DATES ON USE OF BISECTED STAMPS AT ST. THOMAS (242 ITEMS)

                                            Number:

Tuesday, January 20              18

Wednesday, January 21         44

Thursday, January 22            20

Friday, January 23                  16

Saturday, January 24              3

First week total                      111

Monday, Januar 26                  9

Tuesday, January 27               11

Wednesday, January 28          7

Thursday, January 29              1

Friday, January 30                  11

Saturday, January 31               0

Second week total                   39

February - 1-14                        31

February 15-28                        13

February total                          44

March                                        35

April                                           10

May                                            12

March-May total                      57

As the table shows, the initial philatelic interest barely lasted one week. The bisects could be used at St.Thomas for 123 days, but 46% of the total usage was in the first 5 days. The new shipment of 1 cent stamps arrived March 1 - and only 21% of the bisects were mailed on St.Thomas after that date (an 11 week period).

TWO DIFFERENT POSTMARKS USED AT ST. THOMAS 

The second day of bisected use - January 21 - was likely one of the busiest days ever at the St.Thomas Post Office. On that date two different handstamps were used, a fact no one seems to have noted before Arnold Sorensen brought that to attention in The Posthorn August 2008.

The cancels have minor differences, but the main difference is that one cancel has a period after ST (ST.) and the other skows a colon (ST:). The handstamp with the "colon" had replaced the "period" cancel in the early 1890s - and is much more common.

The likely reason multipe cancels were used - is that the mail volume required two people to handle - and the older cancel was put into use on a need to basis. Photo skows the two different postmarks.

Del siden