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New NYFM Discovery on National Issues
For collectors of New York Foreign Mail (NYFM)
cancellations on the Banknote issues, one of the great thrills is the
pursuit of new, previously unidentified and unpublished killers.
The thrill is especially great when a new killer is unusual or fancy.
(Many new varieties of NYFM grid and wedge killers continue to
surface.) USCC member Dan Richards has recently written
an articles for the News describing an interesting new type.1
I, too, have previously written on this topic.2,3
This article reports a new and obviously scarce NYFM killer.
(The two covers pictured below represent the only reported examples of
this new killer and currently reside in the collection of noted NYFM
collector and USCC member Nick Kirke.)
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows a 10 cent National issue (Scott
#150) tied by a VF strike of an unlisted, fat rounded cross killer on folded
letter sheet to
Cuba. As with many NYFM killers canceling mail to
Mexico and the Caribbean, the killer appears to be duplexed
to the NEW YORK
postmark. A blue E. Churchill & Co. forwarder’s hand stamp
verifies a DEC. 21, 1872 usage.
Figure 2
Figure 2 shows an example of the new killer, this time in a
simplex format, canceling a 6 cent National stamp (Scott #148) on cover to
Germany. The red NEW YORK
PAID ALL DIRECT routing postmark at upper right is dated DEC 14 (1872 as
confirmed by receiving back stamp), a date
consistent with the DEC 21 posting of the Figure 1 cover.
This short separation of dates is also consistent with the obvious scarcity of
this killer.
Figure 3
Figure 4
Enlarged images of the killer in Figures 3 and 4 both clearly show
elements common to the killer’s design. The cross has three
interior curves between branches, but the fourth appears to be gouged out,
giving the inside of the cross an irregular shape. Three of
the cross branches appear to be flared at the end. However,
the branch to the left of the gouge appears to lack these flares.
The killer’s design suggests that it started out as a simple circular
cork or wooden dowel. The cross segments probably are the
product of removing similar circular cuts from the edge of the original killer.
Nick Kirke describes this cancel as a 4 spoke radial with flanges at the
top of each radial. His representation below assumes a balanced
design of regular curves and flared branches.
Figure 5
Readers are invited to comment and to report additional on
or off cover examples of this killer.
1 Richards, Dan, “Newly Discovered
New York Foreign Mail (NYFM) Cancel,” U.S.,
Cancellation Club News, Vol. 28, No. 7 (264), August 2007
2 Valenti, John, “New York
City Cancellations On Circulars and Printed Matter, 1870-1878, Part
III: Newly Recorded NYFM Cancellations on
New York Circular Mail to Foreign Destinations,”
U.S., Cancellation Club News, Vol. 23, No. 1 (216), January 1995
3 Valenti, John, “A New NYFM Cancellation
Discovery,” U.S., Cancellation Club News, Vol. 23, No. 1 (216),
January 1995