Hi all
As a postcard collector (and newbie seller) I know almost nothing about stamps so please accept my apologies if I use the wrong terminology or come across as particularly ill-informed.

I have a nice old postcard from 1936 with what I think is a provisional stamp on the back – as you can see by the image it’s not an actual paper stamp, but an ink stamp. I did a bit of research and the stamp appears to be a result of the 1936 abdication crisis. Hence I think that it’s a provisional stamp for George VI. Besides the fact that I’ve never seen one of these before what’s confusing me is that Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936. But the postmark is dated September 1936 when Edward was still King.

The postcard itself looks perfectly legitimate – it shows the Frys chocolate factory, which is near Bristol and the card talks about the senders visit to the factory. The question I have I suppose is, is the stamp more collectable than the postcard or are these things really quite common – or question number two, is the stamp dubious in some way?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated as this is very much out of my area of expertise.

Giselle

I believe its called a meter mark.

These are applied by a machine that prints the postage paid using a design like this. This is very similar to the meter marks made by Pitney Bowes machinery today where a certain amount of postage is purchased from the Post Office and credited to the machine that prints the postage paid mark on the envelope.

Ahhh so that's what it is! You learn something new every day!

Many thanks for that

Giselle

Also, if you examine the meter mark you will find that the King is George V not George VI.
Tony

Hi all
As a postcard collector (and newbie seller) I know almost nothing about stamps so please accept my apologies if I use the wrong terminology or come across as particularly ill-informed.

I have a nice old postcard from 1936 with what I think is a provisional stamp on the back – as you can see by the image it’s not an actual paper stamp, but an ink stamp. I did a bit of research and the stamp appears to be a result of the 1936 abdication crisis. Hence I think that it’s a provisional stamp for George VI. Besides the fact that I’ve never seen one of these before what’s confusing me is that Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936. But the postmark is dated September 1936 when Edward was still King.

The postcard itself looks perfectly legitimate – it shows the Frys chocolate factory, which is near Bristol and the card talks about the senders visit to the factory. The question I have I suppose is, is the stamp more collectable than the postcard or are these things really quite common – or question number two, is the stamp dubious in some way?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated as this is very much out of my area of expertise.

Giselle

There would have been no need for an emergency stamp for the new reign.

I can well remember as a little boy waiting for the new Queen Elizabeth stamps to come out, long after she had become queen. And they did not come all at once, only when the stock of each value justified its replacement. For a long time (I couldn't possible now say how long) there was a mixture of stamps of the two reigns on sale.

On sale. But it was perfectly legal to USE Edward VIII stamps throughout George VI's reign and throughout Elizabeth II's reign, except that this was interrupted by decimal currency. George VI stamps were legal until decimal currency too. It would be interesting to know if a George VI £1 stamp was still valid, as decimalisation has made no difference to it.

All this being so, there would have been no rush to change a machine from GV to EVIII , particularly if there were rumours that a subsequent change to GVI was in the pipeline.

Not really relevant, but the telephone exchange in Reigate was built in 1936 and has an E VIII cypher on it, which must be very unusual.

Newt

Ref. the last part of your post regarding the telephone exchange in Reigate - there are apparently only 2 buildings known with the EVIIIR cypher - the other one being the Post Office in Bangor, Co. Down.

Thank you for that. I didn't live in Reigate, but I went to the Grammar School, and we had to walk past the telephone exchange (complexly unsupervised !) on our way to the the sports ground on the other side of the town. This took us past this, and I always used to think it must be unusual. Now you have confirmed it.

I also know a pillar box with no royal cypher at all, which I used to assume was erected when they weren't sure what was going to happen, but apparently there is no connection.

Newt

Ref. the last part of your post regarding the telephone exchange in Reigate - there are apparently only 2 buildings known with the EVIIIR cypher - the other one being the Post Office in Bangor, Co. Down.

Hi all
As a postcard collector (and newbie seller) I know almost nothing about stamps so please accept my apologies if I use the wrong terminology or come across as particularly ill-informed.

I have a nice old postcard from 1936 with what I think is a provisional stamp on the back – as you can see by the image it’s not an actual paper stamp, but an ink stamp. I did a bit of research and the stamp appears to be a result of the 1936 abdication crisis. Hence I think that it’s a provisional stamp for George VI. Besides the fact that I’ve never seen one of these before what’s confusing me is that Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936. But the postmark is dated September 1936 when Edward was still King.

The postcard itself looks perfectly legitimate – it shows the Frys chocolate factory, which is near Bristol and the card talks about the senders visit to the factory. The question I have I suppose is, is the stamp more collectable than the postcard or are these things really quite common – or question number two, is the stamp dubious in some way?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated as this is very much out of my area of expertise.

Giselle

Hi all
As a postcard collector (and newbie seller) I know almost nothing about stamps so please accept my apologies if I use the wrong terminology or come across as particularly ill-informed.

I have a nice old postcard from 1936 with what I think is a provisional stamp on the back – as you can see by the image it’s not an actual paper stamp, but an ink stamp. I did a bit of research and the stamp appears to be a result of the 1936 abdication crisis. Hence I think that it’s a provisional stamp for George VI. Besides the fact that I’ve never seen one of these before what’s confusing me is that Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936. But the postmark is dated September 1936 when Edward was still King.

The postcard itself looks perfectly legitimate – it shows the Frys chocolate factory, which is near Bristol and the card talks about the senders visit to the factory. The question I have I suppose is, is the stamp more collectable than the postcard or are these things really quite common – or question number two, is the stamp dubious in some way?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated as this is very much out of my area of expertise.

Giselle

It most certainly is a meter mark, or frank, as others have said, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was from a meter machine used at Fry's factory. The indicator PB (Pitney Bowes) 7 is visible which would be a very early contract - each business user was given a separate number in the die for each machine, and specialist collectors of these can tell which company they were issued to. A large company like Fry's would quite possibly have more than 1 franking machine. It's possible visitors to th efactory could buy a company postcard, pay for the card + the postage and it would be sent out with the company's mail

Ref. the last part of your post regarding the telephone exchange in Reigate - there are apparently only 2 buildings known with the EVIIIR cypher - the other one being the Post Office in Bangor, Co. Down.