The International Machine Cancel Society
Dedicated to the study of Machine Postal Markings,
the machine inventors, patents, and other related history![[eagle and thunderbolt cancel]](http://machinecancel.org/pics/eagle.gif)
Would you pay over US$2,000
for an envelope with
the Eagle & Thunderbolt postmark shown above?
We will!
Special Edition of the Forum for the Garfield-Perry March Party
![[annual meeting]](http://machinecancel.org/pics/bignew.gif)
Special Machine Cancel Forum
The Annual General Meeting of The Machine Cancel Society was held at Cleveland, Ohio,
on Saturday, March 20, 2010, and was quite a success. Our intrepid editor
created a special edition of The Machine Cancel Forum for this event, which is
a fantastic document. Parts of the MCF are in color, something we
cannot normally do for the general newsletter. The content is a fascinating
study of "unknown" possible-machines used for cancelling mail. Take a look
at this
Special Edition Garfield-Perry Machine Cancel Forum.
Since the subject matter of this MCF contains many conjectures and guesses, the research associated with these "possible" machine cancellations is on-going. The editor solicits your input, your suggestions, and any new finds that you make of these fascinating types of cancellations.
Machine Cancel Society on Facebook!
Check Us Out!
Our Society now has
a page on Facebook.
Come visit, and you can comment, provide news items, post images
of machine cancels, and on and on.
Special Edition of MCF in Honor of Reg Morris and Boy Scouting
Special Edition of MCF in Honor of Reg Morris
The December 2009 Special Issue of the Machine Cancel Forum has been mailed out on the
Centennial of the Boy Scouts of
America. It is dedicated to Reg Morris who was very involved in Scouting.
In recent years, we have lost many old-time members who were leaders of both our hobby and our Society.
APS Show Special Edition of Machine Cancel Forum
![[new projects]](http://machinecancel.org/pics/cirwig3.gif)
Special Edition of Machine Cancel Forum
The APS show in August 2009 was a great success. Many members and officers
of the Machine Cancel Society attended the show, as well as the
Annual Meeting. In addition, the Society ran a great information booth on the show
floor.
Our editor worked very hard to produce a special edition of the
Machine Cancel Forum just for the show. Copies of this
special edition were made available to the general collecting
community at the show. Now, electronic copies of
the special edition Machine Cancel Forum are now available
on this website. Try:
The entire Forum as a single PDF file [9 megabytes]
Individual PDF files for each article in the special Forum edition [9 megabytes]
New Society Electronic Projects
Electronic Material Now Available
Based on various experiments being made by your Society, there are now additional
resources available on-line to access articles and helpful material
for machine cancel collectors. For instance,
Bob Swanson has written an article on extracting cancellations (and other markings)
from scans of covers and postcards. The
article can
be downloaded from the Society website [PDF file]
Bob has also written an article on using Google Book Search for historical research.
This research work can assist with our collecting interests. The article
about Google Book Search is also located on the Society website [PDF file]
The cancel extraction article is also available using
Google Documents.
The Google set of tools allow you to upload documents from your computer to your
Google account. The documents can then be edited on-line. You can download the
current version back to your computer for local storage. By offering on-line
editing of a document, you can work on your want lists, articles, checklists, etc.,
from any internet connection, and you don't have to be at your home
computer.
A very important
feature of the Google Documents tool, is that your documents can be shared with a variety of
other computer users: the "world", or just a small set of users.
In addition, it is possible to allow selected users to alter the document on-line. This
type of collaboration could be quite helpful to our Society. You don't need a Google mail
account to view documents that are shared, but it would be a good idea to sign up
for a Google Mail account, so that you can store (and edit) your documents on-line.
The Flickr website is a large common storage area for images. When first created, the
site was for photographs only. Now, any image, including scanned images can
be stored on the site. A free account is available that lets you upload 200
photographs or other images. If you want to store more than the free 200
images, the cost for an unlimited account is quite modest. Bob has also posted
some
scans of stamps and cancellations. Now, there are scans
of rare cancellations from
our president Don Pearson.
Note that the images can be entirely
private, or opened up for all the world to see.
Note that Flickr is also a collaboration site. Each image may have any number of
comments posted with it. These comments create a "history" about the image, which would be very
useful for postal history. Each commenter can add their own outlook on the subject,
and can include other images in their posts. In addition, Flickr users can create
"groups" for the posting of images. Each
Flickr group (or pool) also provides an area for
discussion, much like an electronic bulletin board.
Group pools also provide the ability to have a completely private pool of images, with
access restricted to only a specific list of Flickr users.
Finally, we have investigated the website called "Slideshare". This site allows you to upload
and store documents for free. You can then share them with the world. For
instance, a
previous Machine Cancel Forum article about stamps and Cub Scouts has been stored there,
along with some other previous articles. Take a look!
Fourth Edition of the Flag Cancel Encyclopedia
New Edition of An Important Reference Book
The Flag Cancel Encyclopedia has been the life's work
of Frederick Langford. The Third edition has been an absolute
must have for machine cancel collectors
for many years. Now, after decades of work, a new edition is
available. You may order it direct from Frederick Langford for
$53 (postage for US delivery is included). Send orders to:
Frederick Langford
184 Virginia Ave
Pasadena CA 91107
Modern Flag Machine
Flag Cancel Available
A flag machine is in current use in Warren, Ohio,
and collectors can receive cancels by requesting
them from the postmaster. If you would like
a copy of the Warren, Ohio, United States, flag machine
cancel, you are welcome to send a properly franked enveope or card
to:
US FLAG CANCEL
c/o Postmaster
Warren OH 44482
for cancellation. It will be posted the
next time the International HD2 is in
use. You can also request that your covers
be posted for September 11th and Veterans Day
November 11th, as these mailing dates are already
scheduled.
Your cards and envelopes need to be addressed, and
will pass through the mails unprotected from sprays and
other cancels, unless you supply a larger return
envelope for philatelic return. There is no charge
for this cancellation. It is the Warren community's
pleasure to make this cancel available for public
use.
William Barlow's Award-Winning Boston Machine Cancel Exhibit
Exhibit Now Available Online
Our Society's Past President, William Barlow, Jr., has produced an award-winning exhibit (2008 Indypex GOLD)
on the history of machine cancels used in Boston, Massachusetts. Most collectors of machine cancels
will recognize that Boston was a major center for experimentation with new machines, and study
of American flag machines used in this city alone offers
an amazing variety. The exhibit goes well beyond the American
company and is a useful education for both new and experienced machine cancel collectors.
The Boston Machine Cancel Exhibit
is now available online here at the MCS website.
Ohio Town List of Universal Machine Cancels
New Publication Now Available Online!
A new machine cancel publication: the
Ohio Town List of Universal Machine Cancels
is now available online here at the MCS website.
The document was prepared for the first Universal
Symposium held at the Trumbull Philatelic
Exhibition in 2008.
This publication was prepared for the educational use
of Machine Cancel Society members and its guests
at the Symposium and this web site.
Use of this document is restricted, see the
Ohio Townlist front material
for the exact license wording.
Limited-Time Book Offer!
Miller's From Hinrichsen to Krag -- $58 PPD
The new Miller book (Second Edition) From Hinrichsen to Krag is available in only
limited quantities, as received at the Machine Cancel Society.
We are selling them as a service at $58, postpaid USA.
Shipping to Europe or Oceana will be an additional $15 postage.
If you want the book shipped with your October Forum, send a $58 check to Gary Carlson and on the same day send an email to Alex Savakis
(mcsforum < at > embarqmail < dot > com)
saying you paid for a book.
This offer is only available to Society members.
How good is the new edition? Glad you asked.
The book is beautiful, with full color on glossy paper. Each page has both German and English, arranged so as not to distract. The left column and to the left of each picture is the German text. The right column and to the left of each picture is the corresponding English. Quite frankly, one can compare each English and German sentence it is that well organized.
I had assumed correctly that even for a US collector, the information would be useable. There is a section on Columbia and Internationals used in Germany. It is very complete and user friendly. Lots of pictures of machines and covers.
So if you want a book "el pronto" send a check on or before Tuesday, September 16 to Gary Carlson and an email to me, Alex Savakis
(mcsforum < at > embarqmail < dot > com), saying you sent the money to Gary, and both book and Forum go out in the same package.
Gary's Address is:
Gary Carlson
3097 Frobisher Avenue
Dublin OH 43017
New List of Publications About Machine Cancels
Most Recent Publication Sales List
Members of the Society have created a large
number of publications about machine cancels,
their inventors, manufacturers, and the markings
themselves. This is an important goal of
the Society: passing along critical knowledge. The publications
are for sale to both members and the general public. Machine Cancel
Society members receive a discount on the publications they
purchase.
The following Adobe Acrobat file has
the current pricelist of publications offered
by the Machine Cancel Society. The current
list is dated 2008.
Take a look and you should find just the
book you are looking for.
(Do you need an Adobe PDF reader? Its free! Download
it from
Adobe's website.)
Selected Articles From the Machine Cancel Forum
Here are
links to some
selected articles that appeared
in previous editions of the Society's newsletter Machine Cancel Forum.
Information About the Machine Cancel Society
Learn more
about the Machine Cancel Society at this page.
Society Auctions
The Society offers regular auctions of machine
cancel material. Remember, you must
be a member of the MCS to bid
in our auctions.
The lot descriptions of some of the auctions
below are contained in Adobe Acrobat PDF Files that can
be viewed and printed.
(Do you need an Adobe PDF reader? Its free! Download
it from
the Adobe website.)
The Society operates regular auctions of machine-cancel material. Some of the other previous auctions are listed here: November 2007 auction, November 2004 auction, Early 2004 auction, Early 2003 auction, Early 2002 auction, Late 2002 auction, Buckland Auction One, and Buckland Auction Two.
Cover of the Month [NEEDS A RESTART!]
In 2004, we started a new feature on the MCS
website: "The Cover of the Month".
Currently, we do not have any new material
and need your help!
Please send a scan and information
on your interesting machine cancel.
It doesn't have to be rare or expensive to be
interesting; that is one of the great things
about machine cancel collecting. Go to the
Cover of the Month page to see all of the covers
we've published so far.
New WW II APO Book
The "classic" triumvirate: Bart Billings, the late Bob Payne, and Reg Morris
have completed a WW II Book of APOs, the result of over 10 years effort.
Here is an article about the APO book,
giving more details about its contents, and how you can order a copy.
Officers, Directors, and Study Group Leaders
Need to communicate with an officer
of the Society? Identify a machine cancel? Take a look at
a list of officers of the Machine Cancel Society, as
well as specific study group
leaders of the Society.
Application for Membership
We need you! If you are not already
a member, please consider joining us. Our
Machine Cancel Society membership application form is
simple. Just fill it out, and mail it in!
Society News Items
As issues come up from time to time, related to the
Society, this page will keep you informed. Also
any news items of interest for the website
will be included.
Our Machine Cancel Society news page has
timely information. Current items are dated December 25, 2009.
Machine Cancel Database
The Society has a long-term project to
build a database of all known machine
cancels. The linked page describes
some of the results already achived with this project.
On-Line Edition of The Machine Cancel Forum
As an experiment, we put most of
the content from an issue of The Machine
Cancel Forum on-line for your reading
enjoyment.
The sample issue of
the Machine Cancel Forum is available for
your to preview some of the interesting articles that appear
in our newsletter.
Machine Cancel Links
What's a web page without links?
Our link page has links to other machine cancel websites.
Proud Members of...
Contact information for the Society's President.
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