Nameless Postal Code Machine Cancellations : 1975 - 2000s

In 1975, Canada Post Office introduced a machine cancellation  in Toronto which  did not identify the post office by name but only by its postal code:

 

At that time Canada  Post Office was starting to consolidate mail processing at central locations. Mail from several post offices was transported to mechanized plants for cancelling and sorting. Instead of providing a geographical location of the processing plant in the machine postmark,  a practice carried out at United States facilities, Canada Post Office decided to  replace the mail plant's city name with the facility's postal code on the machine cancellation hub.

When first introduced, the loss of city identifiers in postmarks was unpopular among postal historians. Peter Wiedemann of the Postal History Society of Ontario, an early critic of the  nameless postal code  postmarks,  called them "idiot cancels". Today, almost forty years later, about two dozen processing plants handle most of Canada's mail and use postal code cancellations to postmark letters.

This post shows  the various types of postal code machine cancellations in use at processing centres and post offices from 1975 to the 2000s. (The current ink jet spray cancellations are also nameless cancellations but these postmarks have been described in an earlier posting and not included here.)

This article is organized as follows:

1. Pitney-Bowes Cancellers

2. Toshiba Cancellers

a) "Postes Canada Post" and Postal Code
b) "CANADA" and Postal Code

3. Klussendorf Canceller

4. International Peripheral System Cancellers

a) "Postes Canada Post" and Postal Code
b) "CANADA" and Postal Code

5. Pitney-Bowes, Toshiba and I.P.S. Hub diameters 

6. Toshiba and Ink Jet Spray Cancels applied in Sequence

1. Pitney-Bowes Cancellers

The first Postal Code cancellations to appear were those used on  Pitney-Bowes cancellation machines.The hub reads "POSTES CANADA POST" at the top of the circle with the postal code of the mail facility at the bottom of the circle. Hubs are 22 mm in diameter.

L2E 2L0

Niagara Falls

The seven-wavy line obliterators were only used on the Pitney-Bowes cancellers.

L73 2H0
Burlington




M1P 4T0
Toronto

 Slogan obliterator

7 wavy lines obliterator

Double Cancels

Machines were modified to cancel large envelopes.

a) Dated

L4W 1T0 

Missisauga

b) Undated

M4L 3T0
Toronto

 
circa 1979

2. Toshiba Culler Facer Canceller (CFC)

a) "Postes Canada Post" and Postal Code

The Toshiba CFS machines, introduced in 1975, could process 20,000 letters per hour. The canceller hub reads "POSTES CANADA POST" at the top of the circle with the postal code of the mail facility at the bottom of the circle. Hubs are 20 mm in diameter.

William Topping provides this description of the Toshiba Culler Facer Canceller (CFC) postmarks in "Development of New Equipment at the Vancouver Mail Processing Plant", PHSC Journal 93. March 1998 at page 51:

As with the earlier Pitney-Bowes RFCs (Raoid Facers Cancellers), the postage stamp on an envelope is located by the use of photelectric cells, and through the use of a series of belts, all envelopes are fed into the cancelling equipment inverted. Unlike the earlier equipment, the stamps are located in one of two positions, in the front (or lead) position or the back (or trail) position. The machine numbers appear on the hub in the upper left hand corner. The trail hub is identified by a small horizontal bar to the lower left of the hub.

The lead and trail hubs for M1P 4T0 (Toronto) are shown here:

 Toshiba hub 1 lead

Toshiba hub 1 trail

Slogans

Toshiba  machines were equipped with POSTAL CODE CODE POSTAL slogans, framed or unframed.

 Unframed

Framed

 An Olympic slogan was used by some offices in 1992.

Toshiba "Postes Canada Post" Hubs

[The above list may be incomplete]

b) Toshiba "CANADA" and Postal Code

In the early 1990s Toshiba cancelling hubs which read "CANADA" at the top of the hub instead of "POSTES CANADA POST" were introduced. In addition to the "Postal Code/ Code Postal" slogan obliterators, traditional slogan cancellation dealing with events and promotions were used.

 N5Y 1B0 (London) hub 1 lead

N5Y 1B0 (London) hub 1 trail

Toshiba "Canada" Hubs

[The above list may be incomplete]

Slogan Cancellations


CANADA'S GREEN PLAN/ LE PLAN VERT DU CANADA
ENVIRONMENT WEEK JUNE 2-8 1991
SEMAINE DE L'ENVIRONNEMENT 22-8 JUIN 1991

OFFICIAL OLYMPIC SPONSOR
COMMANDITAIRE OFFICIELE DES OLYMPIQUES

 

SAISONS 40 SEASONS
STRATFORD THEATRE

6e FESTIVAL DE
MONTGOLFIERS
GATINEAU, QUEBEC
93.09.06
6th HOT AIR
BALLOON FESTIVAL

WIN AN ATLANTIC
VACATION
1-800-566- 2827
GAGNEZ DES VACANCES
EN ATLANTIQUE
1-800- INF-EST

3. Klussendorf Canceller

The Klussendorf machine cancellations have been discussed in an earlier posting. Most Klussendorf hubs identify the name of the post office since these machines were distributed to small post offices. 

 

 Standard Klussendorf cancellation

The cancellation used at Knowlton, Quebec stands out because the dater does not have the town name nor the province. Instead, at the top of the dater is "Canada" replacing the post office name and at the bottom, where most Klussendorf hubs have the provincial or territorial abbreviation, is Knowlton post office's  postal code J0E 1V0 

Knowlton, June 2, 1995

"Canada" Klussendorf   hub used at Knowlton

4. International Peripheral Systems (IPS) Model MST Canceller

An earlier posting dealt with the IPS machines. IPS Model MST dater hubs are 25 m in diameter.

a) "Postes Canada Post"

L2R 3B0

St. Catharines

L4W 1T0
Mississauga

b) "Canada"

H3C 1S0

Montreal

September 24, 2004

J1H 1R0
Sherbrooke

July 30, 1991

J0X [to] K0A
Ottawa

 

July 29, 1991

M4L 3T0

Toronto

December 15, 1987

N8W 4W0

Windsor

March 30, 2011

5. Pitney-Bowes, Toshiba and I.P.S. Hub diameters 

Cancellation machines can be identified by measuring hub diameters.

6.Toshiba and Ink Jet Spray Cancels Applied in Sequence

In 1992 Canada Post introduced Optical Character Reader machines which were programmed to read the postal code on letters and apply appropriate bar codes representing the postal code.  The OCRs were equipped with Inkjet spray-on printers  to cancel mail processed by the OCR.

It was not uncommon for spray cancels to be applied overtop Toshiba postmarks. Letters that first went through the Toshiba CFC received a Toshiba cancel then when the letters passed through the OCR machine  an ink jet spray cancel was applied.
 ('Spray-On Postmarks", Dale Speirs, PHSC Journal 114, June 2003)

1994
V6B 3A0
Vancouver

1995
R3C 0J0
Winnipeg




1996
L4W 1T0
Mississauga


2003
H4T 1A0
Montreal

Sir Wlifred Grenfell

(This is an update of an earlier post)

Sir Wilfred Grenfell

On July 6, 1965, Canada Post Office issue a commemorative stamp to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, British sailor and medical missionary who founded a series of hospitals, nursing stations and orphanages along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts.

The Post Office press release provided this brief outline of Grenfell's accomplishments:

Wilfred Grenfell was born at Parkgate, England, in 1865. He was educated at Oxford and London Hospital and, in 1889, he joined the Mission of Deep Sea Fishermen which fitted out a hospital ship serving fishermen in the north Atlantic trade. Grenfell came to the coast of Labrador in 1892 and spent the rest of his life serving its inhabitants. He cruised the coasts each year in his hospital ship, and, in 1912, he founded the King George V Seamen's Institute in St. John's. Sir Wilfred retired from active work in 1935, but continued to work to raise funds for his welfare projects in Newfoundland and Labrador. He wrote a score of books, mostly on Maritime subjects. He was made C.M.G. in 1906 and K.C.M.G. in 1927. The stamp itself illustrates Sir Wilfred at the height of his humanitarian activities.

STAMP DESIGN

Approved Model

Designer : Harvey Thomas Prosser

National Archives of Canada

Issued Stamp

First Day Covers

Schering

H & E

Manitoulin Stamps

Chickering

Overseas Mailers

Canada Post Office Publicity First Day Cover

To Portugal

Rosecraft

Canada Envelope Company

Usages

Domestic Forward Letter

Kingston to Picton, September 13, 1965

5 cents forward letter rate

Domestic Special Delivery

Montreal to Vancouver, September 27, 1965

5 cents forward letter rate + 25 cents special delivery fee


Grenfell Mission Anniversary 1941 

On December 1, 1941, Newfoundland issued a stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Grenfell Mission  by Dr. Grenfell.

The cover was produced by the International Grenfell Association (I.G.A.) and mailed from St. Anthony, site of the Grenville Mission. An I.G.A. cancellation. was used to postmark the cover.

I.G.A. oval cancellation 

St. Anthony, December 1, 1941

I.G.A. Post Office Cancellation

The cover below was sent from St. Anthony to St. Martin, French West Indies, April 29, 1958.

The letter was postmarked at the I.G.A. Post Office, St. Anthony. It is unusual for an organization to have its own post office.

St. Anthony

AP 29

58

I.G.A. P.O. (International Grenfell Association Post Office)

Toronto "741" "821" and "821 A" Air Mail Handstamps

In the late 1930s, the Toronto post office applied a three-digit numeral handstamp on some air mail letters addressed to foreign  destinations. I have seen three different handstamps, "741" , "821", and "821 A" on covers mailed from 1937 to 1939 . Unfortunately I have been unable to find the reason why the numbers were used.

741 

The only 741 handstamp I have seen has serifed numerals.

 

 April 1, 1938 (Station "K")

Air mail to Curacao, Dutch West Indies

 

  May 26, 1939

Air mail to Tucson, Arizona

October 1, 1939

Air mail to Tacoma, Washington

821

The 821 handstamp exists serifed and sans-serif

Serif

August 11, 1937 (Toronto Station "A")

Air mail to Des Moines, Iowa

 November 8, 1937

Air mail to New York then South Africa

 

 December 15, 1937 (Toronto Station "A")

Air mail to Honolulu, Hawaii

Sans-serif

 

 

December 11, 1939

Air mail to Colorado Springs, Colorado

821 A

The only 821 A I have seen is a sans-serif handstamp.

October 31, 1939

 Air Mail from London, Ontario (Toronto transit) to London, England

September 8, 1939

Toronto to Bombay, India

821 A struck out with pencil

A Centennial Squared Circle Cancellation

In 1893, many Canadian post offices were supplied with a new postmark to obliterate stamps called the "squared circle".  The cancels, in use for about ten years,  consisted of horizontal bars with a circular centre containing the date and place of posting. Squared circles have been a popular area of philatelic specialization for many years.. Organizers of the 1967 Belleville stamp show QUINPEX produced a squared circle to mark the event held on October 14.. Since the cancellation was not supplied by the Canada Post Office it falls under the category of "cinderella" cancellation. Nevertheless, it's a great Centennial Year philatelic souvenir.

 

QUINPEX squared circle on show publicity leaflet

QUINPEX squared circle on cover

The QUINPEX squared circle was applied to the  first day cover below.  However, it is not possible to establish when the marking was applied.

 Belleville, January 11, 1967

Centennial commemorative stamp first day of issue