Simplicity of design was the keynote and most of the dumb cancellers are roughly cruciform, the cross being either in relief or sunken. Other commonly found designs include a series of bars, circles or squares.

t is hard to trace the origin of cork cancellations unless they are found on piece accompanied by a datestamp. However, some are readily identifiable showing the initial of the town of origin. Thus there are “C” or “CT” for Cape Town, “EL” for East London, “P” for Paarl, “B” for Bedford and “HV” for Hanover. A circular or square frame sometimes encloses initials.

Many types are known and the illustrations and the study that follows here are by no means exhaustive.Stamps on covers are known to have been defaced with these Cork Obliterators, although this was unauthorised.

Only a few covers of this nature have been noted and they are rare.

Establishment Of Registration Section in the Cape of Good Hope

With the spreading of post offices around the country a Registered Letter section was established at Cape Town’s General Post Office to deal with this class of mail. By January 1854 the term ‘Registered’ was firmly established.

Registered Datestamps and handstamps in the Cape of Good Hope

The first registered Letter datestamp (RL1) was brought into use in the Cape of Good Hope shortly after 1854. It was, however, still necessary to write “Registered” on the cover until about 1863-64, when a handstamp (RL2) replaced the manuscript marking.

The numbering of such letters was essential and the postmaster initially wrote the number on the envelope, alongside his office datestamp. Special registration handstamps (RL3 to 5) were introduced from 1909 onwards to facilitate the numbering.

A large variety of both circular and oval Registered Letter datestamps (RL 6 to 20) were in use. The horizontal oval handstamps (RL9 to RL18) were in most general use in colonial post offices for canceling adhesives whereas the circular ones were mostly used for back stamping of envelopes.

Registration Receipts

Printed receipt forms, similar to those in use today, were available to senders a few years later.

Registration Fees

The registration fee was originally 6d. This was reduced to 4d in 1869 and to 2 ½ in 1897. Printed receipt forms similar to those in use today were available to senders of registered letters.

1855-65

6d extra per letter

1864

On foreign letters sent by packet via the United Kingdom to Austria, Germany, Prussia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, united States and all British possessions: 1s. To Russia and Poland: 1s. 4d. if not exceeding a half ounce and 4d. for each additional half-ounce. To France and countries to which correspondence is forwarded through France: an additional amount equal to the amount of British or foreign postage.

1869

Inland including OFS, Transvaal and Natal 4d.

1869-74

Charge for registering to any part of the colony, neighbouring states or the United Kingdom: 4d per letter, book, sample packet or newspaper.

1874-76

Compulsory registered letters: Letters containing coin, as well as having the word “Registered” written upon them, posted in the colony without registration, were registered and forwarded charged with a double registration fee.

1897

2 ½ d per letter.

The Board recommended the provision of ‘Particular Post Boxes’ for merchants, having noted the delay which took place in the delivery of letters to merchants, and in the confusion which arose by giving change to their clerks or servants in the hurry of delivery’.

The proposal was accepted and a notice was publishd two days later, enabling the establishment of this service in the Cape of Good Hope.

It is reported that by 23 January 1854, 55 merchants have rented private boxes at a rental of one pound per year. A rate that remained unchanged for more than 50 years! (See Post Office Receipt).

The earliest special stamp recorded for cancelling mail placd in private boxes (PB 1) appears to date from 1900. It consisted of a circle, 23 mm in diameter, with Cape Town at the top,the day, month and year in three lines in the middle, and with letters P.B.S. for Private Box Section at the bottom of the circle.

Two varieties of this stamp exist and they appear to have been used simultaneously. One with letters measuring 2 mm and the other with letters measuring 2.5 mm high. They were used by the private boxsection for many years after the advent of the Union in 1910.

A rubber datestamp, a tremble-lined oval (PB 2) was brought into use about 1903. It measures 37.5 by 25 mm and the day, month and year are centred. The words ‘Private Box Section’ appear in the uper portion of the oval, with the words ‘cape Town’ below. Above and below the date ornamentation consits of four dots and two dashes with a star at each side of the oval.

Unclaimed Handstamps

Handstamps with the words ‘Unclaimed at Private Boxes’ (PB 3 and 4) were issued by the private box section. These are found impressed in red, violet or black ink on all letters that the owners failed to claim. unclaimed letters were either handed to the Dead letter Office or the Returned Letter Office. PB 3 can be dated to 1905.

During 1882, facilities for the transmission of parcels developed rapidly and a number of datestamps were introduced (Goldblatt P1 to P4). Smaller post offices employed the datestamps used for stamps.

On 1st July 1888, the inland parcel post service was extended to all the colonies and states of South Africa and by 1890, parcels could be posted to virtually any part of the world. As the volume of the parcel post grew, so did the need for the introduction of new defacing implements. The first of these was a hand-operated roller (PRO 1) followed by similar deigns as shown in PRO 2 and PRO 3.

Another common way was for the postmasters to make their own cork cancellations for use on parcels. (see Cork Cancellations of the Cape of Good Hope).

At the beginning of the parcel post no receipts were issued for parcels. Receipts were only introduced in 1890. The sender was able to obtain proof of having posted a parcel on payment of a fee of 1d., but this receipt or certificate, as it was termed, was intended purely for information-no liability accrued to the post office in respect of any parcel dispatched. The receipt was valid only if franked with a 1d postage stamp, defaced by the post office from which the parcel has been sent. This requirement continued until the Union was formed.

The first of the Paid Stamps (PS 1) to denote prepayment of postage durig the adhesive period, was brought into use about 1870. It was cirular, with a diameter of 24 mm. It contains the words “Cape Town” and “Paid” within the circle with 1/2 d denomination at the centre. Golblatt records tha this was the only value used, the strike always being impressed in red, however, a 1d ‘Paid’ stamp of a similar design exists.This is illustrated below and referred to as (PS 1 a). The 1/2 d being used for postcards and the 1 d for newspapers.

In 1888 a new design (PS 2) came into use in the Cape of Good Hope. It was also of a circular design and had a diameter of 30 mm. It had the wording G.P.O. Cape Town ontop and in the middle, in large type the word ‘Paid’.In 1907 a similar design to Paid Stamps PS 2 and PS 3 this was issued (PS 3) with slightly smaller lettering and this had the date, month and year at the bottom. These types are found struck both in black as well as red ink.

Another postmark (PS 7) is, in the main, seen stamped on wrappers and circulars, but its use has also been noted on envelopes. The circle measures 27 mm and the upper numerals represent the day and the lower the month. Letters appear on either side of the postmark, but whether these have any significance beyond identifying the handstamp has not been established.

The roller cancellers (HRD 1 and 2) were intended to Cheap Rate Postmarkdeface stamps on newspapers at Grahamstown and were used for this purpose until 1864 or ’65, when they were replaced by the Barred Oval Numeral Cancellers, generally used for defacement purposes. The larger post offices were furnished with the cheap rate matter strikes described above. When the Newspaper Branch Office was established at the G.P.O., Cape Town, it was issued with a special datestamp. This, and future handstamps of its type (NP 1 to 5), incorporated the Letters N.P.B. for Newspaper Branch in their design. NP 1, the earliest handstamp in use, is a box with clipped comers. line. A special handstamp (NP 2) was used when the contents came adrift from the newspaper wrapper. It was struck on the wrapper and contained the information “Posted in N.P.B. without contents”. The first recorded use of NP 1 and 2 appears to be October 1877.

Other special datestamps (NP 3 to 5) issued to and used by the Newspaper Branch are similar in design to the normal defacing handstamps of various types but are distinguished by the letters N.P.B. in the lower section of the circle.

The Letters N.P.B.stand for News Paper Branch. Cape of Good Hope Newspaper Postal Rates used some more information on this postmarks can be found here.

Cape of Good Hope Telegraphs 1873

1873 Government Control

On the 1st July, 1873, the lines of the Company became the property of the Government by purchase for the sum of £41,123, under Act No, 18 of 1872, and from that date were worked by the Telegraph Department. (Until 16 February 1885, however, it remained a separate entity). At the time of the transfer the entire length of telegraph line in the Colony was 760 miles, with 16 Offices.

1883

The first South African Telegraph Union Convention was entered into between the Cape Colony, Natal and the Orange Free State in 1883. This agreement effected the abolition of the system of double inland rates for telegrams exchanged between the countries, parties to the Convention, and brought the tariff for such messages down to the level of the rates in force within the Cape Colony(The expansion of the Telegraph Services are largely attributed to the efforts of the then Postmaster-General the Cape of Good Hope Sir S R French).

1892 Telegraph Service Extended to Basutoland

In 1892 a Telegraph Service was inaugurated in the Crown Colony of Basutoland under the administration of the Postmaster-General of the Cape Colony; and in the following year the telegraphs of the British South Africa Company were also placed under the management of the Postmaster-General of this Colony, and remained so until the 23rd February, 1897.

1895 Incorporation of British Bechuanaland Telegraphs into Cape of Good Hope

By the annexation of British Bechuanaland to the Cape Colony in November, 1895, the telegraph system in that territory became a part of the general system of the Cape Colony.

1899

In 1899 the telegraph rates within the Cape Colony and to the Transvaal, Natal and the Orange Free State were
again revised, the rate being fixed at 1d. per word with a minimum charge of 1s.

1901

As a result mainly of negotiations initiated and carried through by this Department, considerable reductions
have been effected in the rate charged by the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company for cablegrams between South Africa and Europe. From the following table it will be observed that during the last ten years the rate has been reduced 50 per cent., and that, allowing for the extraordinary inflation of the figures covering the period of the war, the number of cablegrams forwarded from Government Telegraphic Offices in the Colony indicate substantial increase in the traffic since 1899.

Post Office Telegraphs of the Cape of Good Hope 1885

Post Office telegraphs were incorporated under the aegis of the postmaster general in 1885. A typical handstamp in use in the 1870s (TO 1) was oval and contained the words “Telegraph Office” and the place name in the upper and lower curves, respectively. The earliest types of dated strikes of the Telegraph Office under government control — but not yet under postal administration — are TO 2 to 6, and those from 1885 onwards, when the office fell under the General Post Office, are TO 7 to 10. (TO 11 and 12).

Telegraph Office

The country post offices of the Cape of Good Hope also used the telegraph datestamps somewhat indiscriminately for defacing stamps on mail. As a result, they were withdrawn and the normal datestamp used for dating telegrams. Some postmasters used the Barred Oval Numeral Canceller (BONC) for this purpose.

The head office in the General Post Office in Cape Town, however, continued using a special stamp for dating telegrams and adhesives canceled at this office can accordingly be easily identified. Although all the old telegraph forms were destroyed from time to time under the supervision of postal officials in terms of standing instructions, in several instances the stamps were first removed and thus escaped destruction. From about 1905 onwards, the Cape Town head office also used the ordinary datestamps to cancel the stamps on telegrams.

As regulations prohibiting the removal of stamps from telegraph forms were now more rigorously enforced, fewer stamps with telegraphic cancellations are extant. They are seldom seen and are usually on the 6d., Is. and 5s. values of the King Edward VII issue of the Cape of Good Hope. Telegraph offices were also established at railway station post offices and these (RTO 1 and 2) can be identified by the use of the letters R.T.O. for Railway Telegraph Office at the bottom of the postmark. (See Telegraph Office Markings).