Barred Numeral Cancellations of Ireland – Scarcity Ratings
Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 6:01 pm
Barred Numeral Cancellations of Ireland – Scarcity Ratings
Over the years there has been considerable amount of research and publication on the barred numeral cancellations of the United Kingdom, particularly for those of London and English/Welsh provincial towns.
Collectors, myself included, have been asking whether similar publications exist or are in preparation for the remaining areas, namely Scotland and Ireland. As no equivalents yet exist, Andrew Chappell and I discussed an approach to try and allocate scarcity ratings for the Irish cancellations; what follows is an overview of this approach, accompanied by an appeal for assistance with the next stage.
It is obvious that this task could take many years to complete but to be in a position to publish interim findings as quickly as possible it was decided to focus solely on the first Barred Numerals introduced in 1844 and limit the scope to their usage on the imperforate stamps. At this initial stage there is no attempt to differentiate between different types of cancellation; that may come at a later stage dependent on the level of interest expressed.
Another fundamental requirement was to place the findings in the public domain for comment and peer review, and Maurice Buxton has agreed to make this available on the GBPS website as the project progresses.
There are four stages to this process:
1. Collation of statistics from a variety of contemporary sources for each Post Town
2. Sanity checking this data to eliminate obvious anomalies
3. Comparison with collectors’ wants lists to ensure consistency with reality
4. Refining the scarcity rating by comparison with known examples
The first two stages are now complete and, based upon the statistics alone, provisional ratings have been allocated. However, before publishing these findings, we would like to check the validity of these by comparing with collectors’ wants lists. What we are hoping to find is that those cancellations provisionally rated as F, G or H (i.e. the scarcest) are more likely to account for gaps in collections.
This is where you can help if you are a collector of Irish numerals. We would be grateful if you could answer these two questions.
1. Which numerals do you NOT have on a 1d imperforate stamp/cover ?
2. How long have you been collecting Irish Barred Numerals ?
This information may be posted on this thread or emailed directly to either Chris Jones (chris[at]gbimperf.org) or Andrew Chappell (QVP[at]btinternet.com).
Alternatively, if you wish to remain anonymous the information may be sent to the Newsletter editor (newsletter[at]gbps.org.uk) who will only pass on the information and not your contact details.
This appeal will also be appearing in the next issue of the society's newsletter.
Once we have a selection of replies, the provisional findings will be published and the next stages of the project can start. This will involve creating a database of known examples of each numeral with dates of use (where available) and also recording the usage of coloured inks.
Chris.
Over the years there has been considerable amount of research and publication on the barred numeral cancellations of the United Kingdom, particularly for those of London and English/Welsh provincial towns.
Collectors, myself included, have been asking whether similar publications exist or are in preparation for the remaining areas, namely Scotland and Ireland. As no equivalents yet exist, Andrew Chappell and I discussed an approach to try and allocate scarcity ratings for the Irish cancellations; what follows is an overview of this approach, accompanied by an appeal for assistance with the next stage.
It is obvious that this task could take many years to complete but to be in a position to publish interim findings as quickly as possible it was decided to focus solely on the first Barred Numerals introduced in 1844 and limit the scope to their usage on the imperforate stamps. At this initial stage there is no attempt to differentiate between different types of cancellation; that may come at a later stage dependent on the level of interest expressed.
Another fundamental requirement was to place the findings in the public domain for comment and peer review, and Maurice Buxton has agreed to make this available on the GBPS website as the project progresses.
There are four stages to this process:
1. Collation of statistics from a variety of contemporary sources for each Post Town
2. Sanity checking this data to eliminate obvious anomalies
3. Comparison with collectors’ wants lists to ensure consistency with reality
4. Refining the scarcity rating by comparison with known examples
The first two stages are now complete and, based upon the statistics alone, provisional ratings have been allocated. However, before publishing these findings, we would like to check the validity of these by comparing with collectors’ wants lists. What we are hoping to find is that those cancellations provisionally rated as F, G or H (i.e. the scarcest) are more likely to account for gaps in collections.
This is where you can help if you are a collector of Irish numerals. We would be grateful if you could answer these two questions.
1. Which numerals do you NOT have on a 1d imperforate stamp/cover ?
2. How long have you been collecting Irish Barred Numerals ?
This information may be posted on this thread or emailed directly to either Chris Jones (chris[at]gbimperf.org) or Andrew Chappell (QVP[at]btinternet.com).
Alternatively, if you wish to remain anonymous the information may be sent to the Newsletter editor (newsletter[at]gbps.org.uk) who will only pass on the information and not your contact details.
This appeal will also be appearing in the next issue of the society's newsletter.
Once we have a selection of replies, the provisional findings will be published and the next stages of the project can start. This will involve creating a database of known examples of each numeral with dates of use (where available) and also recording the usage of coloured inks.
Chris.