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A hobby within a hobby is collecting postmarks. They carry the same fascination as stamps. As in the case of stamps, the postmark collector is faced with a fascinating array of postmarks. They range broadly from the common machine cancellation generally in use today, to the early markings used before stamps were invented, to special cancellation marks picturing anything from Lady Godiva to a man thumbing his nose. A postmark can be inexpensive, or it can transform a cheap and unimportant stamp into a major rarity. Postmark collectors range from the frivolous to the serious hobbyists.

In addition to the traditional postmarks showing the town name, state and date, some postmarks include the time, altitude, and even weather forecasts. Specific types of postmarks have been applied to mail carried in different modes of transportation. Different types were used when mail was transported via trains, streetcars, buses, airplanes, hot air balloons, ships, helicopters, sled dog teams, pony express riders, rockets, pigeons and camels. As could be expected, letters transported in tin cans or by parachutes have been marked with special postmarks. Other postmarks note military mail, censored mail, maritime mail, prisoner of war mail, rates, letters received too late for forwarding, wrong addresses, and letters found in supposedly empty containers. Collectors are fascinated with town cancels, slogan cancels, pictorials, fancy cancels, flag cancels, meters and first day cancels. 

The collectors of postmarks seem to vary as greatly as the postmarks themselves. For example, we have one group of postmark collectors seeking disinfected mail markings; those which had been applied to envelopes during plagues and pestilences in parts of Europe and Asia. Others search for Quaker postmarks; those markings which had been applied to 19th century United States letters by Quaker postmasters. In these postmarks the months were indicated by numerals 1 to 12 rather than by their names because the Society of Friends objected to the use of names of pagan origin.

Postmarks and cancellations come in every form imaginable: square, circular, rectangular, oval, octagonal and lines.

Postmarks advertise or celebrate exhibitions, congresses, fairs, political rallies, anniversaries...

Apparently a really unique form of postmark was suggested by an inventor a few years ago. The illustrious one suggested to French postal authorities that a small wafer of explosive (fulminate of mercury) be placed on the backs of all postage stamps. His invention was tested. The postal official did as instructed. He hit the stamp with a small hammer and the stamp exploded, destroying both stamp and letter (but thankfully not the official). One can well imagine the surprise the officer received at this first postal encounter with the 'letter bomb'. Needless to say, the postal department did not share the inventor's enthusiasm and the invention was turned down. The postmark was safe!

Postmark collecting is a hobby within a hobby. What appears to the uninitiated as a simple method to cancel a postage stamp, so that the clever consumer would not attempt to reuse it, is in actuality a many faceted object. 

By now, if you are convinced that a beginning postmark collector is faced with a confusing array of postmarks you would be absolutely correct. Indeed, it is wise for the beginner to familiarize himself with the most common markings first. He can do this by collecting current postmarks which are readily available to him at little cost.

Historically, the first known postmark is said to have been used by couriers in Milan in 1458, centuries before the first adhesive postage stamp was invented. It is strange that the US stamp collector has largely ignored it until recently. Postmark collecting in the US was given a tremendous boost by the US Postal Service in 1971 when the Western Region authorized the use of a pictorial cancellation at a stamp show in Glendale, California. This attracted collectors' attention. 

Since then, stamp exhibitions across the US have obtained special USPS cancellations of their own design for the limited use of one to three days at temporary postal stations which have been set up at the exhibition sites. Besides stamp exhibition organizers, organizers of county and state fairs, gem and mineral shows, town centenary committees, political conventions, and the like have also been attracted by the idea.

Collectors have responded with enthusiasm to these cancels. The first USPS pictorial was used in 1971. By April of the next year, 11 more had appeared. In 1980, just nine years later, at least 612 pictorials were used at temporary postal stations across the country.

The pictorial cancellation itself was used as early as 1861 by the British Post Office for that year's London Exhibition. In addition, postmarks picturing a great many things have been the rage of European collectors for many years. In the US itself, it has been in use only recently and the US collectors discovered them only in the 1970s.

Since then, interest has piqued. Three things seem to appeal to the collector: Firstly, he could get into the hobby at the beginners level of a new collecting trend in the US. Secondly, the pictorial cancellation was inexpensive (he could get it applied to an envelope for the cost of a first-class postage stamp or to an even cheaper rate post card). Finally, the pictures were based on popular subjects, most of which would never be commemorated by a postage stamp.

By way of encouragement to collectors, the grand array of postmarks include interesting pictures. Among them are the world's largest chicken fry pan ( the 1981 pictorial used at the Delmarva Chicken Festival in Milford. Del.), the world's biggest fish fry held in Paris, Tenn. each year and the world's largest garage sale (the annual pictorial from Evanston, III.) 

Serious themes also are portrayed by the pictorials, such as a large grouping of cancels saluting the space shuttle, the centenary of the American Red Cross and various railroad anniversaries.

Besides the pictorial, many other postmarks are also available for the ardent collector. Some collectors devote themselves to collecting town markings. Even here, the collector may have to limit himself for he cannot hope to collect all the town postmarks from every country in the world. Perhaps a collector would wisely devote his attention to the postmarks of one city or country. 

Postmarks today contain both the town's name, state abbreviation, ZIP Code and date. This has not always been so. Before adhesive postage stamps were invented in 1840, postmarks were used merely to give information. Many were handwritten and were called manuscript markings. The first hand-stamped device used to mark envelopes, and showing a date, was created in 1661 in England by Col. Henry Bishop. His reason for this invention is given in his announcement of the marking :

"A stamp is invented that is put upon every letter shewing the day of the month that every letter comes to the office, so that no letter carrier may dare to detayne a letter from post to post; which before was usual." Hence it was an invention to increase productivity.

It was only 20 years later that the first hand-stamp using a post office name was invented, in the Channel Islands. And it took many more years before both date and name were placed in one postmark. 

Today's US postmark collectors can get a marking containing the name of any US post office; but this is a recent convenience. 

In its everlasting search for methods to speed up the mail, the USPS in the early 1970s, set up area mail processing centers and did away with the practice of putting any town's name in the canceling device. Postmarks merely read, "US Postal Service" and included the two-letter state abbreviation and ZIP Code indicator of the area where the center was located.

This greatly upset US collectors, and other citizens, who raised strong protests when these simplified postmarks first appeared. Naturally, the collectors were afraid that their hobby, of collecting town postmarks, would be obliterated, while residents of towns felt that their cities would lose their individualities and identities.

The uproar produced the desired effects and the USPS returned to printing at least the name of the town in which the mail processing center was located. It went even further and set forth a regulation, in existent to this day: That every post office in the nation was to put a special mailbox in its lobby. Letters posted in that box were to receive a postmark with that town's name. In addition, any person requesting that his letter be canceled with a town's hand-stamped postmark had to be accommodated.

Another interesting observation here is that postmarks and stamp cancellation were not always a combined factor. When the adhesive postage stamp was invented in 1840, in Great Britain, the Post Office had to come up with a means to "cancel" it so that the stamp could not be reused by unscrupulous mailers. Though the date and town stamps were in use, they were not used to cancel the stamps. Perhaps it was just that no one thought of the idea. 

For years the existing hand-stamps were stamped on one part of the envelope, while postmasters and postal clerks sought ways to "cancel" the stamp using other means. Some of the means adopted were 'creative' to say the least. Here are a few: a few pen strokes, tearing off a piece of the stamp, a dab of ink from the base of a bottle cork and impressions from a wood block or from a specially designed metal canceller.

While this was going on, the British Post Office was feeling the need for speeding up the postmarking process. In 1857 just 17 years after Sir Rowland Hill invented the first adhesive postage stamp (Britain's famed Penny Black) his son Pearson Hill invented the first postmarking machine. It was operated either by steam or a foot pedal. It greatly improved productivity by postmarking 118 letters per minute - a fantastic breakthrough at the time.

A few envelopes bearing this first Pearson Hill machine postmark are known, with one rather tattered envelope selling at an auction in 1978 for about $10,000.

It was a Londoner, J.G. Azemar, who incorporated the familiar wavy lines we know today. This was in 1869 and the machine canceled 150 letters a minute. There was a hitch though: Approximately 6 per cent of the letters passed through the machine unmarked.

This fabulous invention was followed by many other canceling machines. As could be expected, the US and Canada made great strides towards this mechanization of postmarks in the latter part of the 19th century.

Throughout the years, numerous types of machines have been used. In fact, some machine cancel collectors divide their collection according to type of machine used.

Another factor for the ardent postmark collector is that much of the mail received by individuals and businesses today carries a machine slogan cancellation. Hence, slogan collecting is a big facet of the postmark collecting hobby. The slogans are used for postal directions or to advertise or publicize events and anniversaries. Some familiar collections are: Always Use Your Zip Code, Mail Early for Christmas, Conquer Cystic Fibrosis or Hampstead, N.Y., 100 Years Old.

Surprisingly, slogan postmarks are not new; they extend as far back as 1661, shortly after the first date stamp was created. Three different slogans were used at that time. Here is a famous one: The Post for all Kent Goes Every Night from the Round House in Love Lane and Comes Every Morning. In the US, the first slogan cancel appeared in 1897 for the Universal Postal Congress held in Washington, D.C.

One other collecting facet readily available is the postage meter used by large companies. Each day's mail usually brings at least one envelope bearing a meter. Actually, a meter can be considered a combination of a postage stamp and a postmark. Metered mail originated approximately at the turn of the century. Large mailers were anxious to have the Post Office Department devise a means to eliminate the use of a postage stamp. Apparently, it took too long to apply adhesive stamps to each envelope in large mailings. Hence the postage meter is another labor and time saving device.

To cater for the need, since necessity is the mother of invention, the American Meter Co. of Chicago was founded in approximately 1900, and later the Universal Stamping Machine Co. They manufactured canceling machines and the two merged in 1919 to form the Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter Co. 

Today, the Pitney-Bowes meter is just one among many types. Meters are collected by machine types and by machine permit numbers, each using company being assigned its own number.

Clearly, each type of postmark has its own history and its own advocates. This fascinating hobby within a hobby has its own organizations, periodicals and catalogs. There are at least 12 different national societies in the US which confine themselves to specific areas of postmark collecting. The largest and most such organization is the Post Mark Collectors Club. In addition, many states have postal history societies where the cancellations of the cities and counties of that state are researched and studied.

Postmark collecting is a fascinating, educational, fun and popular hobby. The magnetic pull of an unusual postmark can be illustrated in a true story dating back to 1890, when the British Post office used a special postmark at London's Guild Hall for an exposition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the first adhesive postage stamp.

Demand for this postmark was so great that the exposition crowds began using any value of stamp up to £5 when stamps covering the postage rate (1 penny) ran out. Many people were unaware that this postmark would be available and had come to the exposition without envelopes. To make sure they get the coveted postmark, they used anything and everything. One lady collector went quite far to get her postmark. She could find nothing suitable in her possessions at the event on which to collect the precious postmark, so she resorted to her handkerchief. She pasted a penny stamp to it and obtained the coveted postmark.

Though the main reason for the frantic attempts to collect the postmark was its novelty, another cause was the widely held belief that the unusual marking would some day be valuable. Well, that did not happen: Today the postmark catalogs for just $8.

There is a lesson here for the modern day postmark collector. If he were interested in investment, the postmark hobby is not for him. Basically, a postmark's value lies in the enjoyment and pleasure it affords the collector.

However, as with everything else, there are exceptions. One such is the US fancy cancel of the 1860 to 1880 period. This period produced some inventive markings and is a rich field for postmark collectors, but one which is costly.

During that era, most postmasters had to provide their own canceling devices. Some postmasters began dipping bottle corks into ink and blobbing it onto the stamp, sometimes completely obliterating the entire stamp. This led to the more creative postmasters cutting markings in the corks. Thus were born fancy cancels. Postal workers have shown their creativity by cutting a variety of shapes. We have a running chicken, pumpkin heads, hearts, mortars and pestles, skull and crossbones, mugs, insects, shoes, and such. A running chicken cancel from Waterbury, Conn., sold for $240,000 in a public auction in 1979.

It is easy and inexpensive to start a postmark collection. All a beginning collector has to do is look at every letter he receives and keep the cancels; classifying them according to countries, states, towns, slogans or meters.