John Triggs

John has sent a scan of a large envelope from Guernsey Post Office to Germany in 1974. It has a GUERNSEY 3 perforated and gummed coil registration label which it is believed was used by the financial branch of the Guernsey Post Office financial branch for money transactions.

This example was used on the 26  June 1974, with a head office single circle type GCG0 26.5mm diameter date stamp, with a * code inserted. This was issued for use  on 1 October 1969 at postal independence.

Does any member have another example of the use of this label? Please contact John on guern1974@cwgsy.net.

The postcard illustrated below was franked with a 1948 Third Anniversary of the Liberation 2½d and a 1965 Churchill Commemoration 4d (on the first day of issue). The two stamps on the postcard are struck with the Type 1 date stamp, with a despatch date of 8 July 1965, and addressed to Miss F Flambard, Khyber, Les Baissières, The Vale, as the road running westwards has the St Peter Port-Vale parish boundaries through it.

A Type 1 registration label was issued for use from opening on 1 February 1952. Almost 1,400 registered letters were recorded but not many examples are   known to have survived. This sub-post office closed on the 8 July 1968 after only 16 years of serving this area of western St Peter Port.

Coincidently, the 8 July datestamp on the postcard for the first day of use of the Churchill 4d stamp is also the closure date of this sub-office.

Wanted by John Triggs – “Specimen Stamps and Stationery of Great Britain” by Marcus Samuel and Alan Huggins.  Please contact John by email at guern1974@cwgsy.net with cost and postage.

I have recently acquired a cover (Figure 1) sent from Jersey to St. Peter Port, Guernsey, which shows a 1d red brown (SG36) cancelled by a Jersey (J38) first type duplex canceller issued for use in Jersey in April 1858. The cover was despatched on 18 March 1860.

It can be seen on the reverse of the cover (Figure 2) that it was initially handed in at the St. Owens receiving house as it bears an example of the ST. OWENS undated double arc handstamp (Figure 3). This is the second undated double arc recorded from this office following Guy Dandoy’s excellent example, in turquoise ink, reported in Les Iles Normandes (December 2016, Volume 35 No.4).  To show the handstamp more clearly please see (Figure 4).

It is my view that this is an example of the first type of undated double arc as illustrated in David Gurney’s book, The Postal History of the Jersey Sub-Post Offices. My image does not seem as pronounced as the Type 2 version and, although it is not a particularly clear example, the arcs appear to be some distance away from the ‘Ss’ at the beginning and end of the office name.

To complete the picture, also on the reverse, is a Guernsey 19mm single circle receiving mark for 19 March 1860.

This is a particularly late example of the use of this handstamp as, with the growth of other services and a need for smaller datestamps, an instruction to Postmasters dated 17 March 1860 finally abolished the undated handstamps. In other words, this was probably used on the last day of validity.

With grateful thanks to David Winnie, FRPSL for his help in researching and compiling this article.

One of the lots I acquired in a CISS auction was described as a Jersey occupation cover from Jersey to Guernsey. Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that it was actually postmarked with a Type 3 datestamp from Beresford Street.

But the date slug reads 15 OO 43. Instead of OC for October it has OO.  I wonder if the C was beyond use, and no other slugs were available from the U.K. as replacements, or the O was just not altered into a C. Maybe it was just a genuine mistake! Does any other member have anything similar from this town sub-office? Also interesting is that it was addressed to Dr Symons, Fermain, Guernsey. Dr Angelo Symons was the States of Guernsey Occupation Controlling Committee Health Service Officer. He was born in Nelson, New Zealand, in 1875.

The PPL (parcel post label) illustrated below was illustrated in the Stanley Gibbons Channel Islands Specialised Catalogue, 1983 edition (page 185).

It is a MW-C6 type light green colour PPL-customs form with the type ‘E’ coat of arms. These types of labels were printed by Griffith & Co. from 1937 and were in use until 1970.   

A charge of 11d paid the postage rate for a parcel not exceeding 2lb in weight.  A King George VI 11d definitive stamp was used to cover the postage.

The customs dues were £1-12s-10d, covered with two 2d definitives, alongside  2/6d, 10/- and £1 values of the 1951 Festival of Britain issues.

All the adhesives were cancelled with the Guernsey type G31 23.5 mm diameter single circle datestamp, with the numeral 11 inserted at the top. The despatch date was SP 52 (September 1952), but no date numeral has been inserted.

Interestingly this PPL was sent by O.J. (John) Simpson (joint founder of the CISS in 1950), and the reverse was endorsed in manuscript, ‘payment for dues for tobacco sent from Guernsey to London’ by O J Simpson.

I was very pleased to acquire this registered cover (Figures 1 and 2) with a slightly different registration label which is not recorded in David Gurney’s book The Postal History of the Jersey Sub-Post Offices.  Used on    8 July 1970, I see that Guy Dandoy has another example shown on his website numbered 1570, used on the 20 July 1970. Thus, my example numbered 1458 used 12 days earlier suggests there are more in existence, and I will be most grateful to learn if any member has another example in their collection, providing details please.

In the CISS October 2023 auction I purchased a green parcel post label used in 1971 after Guernsey postal independence (Figure 1). After 1969, these labels had no Crown between PARCEL and POST. After the break from the British Post Office, a new procedure needed to be introduced. From 1 July 1971, the sender had to fill out a H.M. Customs form, but which was still similar in style to the labels in use from the late 1800s. The 35p postage rate in the top right-hand box is for a parcel over 6lbs and under 10lbs in weight. The customs dues are £6-16p and the clearance fee is 14p. My thanks to Nick Wraith and David Winnie for their help.

David Gurney comments that this is rare, but would any other member who has one of these labels please advise the Editor to help to determine its rarity?

Nick Wraith, comments that this is the first example he has seen of the “missing” crown of that type other than the poor example in Mackay which, of course, has “To cease” written on it. 

The postage rate of 35p on the above label is for a parcel exceeding 6lbs but less than 10lbs in weight. The 14p is in the wrong place as this is the Post Office Clearance Fee and the Customs Dues were £6.16. So in fact, the label would have had stamps to the value of £6.65 on it (35p postage, 14p Clearance and £6.16 Customs).