Cover of the Month -- July 2006
Inverted Dial (Kinda)
by Bob Swanson
This cancel was a surprise on the back of
an eBay purchase. I was buying the postcard artwork
for my WW I collection, and had not seen the
back. Now, inverted dials for the Universal
machines are known to collectors. I have a few
or have had them reported for the Universal machines
used at the military camps.
The inverted dials I've seen before, however, display
an entire dial inverted, date slugs and
all. I guess the postmark dial mechanism could easily
be put into the machine either way up. In this case, however,
the time and date slugs are the right way
around, but the outer dial with the city
and branch are inverted! Further evidence of this
incorrect placement is that the dial wear
that usually appears at the right of the dial is
on the left instead!
This example just shows that
you never know when you will be surprised
by something new in the world of collecting.
I wonder if there are other covers out there that display
the clerk's (several?) attempts to get the dial the right
way around.
Please email comments to author. Bob's email
address (in plain English) is:
rds <at> swansongrp < dot > com
Feedback always welcomed on our pages!
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