Unique
Bret Janik
New York Foreign Mail (NYFM) cancellations were designed for use in the
Foreign Mail Department of the main New York City Post Office. They were
first identified by J. Murray Bartels in 1926 as "...attractive
canecllations used in New York City from 1870 to 1876 on outgoing foreign
mail". This was later qualified by William R. Weiss, Jr. in 1990 as "...a
group of cancellations usually applied to mail which usually originated in
New York City and was usually destined for a foreign country (other than
Canada)". He extended the period to 1878.
T h e a i m s o f t h i s e x h i bi t a r e t w o f o l d
By treating N.Y.F.M. cancellation production 1870 - 1878 chronologically the
exhibit demonstrates:
a) that hand-carved designs sequenced logically from grids and wedges to
basic fancy designs to classic intricate fancy designs leading to the
eventual replacement of all types by the steel ellipse,
b) that production of the classic intricate N.Y.F.M. fancy designs commonly
associated with the period 1870 - 1878 occured in the narrower timeband Feb
1873 to Sept 1875.
M a t e ri a l o n d i s p l a y
Whilst highlighting cancellation production the exhibit shows a wide range
of NYFM such as Supplementary, mail originating outside of New York City but
attracting a N.Y.F.M. cancellation, mail leaving New York City by train for
transit throught San Francisco or New Orleans, Postal Cards, Entires, mixed
issue frankings, adverisement, propaganda, mourning and steamship usage.
N u m b e r s o f c a n c e l t y p e s
After excluding under/over-inked or broken varieties of one umbrella design,
numeral and other cancellations designed for domestic use or cancellations
proven not to have originated in New York City the exhibitor believes there
arecurrently 165 distinctive N.Y.F.M. cancellation designs. He ilustrates
147 of these with emphasis on the classic intricate fancy cancels which so
became the hallmark of the period (55 of the reported 58 are displayed).
Classification numbers are shown, when recorded, according to
Vlissingen/Waud (VW), James M. Cole and William R. Weiss, Jr.
D a t e s o f c a n c e l u s e a n d n u m b e r s o f c o v ers
Dates for first and last cancel use (seen below each tracing) and numbers of
covers are based on existing evidence and can change as new material
emerges.
Exhange Office datestamps, where indistinct, are replicated as originally
intended. They were used exclusively in the Foreign Mail Department and
conveniently show dates of departure from New York.
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