Royal Reels: Gambling

Postmarks

SOHANA/SOHANO PAPUA-NEW GUINEA REGISTERED LETTER to NEW JERSEY

A colorful three stamps of Australia with a total postage of 7d was sent registered from SOHANA/ 14 JL 49/ PAPUA-NEW GUINEA, but the red registration label was printed as SOHANO with a registration number of ‘1534′ to a P.O. Box 150, Elizabeth, N.J., U.S.A. Although the cover looked philatelically inspired it was not a first day cover for !d brown purple Queen Elizabeth nor the two Mitchell stamps (Figure

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ROBERT BEAR, PUBLISHER/IMPORTER & REV. DELAPORTE, NAURU MISSION

Five covers, dated 1901-1910 were addressed to ‘Sir’ Robert Bear at 16 Park Street, Sydney from British New Guinea and from Nauru. The first is a printed cover with a vertical pair of the 1d carmine with black centre British New Guinea stamps, postmarked with the ten bar obliterator (as well as blue crayon strokes) and there is an unframed WOODLARKS/ 1901/ B.N.G. cancel nearby. The reverse (not seen) showed

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ALFRED HENSMAN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA JUDGE & ATTORNEY-GENERAL

The stampless cover has four handstamps the first being a duplex SHIP MAIL ROOM/ SP 17/ 98/ PERTH W.A with an eight barred PO which partially obscures a purple MR JUSTICE HENSMAN/FRANK STAMP/ WESTERN AUSTRALIA plus two copies a black PAID/ OFFICIALLY/ WEST AUSTRALIA.  The cover is addressed to Wm Shoosmith Esq, Solicitor, 19 Market Square, Northampton, England.  At the lower left hand side the writer has his manuscript initials,

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UNIQUE LORD HOWE ISLAND POSTMARK

This Lord Howe Island cover was offered on Ebay auctions, and at the time I considered it to be possibly unique. It was addressed to Messrs. Wilcox, Smith & Co.,/ Stamp Merchants,/ DUNEDIN/ NEW ZEALAND. The stamp was the 1d KGV Redhead, with the N.S.W. Type 1D(i) 2-line postmark, dated 15 MY/ 1929/ N.S.W . The sender had typed in the top left-hand corner: From Lord Howe Islands (sic) (Fig. 1) Hopson &

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REES RUTLAND & CHARLES SYDNEY JONES, LAWYERS, ROCKHAMPTON, QLD

The cover had a strip of 3 blue ‘TWO PENCE’ stamps of New South Wales that were cancelled by 2 copies of the duplex 64/ OC 15/ D/ SYDNEY with the obliterator ‘N.S.W’ in the 3-ring oval reading downwards. This cancel was fashioned after the English duplex and was in use from 20.7.58 until 24. 9. 67, corresponding to Tobin & Orchard’s duplex #109. It was addressed to Rees. R.

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HENRY W. HUNTINGTON, HISTORIAN of NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN DISTRICT

The cover is addressed to H. W. Huntington Esqre, District Court, Newcastle and the misperfed red 1d stamp of New South Wales has fine ‘Rays 355′ cancel of Stockton, N.S.W. (Figure 1). The reverse has a reception postmark of NEWCASTLE/ 1/ AP 5/ 88/ N.S.W (Figure 2). Henry William Hemsworth Huntington (1848-1926) came to New South Wales in about 1860 when he was 12 years of age. In 1879 he

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FREDERICK CHARLES STANDISH & the NED KELLY GANG

This ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE envelope has the Minister of Justice/ Victoria Frank Stamping in blue which was introduced in the original 1864 frankstamps allocation. Only one die exists for the handstamped frank, and it is found both in blue and red. The printed frank exists only in black, and at least 9 different electros exist. The Frank is largely obscured by the barred numeral ‘11′ with 3 curved arcs

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LONDON & HAMBURG GOLD RECOVERY CO.: DIEHL, GUNTHER & HAMILTON

Three postal items were found addressed to an important Western Australian gold mining company at Kalgoorlie, W.A., and three men were identified to be significantly involved with the gold mining industry. The first man identified was the least important and he was the addressee on 2 of the items. In dated sequence, the first item was an ‘On Public Service Only’ cover addressed to E. Gunther Esq., London & Hamburg

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KALGOORLIE W.A. to POQUETANUCK, CONNECTICUT

This cover with the blue 2½d Swan stamp (A.S.C. # 28) travelled 6½ weeks across Western Australia to the east coast of America, its journey being well documented by its multiple postmarks and manuscript routings. The front is postmarked by an unframed KALGOORLIE/ 6/ AU 26/ 01/ W.A duplex (top rarity rating of ‘1’). It is addressed to Miss Juliet Gier, Poquetanuck, Connecticut, N(ew) London Co(unty), U.S.A. In manuscript its

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GOLD MINE AT TRUNK LEAD (POST OFFICE, LATER BO PEEP), VICTORIA

The pink ‘ONE PENNY POSTAGE’ stamp of Victoria is postmarked TRUNK LEAD/ SE 17/ 02/ VICTORIA, and the Ebay vendor describes the postmark as follows: Good/fine strike of Trunk Lead 17 Sep 1902. Post Office west of Ballarat (from) 21 Oct 1873 until renamed Bo Peep RO [Receiving Office]1 Nov 1907. This RO closed less than 2 months later. Premier (stamp auctions)record this datestamp from 2 dates in May 1906

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