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I saw this while browsing through GB used in Malta listings on eBay:


Sg 47 2d Blue Plate 13. A fine used example with Malta Box cancel, very unusual



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290734720330

Seller: avp-ltd
Buy it Now at £125

Has anyone seen this type of cancellation (not necessarily on a GB stamp) as I have never seen this cancellation on any stamp/cover.

The only listed cancellations on GB stamps used in Malta are the 30mm MALTA double ring, the wavy lines cancellation, and the various M and A25 types.

Does anyne think it is forged? The "MALTA" looks suspicious to me.

What are your opinions on this item?

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My wantlist for Malta Revenues

Although the image is dark, the postmark at left appears to be a barred numeral from GB.
The one to the NE side appears to be a French dotted lozenge or similar, possibly with a number 21 or 17 at SE corner.
The boxed MALTA may be French (although it's not in my Ceres 1998), or it could be something added by a carrier en route.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

Interesting cancel.

If I needed to take a guess, that guess would be the cancel was metal, and struck at least 100 years back. AND that the Boxed MALTA was part of the lozenge like cancel - the aged oil based ink bleed and placement seems to point to that.

VERY crude work all round though, and hard to imagine anyone making a steel fake at the time, and not making many.

The GB cancel might well be a normal GB style vertical "A25" often seen on these 2d.

Doesn't help us much. I am MOST surprised if kosher PO, it is not recorded in the literature?

We will be in Malta for a few days, in a month or so, en-route to Heligoland (literallt) so I'll ask around.

With that close-up, the dots from the (French?) lozenge cancel are not beneath or over the boxed MALTA which does indeed look metallic.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

No it is clearly all the same device Ian .. crude as can be - but why was it made?

Looks dubious (as the seller points out) -- very crude lettering, and as you say, if it was known it would probably be listed. The only potential genuine usage that springs to mind is a packet boat canceller, although they're not my thing -- and even then, a French Mediterranean packet would surely spell it "MALTE"?

Thanks for your opinions.

A quick look through Grosvenor's prices realised for Malta didn't yield anything either (although I might hve missed something as I didn't look through all of the lots):

http://grosvenorauctions.com.cluster.cw ... lta&page=1

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My wantlist for Malta Revenues