reader's attention from page one to the end. The story told is compelling, and accurately documents the relevant history of the entire century.

"The charts are only the 'icing on the cake', but do give readers a new reference to measure the next Century. All the machines and their markings, used in the early years of development that have intrigued our minds are truly in the past. The listing of machines on hand at the end of the [Twentieth] Century shows only a modest number of these small machines. The end of an era is at hand. Never shall we return to the days when our mail was postmarked by small, hand-driven devices."

April 2002

[Bart Billings, President 1999-2002
Machine Cancel Society]

If you have every wondered how a machine cancel guru can look at a different cancel OR two cancels that appear to be the same, but identify the one as being from a experimental or limited machine application, the answer is NOT a type chart BUT information on how the machines are used and tested. Knowledge is power. This book will not identify machine cancels. Rather it will give you knowledge on how the machines developed and how they were applied. $20 retail, $15 to members.
Order from Secretary:

Gary Carlson
3097 Frobisher Avenue
Dublin OH 43017.

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