Background
Use by the Post Office of relief cancellers arose as a matter of necessity, driven by rapid growth, the limitations in technology and the desire to attain greater efficiency and cost effectiveness in its operations. Business was often negatively impacted by unforeseen or emergency events such as, an office’s regular date-stamp no longer being mechanically functional due to damage or the decade wheel having reached its maximum, theft or loss of the original date-stamp due to natural disaster such as fire or flood, the date-stamp for a new office not being available at the time of opening or the requirement for use at a temporary facility where manufacture of a new date-stamp was not economically viable. The answer lay in the use of relief date-stamps.
Prior to the introduction of relief cancellers, in the event of a post office's date-stamp being inoperable or undergoing repair, the office would generally cancel mail through the application of a manuscript, similar to the practice employed by receiving offices. Prior to Federation, it is thought that obsolete numeral obliterators may have also been employed in a relief capacity.
In the case of the 1884 cover depicted below, the stamp itself has not been cancelled. However there is a manuscript despatch marking, Canberra, May 16th 84, in the hand of the then Postmaster, George Kinleyside, applied to the reverse and over stamped with a Granville transit marking, before arriving at its destination, Newtown, the following day. I have seen several similar covers originating from Canberra during the period May/June 1884.
 |
16 May 1884 cover, Canberra to Newtown, N.S.W - De Salis correspondence Ex Alan Sailsbury |
 |
Partial strikes of the early relief date-stamps are occasionally found by collectors on stamps. However, generally they are not easily recognised once they have been removed from the piece, cover or postcard on which they were used.
This blog chronicles the use of the various relief cancellers by the Postmaster General’s Department in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory since Federation. Once part of New South Wales, post Federation, the Australian Capital Territory's postal services continued to be administered as part of New South Wales and the use of specific N.S.W. relief date-stamps in the A.C.T was not an unusual occurrence, particularly prior to the introduction of Territory inscribed date-stamps, including reliefs. For additional information in relation to the post offices and postmarks of the Australian Capital Territory, please see; https://actpostmarks.blogspot.com/
Whilst generally straight forward at first, the framework for issue of relief date-stamps became more complex as the decades passed and the network of post offices expanded. The basic structure is best summarised as follows;
(i) First Relief Date-stamps circa 1914
(ii) Single Letter Cut-down circa 1917
(iii) Engraved Relief circa 1925
(iv) Numeral Cut-down
(v) Double Letter Cut-down
(vi) Numeral Cut-down R.A.A.F. security date-stamps
(vii) Triple Letter Cut-down
(viii) Paid At Cut down Relief
(ix) Definitive Relief Stamp Series – Part 1
(x) Relief Rollers
(xi) Definitive Relief Stamp Series – Part 2
(xii) Non conventional reliefs
(xii) Non conventional reliefs
The examples illustrated on this site are drawn from my personal collection. However, it by no means constitutes a complete or exhaustive assembly of the various N.S.W. and A.C.T. relief postmarks to be found. I hope that this blog serves to enhance the basic knowledge of readers and prospective collectors on the subject. It is a fascinating area of postmark collecting. Undoubtedly, there remains significant scope for new discoveries to be made and for the original sources of the various cut-down relief date-stamps to be identified.
References:
(i) Australian Relief Date Stamps J.E. LEEK, Supplement No.3, March 1965, of the Bulletin of the Australian Commonwealth Collectors’ Club of New South Wales
(ii) RELIEF DATE STAMPS, Postmarks of N.S.W. R. TOBIN, Australian Commonwealth Collectors’ Club JUNE 2001
(iii) THE POSTMARKS OF THE NAVAL, MILITARY& R.A.A.F. POST OFFICES (UNDER P.M.G. CONTROL 1939 – 1947 PHIL COLLAS 1985
(iv) POSTMARKS OF THE AUSTRALIAN FORCES FROM ALL FRONTS 1939 To 1953 By STEPHENSON STOBBS 1984
(v) N.S.W. and A.C.T. POST, RECEIVING, TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE OFFICES by N C Hopson and R Tobin 1991
(vi) New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory RELIEFS Tim Cowley and Richard Peck 2015
