Belguim Handstamp Precancels

The following is reprinted from the The Precancel Forum.

Some Things worth knowing concerning the Belgian handtype precancelled stamps.

Before starting to catalogue all up to now known Belgian handtype precancelled stamps, the composers of this Vademecum think it worthwhile to pay some attention to the weal and woe of the precancels.

The Brussels Precursors

Due to the fast development and the great expansion of the railway-system at the end of the previous century, the Postal Service had the opportunity to transport the handed-in post quickly to the station of destination, enabling also an earlier delivery to the addressee in comparison with former times. This was not only of great interest for delivery of letters, but also for the publishers of periodicals, especially newspapers.

One was thinking of other measures to have activities done before mailing like e.g. addressing, affixing of stamps and cancelling these stamps by the Postal Service, executed in such a way that they would not delay the actual mailing. It was allowed in Brussels in Dec. 1893 to use a special "newspaper-cancel", without indication of the hour.

With these "newspaper-cancellations" stamps affixed on address-slips could be precancelled so that the newspapers could be brought direct from the printing office to the railway-station. So it is not sure, but possible, even probably that stamps with "newspaper-cancellations" are precancels. Daily the date, besides monthly (shortened) month indication (4 characters) and once a year also the (shortened) year indication of this newspaper stamp had to be changed.

Cancellations are known of this kind without year indication, but with a black rectangle just before the date (fig. 3). During 1910 this stamp got a bilingual inscription (fig. 4) with the Flemish text at top. Mid 1923 the Flemish and French inscriptions shifted in such a way that French came on top (fig. 5). This stamp has been used until 1925.

The Precancellation in a Rectangle

Immediate after introduction of the newspaper cancellation the demand arose for a stamp fitted to precancel stamps meant for the mailing of mass-publications other than newspapers like e.g. advertising matter, catalogs etc. In Oct. 1894 a roller stamp was introduced in Brussels with which complete sheets of stamps could be cancelled quickly at the Post Office. This meant the birth of the real precancellation!

This precancellation consisted of only the name of the town (in French) and the year in a rectangle. Hereafter, in running text, this will be written as follows BRUXELLS/1894.

This roller stamp, in French called "roulette" was in fact no roll (cylinder) but a pentahedral prism (with flattered edges) mounted revolving in a fork with two teeth. The shaft of these fork is provided with a handle. This roller stamp had no supply of ink, so that it had to be inked on an ink-pad.

The rectangle outlining the name of the town and the year measures 18 x 14 millimetres. The distance between the (long) sides of adjacent rectangles is 5mm. The long sides of later stamps are sometimes a little bit longer and well about 20mm.

A stamp with the year indication 1894 has been supplied successively with the town names BRUXELLES, ANVERS, LIEGE, GAND and LOUVAIN. The cancels GAND/1894 and esp. LOUVAIN/1894 have been used very shortly. In the course of years this roller stamp has been supplied to in total 107 towns or Post Offices, the last one to LANDEN with the year 1930.

It can be noticed that there are not known precancels with the inscriptions:

GRAMMONT/GEERAARDSBERGEN (no guarantee for the proper spelling), although Hanciau in his publication "La Poste Belge et ses diverses Marques Postales, 1929" (The Belgian Postal Service and its different Cancellations) indicates the existence of this precancellation on nr. 81 with the years 1910 and 1911.

In the year 1930 the country-wise, machine-printed precancelled stamps, also called typo's were taken into use. Nevertheless there have been used handstamps in some towns. Known are: BRECHT/1931, BRUXELLES/1931- 1938/BRUSSEL, LEUVEN/1931/ LOUVALIN, RONSE/1931/RENAIX, and TOURNALI/1931/DOORNIJK.

At the turning of the year the year-indication of all roller stamps had to be replaced by those of the new year. Of course it was not possible to arrange this action for all Post Offices in the first days of January, even January was to short for doing so. Therefore it was allowed to use in the months of January and February of the new year to use the roller stamps with the old year-indication.

Because the precancelled stamps were typically meant for the prepayment of mass publications, the minimum quantity which had to be bought from the Post Office was rather big viz. 1000 pcs. Besides this only stamps with a low nominal value could be precancelled, in the beginning only the 1 and 2 centimes stamps.

The Position of the Precancellation

Of course there are, when precancelling a sheet of stamps in lines or columns, four possibilities for the position of the cancellation (fig. 6-9). It is generally accepted to indicate the four positions as follows:

Position A - vertical text, legible from left to right (up)

Position B - vertical text, legible from right to left (down)

Position C - horizontal text, normally legible (normal)

Position D - horizontal text, inverted (invert).

Of rare occurrence are diagonal precancelled stamps (fig. 10 with LEUVEN/1919/ LOUVAIN on 135 type 1). In this case the direction of the cancelation when normally legible is indicated in this Vandemecum.

Most of the precancelled stamps have position A or B. Cancelling in this direction gave the postal clerks the least quantity of work because the dimension of the small side of the rectangle, together with the distance between two rectangles is practically the same as the width of the normal stamps, so that there is one cancellation per stamp. In practice this cancellation will not often be so good centered on the stamps but more or less shifted.

In case the postal clerk cancels columns then there will occur, because of the greater height of the normal stamp in comparison with the width at least a part of the next cancellation on a stamp. On the stamps with appendix nrs. 53-109 it is possible to print two rectangles and one inter-space on one stamp.

It is generally assumed that precancels in position C and D have been placed practically only on request.

It follows as a matter of course that because of the lack of ink supply, the shaft had not to be held in the hand in only one position. By simple turning of the shaft in the hand, so by turning over 180" a cancellation in position B changed into one of position A.

Double precancellations will not be mentioned as far as both cancellations are in the same position. But in case of opposite directions, they will be listed. This is also the case when connected stamps have singular precancellations in different positions.

Precancelled stamps with an additional cancel e.g. a round stamp, those of the savings-banks, a cancel REBUT (in many shapes) or a cancel TERUG AFZENDER/ RETOUR A L'EN VOYEUR (Return to sender) whether or not in a rectangular (also in many shapes) may occur.

As far as these cancels are real (which is practically always the case) an additional cancel gives a guarantee for real postal use of the relative stamp.

This might be usefull when distinguishing the so-called "De Seck-stamps (see later on) or falsifications. Although in general a second cancel diminishes the price of a precancel considerably, it gives a great guarantee about the genuiness of the precancellation.

Irregular Use of the Roller Stamp

Because of the lack of a neutral stamp like the Dutch one: 'POSTERIJEN", the Belgian roller stamps have been used sometimes to cancel foreign uncancelled stamps. Normally the savings-bank stamp was used (fig. 11).

The roller stamp LIEGE/1897, position D is known on the stamp: Guatemala nr. 62, 1 ct. black on grey paper Exposivion Centro-Americana 1897.

Short after the First World War (1914-1918) in the city of Hasselt abig lot of printed matter had to be mailed. As a roller stamp for the current year was not available, but the pre-war roller stamp with the shortened year indication 14 was still there, this roller stamp was used on sheets of the stamp nr. 135 type I. This explains the occurrence of the precancellation HASSELT/14 on a stamp, issued in 1915 for the first time.

Something like this happened with the stamp ROUX/14. Further the cancellation ROUX/12 has been used on a stock of still available, but already for years out of course stamps nr. 27, 2ct. ultramarine, year of issue 1869.

In above cases one can speak of an irregular but indeed normal postal use of the roller stamp.

It has been established that a number of already handed in roller stamps have been "borrowed" out of the Depot of the Postal Services, where they were kept. That this "borrowing" took place to take the "advantage" goes without saying, the more so as in the second half of the thirties an increasing number of stamps with precancellations of small and even tiny towns emerged, which had used the roller stamps rarely. In this connection the name of Mr. De Seck was mentioned. The relative stamps are nowadays known as the: "De Seck-stamps". These stamps have never been postally used, but are private journey-work using real "borrowed" roller stamps on real stamps. In case of the user of this Vademecum is confronted with precancellations of tiny towns with (usually) the latest year in four positions on all current stamps with low nominal value there will no doubt among them occur "De Seck-stamps", so journey-work.

Strictly speaking we should not collect this journey-work but one cannot be certain that the relative stamp is journey work. It goes without saying that one should not pay too much for probable "De Seck-stamps".

It is worth knowing that in 1945 it was proved to be journey-work by finding a precancel OOSTENDE/OSTENDE and on the back a clearly legible image of ROESELARE/ROULERS (see article of Mr. F. Blom called: "Complaisances" in the Durch periodical: "De Postzak" nr. 29, October 1953, page 4.)

Many years later, in July 1974, Mr. De Groot of The Hague found a stamp nr. 193 provided with two cancellations viz. NAMEN/1929/NAMUR position C (unclear) and also BRAINE-L'ALLEUD/1929/EIGEN-BRAKEL in position A (heavy). One month later the author of this article found a stamp nr. 246 with a precancellation BRUGGE/ 1929/BRUGES, position B (weak), together with BRAINE-L'ALLEUD/1929/EIGEN- BRAKEL position B (heavy).

Up till now about 10 stamps with double precancellations of BRAINE-L'ALLEUD/ 1929/EIGEN-BRAKEL combined with another town name (sometimes illegible but in any case another town) have been found. After all these discoveries it is now definitely established that the roller stamp BRAINE-L'ALLEUD-/EIGEN BRA-KEL has been "manipulated". In case of "De Seek-stamps" it is clear that one can speak of irregular and non-postal use of the roller stamp.

Precancellations on Charity-stamps

If we realise that precancelled stamps in practically all cases have been meant for commercial printed matter, it is strange to notice that there exist precancelled charity-stamps. If these stamps should be normally used, one should have paid "en masse" the additional charge. Of course it cannot be denied that there occur philantropic people among business-men, but that they should have lived in all towns of Belgium asks to much of our credulity. So we have to conclude that the major part of these stamps is also journey-work. It seems more probable as noticed earlier that the occurrence of a precancellation on "normal" stamps in position C and D can be explained only by assuming that they have been placed on request.

In the earlier mentioned article of Mr. Blom has been stated that four Post Offices got an official permit to precancel charity-stamps for a value of Bfr. 25 only so 500 stamps of 5 centimes.

It is clear that this permit has been granted in favor of collectors. Officially 125 series (positions A-D) might have been made. If 4 Post Offices got the allowance to precancel charity-stamps, why not the other Post Offices? And who checks the maximum of Bfr. 25? The "remainder" could have been sold "normally".

In addition it should be noticed that the precancelling of charity-stamps took place in the last two years of the use of the roller stamp by almost all Post Offices. So it is possible that there are created "De Seck-stamps".

All together an unsatisfactory situation but we have to accept that even officially precancelled charity-stamps may occur.

The Brussels precancelled Due Stamps

To prevent mis-use of the stock of postage due stamps nr. 3-11 (printed in Malines) and nrs. 12-16 (printed in London) "disappeared" during World War 1(1914-1918), according to official instruction of 25th April of 1919 the in the Post Offices still available due stamps had to be provided with the town name- normally a long stamp. In Brussels however the roller stamp:

BRUSSEL/1919/BRUXELLES was used and (rare) BRUXELLES/1919/BRUSSEL which were meant for precancelling. This "precancellation" occurs in position C and D. It has to be noted explicitly that this "precancellation" is a checking measure only.

In case one of these due stamps was fixed on a not or not enough prepaid letter, this due stamp was cancelled again, and well by means of a round stamp.

Due stamps provided with a precancellation only have not been used postally and ought still to have their original gum. It stands to reason that this round stamp could only bear the town-name BRUSSEL/BRUXELLES (together with the date. Nevertheless there is known a due stamp nr. 6 with precancellation: BRUSSEL/1919/BRUXELLES, position C with a round stamp: ANTWERPEN-ANVER (and an illegible date).

These due stamps have been used for a short period only. After an interval, during which stamps of the Albert-series of 1915 and King Albert with Helmet, cancelled with a big black T have been used, on September 1, 1919 a new series of due stamps (nr. 26 a.s.o.) appeared&mdashcoloured figure on white, round background.

It is remarkable that due stamps nr. 15 (30 ct. blue) are known with precancellation: BRUXELLES/1920/BRUSSEL, position C, and also one with this precancellation, also position C, with round stamp and also a long stamp: TAXE ANNULEE/HEFFING NIETIG (Imposition null and void).