News Items for Members of the Machine Cancel Society

December 28, 2005

From time to time, information will posted on this page that is of timely interest. We hope that this method is quicker than waiting for publication of the Machine Cancel Forum. Non-members may also find these notices of interest.

Some of the following notices and comments were supplied by our past President, Bart Billings.

Bob Payne Obituary

Both our Society, and the entire collecting fraternity suffered a great loss with the passing of Bob Payne. Our Forum editor Alex Savakis has put together a tribute [PDF File] to Bob that describes his great contributions.

Machine Cancel Forum Articles Placed on Website

Starting on October 22, selected articles from the Machine Cancel Forum are appearing on the website. This will help provide machine cancel information to both our members and to the general public. Two articles recently posted include: NEW: Boston Eagle & Thunderbolt from the January 2002 Machine Cancel Forum
and... NEW: Four-Part Article on the Hoboken Eagle Machine from the January 2004 Machine Cancel Forum.

Publication Overstock Sale!

The Society is offering bargain prices on some publications that are overstocked. These publications will not be reprinted! See this page for a full listing.

New Book "A Century of Cancelling Machine Usage by the US Post Office 1900-2000"

The Society is pleased to publish this important book covering the century just past. See this page for more information.

Possible EKU for Camp Perry, Ohio Flag

Your webmaster has come upon a possible EKU for the Camp Perry, Ohio American flag cancel. The primary reason for the "possible" is the poor quality of many of these cancels. This one is missing the day, but the postcard message says that it is the first of September (1917) so that puts us pretty close. A scanned image is here.

Since this machine is quite uncommon, it is easy to display a list of all reported items here:

One item from 1917, month and day not clear
September, 1917, day not clear (Saw illustration, attrib. Billings)
September 7, 1917, month/day not clear
November 1917, day not clear (previously Ockun, 2 cent stamp)
November 2, 1917 (saw)
November 23, 1917 (have)
December, 1917, day not clear
December 7, 1917 (from Ockun list (1991))
December 10, 1917 (La Posta auction, day not clear)
June 17, 1918
June 21, 1918
June 26, 1918
July 15, 1918
August 10, 1918
September 5, 1918 (have)
September 20, 1918
October 2, 1918
October 3, 1918

Introduction of Compact Discs

The Flag Cancel Exhibit prepared by Bob Payne has been color scanned, and is now available on two CDs.

Never before has the Society offered any work in full color and on a compact disc. This is a first, and it is available from the Secretary:

Gary Carlson
3097 Frobisher Ave
Dublin, OH 43017.

The Price is $ 35.00 retail. Members can still obtain a copy for $25.00.

This terrific work of 464 pages is a must for any philatelic Library. It covers every aspect of Flag Cancellations, and provides historic information too.

Future Planning

Several New publications are nearing completion.

A book on Oklahoma Machine Cancels based on the Society's Database is in the final editing process. We expect to release this work before the AGM scheduled for OKPEX 2002 in May 2002. This will be the 2nd book to be offered on CD. And we are also planning to print this book in Color, another first time milestone. Thus, members will have two options, eliminating the black and white option. Of course, if one purchases the CD, the book can be printed on a regular black and white printer.

This is a pioneering work that others may use as an example, to extract Database Information from the fruits of Project 2000, and convert it to a document of interest to any history minded student.

Another Anthology (Number 7) has three article written by Bob Payne. Like the Oklahoma book, we are planning to release this publication in time for availability at OKPEX 2002.

The Free Publication to all members will also be distributed first at OKPEX 2002, and then to all others by mail. Reg Morris is writing this one, and it will be a treatise looking at the machines in use by the US Postal Service at the close of the millennium.

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