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Sorting through a few postmarks, I've found a cancel "SUPT MAIL, SYDNEY"

I'm guessing that SUPT may be an abbreviation of Superintendant.

Beyond that, no clues.

Anybody know anything more about this?

Cheers
Chris

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

Your Guess is correct, but beyond that I am not sure,what use the postmark had,
perhaps when Waroff awakes from his slumber in 3-4 hours he may know,

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Nunawading Stamp Fair
Last Sunday of Every Month - Jaycees Hall Silver Grove - Nunawading.

He's getting up early today then.....

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

will bump this up again so Waroff may see it.

He has been tired,, so perhaps he,s away to his bed early again.,,,

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Nunawading Stamp Fair
Last Sunday of Every Month - Jaycees Hall Silver Grove - Nunawading.

I have no idea, maybe a scan will put the pieces together.
Is it just a stamp or a cover?

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Waroff49

The last chapter of the Never_Ending Story is being written.

It's on a vertical pair of Orange Roos

Cancel looks like this:

http://www.postalhistory.com/photo.asp?url=AA440929

Looks as though it's "MAILS" rather than "MAIL"

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

Just a guess. Because it had been to the censor, it might have had to go the the BOSS to be cancelled or maybe the other way around- the BOSS gave it to the censor and had a special marker to say it had been through the Supt. Office.

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Waroff49

The last chapter of the Never_Ending Story is being written.

I'll have a look at mine when I get home and see if the date on the cancel is readable. If it's in the war, I think this may well be something to do with it.

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

And I haven't even had a beer yet......

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Waroff49

The last chapter of the Never_Ending Story is being written.

Here's mine as promised. The cancel looks to be 1943, so bang in the middle of the war.

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

This is a problem with just having stamps, you only get half the picture. Although on the other side of the stamp, they are much easier to store than covers.

Now the question arises- What(Who) was the Supt. Mail and what was his/ their function?

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Waroff49

The last chapter of the Never_Ending Story is being written.

Looks like there should be two letters after MAI

Hmm, after doing a bit of admittedly dodgy research, i will go out on a limb, by suggesting that the Supt. Mails had something to do with the telegraph, and may have been part of the PMG dept.

I base this on not much, except 30 mins on google and wikipedia

The link I posted a bit higher up shows the whole cancel, and shows that it's apparently "SUPT MAILS"

http://www.postalhistory.com/photo.asp?url=AA440929

Don't suppose anyone at AP might be worth contacting.

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

here is another one

3rd one down
http://www.stampauctioncentral.com/zl/zl82194.cfm




Skippy

Seems to shed more light on the connection between the censor and the Supt. Mail Office.

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Waroff49

The last chapter of the Never_Ending Story is being written.

I have spent a bit of time on the internet chasing this one. Can only offer the following :

Supt. Mails = Superintendent of Mails office. One was based in the Sydney GPO. Have found some names of people who held this office but no mention anywhere yet as to what its function was. There is, it would seem, to be a connection between the Supt. Mails office and censored mail. Conclusion = Wartime mail sent overseas was sent to the Supt. Mails office for censoring!! ... will keep searching for more on this subject .. ... Dave

Hi Dave,
Interesting theory. I've seen HUNDREDS of censor covers sent from all parts of Australia to many different overseas destinations and have only seen a few examples of this cancel.

Maybe the Superintendent of Mails was important enough to have his own postmarker, and could cancel his owm mail and send it straight to the sorting office?

Cheers
Chris

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Always on the lookout for Australian pre decimal First Day Covers.

Pom

Yes. Agree.
But why would only certain peices of the mails (such as those pictured above) end up on his desk? Why did they get 'special' treatment ? they must have been referred to him for some reason.. (or were they so shorthanded staffwise during the war that the Superintendent gave a helping hand!! Interesting one ... Dave

here's a reference to further Dave's idea

Skippy


------quote from website------------------------------------
Handling of mail from R.A.N. vessels
Regulations required the mail to be censored on board the ship. Once censored the letters were sealed and put in a bag which was sealed and labeled 'Navy'. This bag was delivered by hand to the superintendent of mails at a convenient post office near their berth together with a letter reading:

"In pursuance of the arrangement agreed upon between the Navy and the Postal Department of the Commonwealth of Australia the bag of ship's mail now presented should please be forwarded to its destination enclosed in a covering mail bag fastened and addressed in the same manner as ordinary bag of Letter Mail."

Surface mail and airmail were separately bagged GPO Sydney.

Much of this mail, especially airmail, entered the Australian civil postal system at Sydney where the bags were opened and sorted. Correctly franked mail was cancelled using either the PAQUEBOT machine cancel or the PAQUEBOT hand cancel but some mail was cancelled by civil machine cancel. Letters which were not franked with stamps were cancelled PAID AT SYDNEY and the cost debited to the navy.

No postal concessions in the navy

----------------end quote------------------------

http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/posta ... as-sydney/

This shows the beauty of Stampboards, I came across this stamp with unusual postmark, so looked up google "Supt Mails Sydney" Postmark and the very 1st entry was this 4 year old thread, thank you stampboards

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Donald.
Aus KGV Head Addict !

This is an extract from "Postal History of Sydney Vol 6" by Tobin and based on his comments, the usage of these CDS's is rare.




However, Wallen in "Australian Postmarks and Slogans, 1917-1979" page 20, shows a 'per favor' example of the earlier type (see below) dated 23 May 1942, but no detail.



This example is not censored and is a normal domestic mail item, but the date is unfortunately unreadable. It was posted in Sydney (most probably at the GPO) so should have normally been processed via the cancelling machines. It is possible that the stamp was not cancelled by the machine and this CDS was then used to cancel the stamp, although Sydney did have several other CDS's that were used for this purpose.

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Davo from Oz

Theres a Cover on ebay with Supt Mail Sydney postmark, and interestingly enough it is also dated 1943, like the others on this thread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1943-Censored-cover-to-USA-with-Supt-Mail-Sydney-cancel-/320587844230?pt=Australian_Stamps&hash=item4aa4864a86



Nice to see it so clearly on cover, though I still like my 2 bob Roo

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Donald.
Aus KGV Head Addict !