Royal Reels: Gambling

Postmarks

HARDEN N.S.W. REGISTERED COVER with MULTIPLE T.P.O. POSTMARKS

This fine registered cover looks almost too good to be anything but philatelically inspired. It has a 3 colour stamping with the red 1½d Opening of Canberra Parliament stamp of 1927, the blue 3d Kookaburra stamp of 1928 and the green 3d first airmail stamp of 1929, a total of 7½d, all finely placed and postmarked by three HARDEN/ 6-P 10 JE 30/ N.S.W postmarks. It has the blue AIR

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POSTCARD to TAMATAVE, MADAGASCAR from BRISBANE

From the outset I have to admit that I am not an avid collector of Australian Colonial postcards, nor do I have much knowledge of ship routes from Brisbane to what I would call exotic places. The purpose of this paper is to see if readers can add information to the content of this paper. This 1898 postcard is listed as Higgins & Gage #10 and has the printed 1d (2

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POSTCARD from CARL SUSSMILCH, to PROF. JAY WOODWORTH, HARVARD

The O.H.M.S. postcard was sent from C.A. Sussmilch ‘with hearty greetings from Australia’ to Prof. J.B. Woodworth, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. The red 1d ‘Shield’ stamp of New South Wales was postmarked with a SYDNEY roller cancel dated AP 5/ NOON/ 1912. The postcard was taxed with a N.S.W./ T/ 10, as well as a purple handstamp POSTAGE DUE 2 CENTS, and the red 2d U.S. postage due stamp was

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PORTLAND, VICTORIA to MRS TENNEY, SMITHVILLE, LINCOLN CO., CANADA

This cover is interesting because of the detailed description of Mrs. Tenney’s address and the documentation of the cover’s well documented routing path. It is addressed to Smithville P.O., County Lincoln, near Hamilton, Canada West, North America. It was sent from Portland, Victoria in 1864 and it is franked with a single grey-lilac 2d ‘Emblems’ and a pair of the grey-black 6d ‘Beaded Oval’, all cancelled with the barred numeral

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PASSAGE to INDIA

An unusual cover from Melbourne to Adelaide. This cover produced a minor flurry of bidders at Ebay Auctions obviously on account of the multiple postmarks and other markings, which were not philatelically inspired. As interesting as the postmark exuberance is, there are other less obvious points of interest. The front bears a 2d lilac ‘POSTAGE’ Victoria, perf. 12 x 12½ stamp (ASC # 86), a very common stamp that was

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NUMERALS, COOPLACURRIPA (Plenty of Mosquitoes) & NUMBER ONE

Aboriginal place names intrigue me and Cooplacurripa (‘plenty of mosquitoes’) is no exception. But there is more to my interest for why was the post office and town name changed from the original to Number One, and a second post office and town with the original name moved further north-west? A web search not only gave no answer to these questions, but also to-date has been remarkably unhelpful in giving

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MULWALA CONSTRUCTION CAMP N.S.W. POSTMARK

This postmark was sufficiently short-lived and is relatively uncommon, and this area on the New South Wales and Victoria border is of considerable interest, that I felt it reasonable to research it and to write a short paper. The postmark cancels the red 2½d KGVI definitive which was issued on 7 January 1942 and it reads MULWALA CONSTRUCTION CAMP/ -9 JE 43/ NSW. The postmark is described in N.C. Hopson &

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MULTIPLE POSTMARKS on 1866 COVER SENT from MELBOURNE to LONDON

This unclaimed cover was franked with the 6d blue ‘Laureate’ of Victoria and was postmarked by the duplex MELBOURNE/ 3A/ AU 27/ 66. It was finally sent to England after reception at two cities in India, but the addressee’s name and the original address in India is no longer legible, for most of the front is a mass of readdresses which have been hatched out. There are however on the

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MILITARY ENCAMPMENTS in VICTORIA: LANGWARRIN CAMP & BOER WAR

The purple ‘TWO PENCE’ stamp of Victoria was cancelled with a shield enclosing the details of the postmark which was 1/ MILITARY/ FE 11/ (with no year)/ ENCAMPMENT. Note the ‘scalloped’ out perforation at the right hand side of the stamp. The vendor stated that it was used at Langwarrin Camp, Victoria (Figure 1). Another example of the same postmark was seen on a cover addressed to Messrs. Reuters Telegram

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THE EXPERIMENTAL CHARLES RIDEOUT SYDNEY DUPLEX (1861-62)

Two N.S.W. covers, both sent per the same ship, appeared on eBay addressed to Messrs Newell, Melbourne, Victoria dated 1860 and 1861 respectively, but only the latter one caught my fancy, for I did not recall seeing the duplex cancel previously. I was not surprised that the specific cancel was not found in my modest collection of early Sydney cancels, but I was at a loss to find it was

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