Fancy cancelled?

[nyiangelo]

I'm currently looking on feebay at an old envelope with the post mark of an old fort in my area. Looks reliable and the dealer has a great reputation. It is all the dealer deals in, is with old envelopes,stamps,postmarks. Anyways it ain't cheap. Dealer claims it cost more because it has a fancy cancel. Which is just two big X's over the stamps. Is this true? Any insight on this that you can offer.

[nyiangelo]

Well being the collector that I am I couldn't pass this one up. It just has local significance I guess. But I kept telling my self what are the odds of seeing one of these again. So I'm happy and it will go in the display case.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting

[AU24K]

From what I've read about cancellations, most postmasters long ago had to come up with their own means of cancellation. Many just used permanent ink pens or markers. Some cut the stamps, while some even used hole punching.
The more "artistic" postmasters used a piece of cork and cut designs in it and then just inked it up and stamped their unique cancellation. Those are fairly rare, but if you can find one of those in a color other than black, you may have a valuable cancellation. Years ago when I worked at the post office, I occasionally hand cancelled stamps that had missed the cancellation machine with my own home made cork canceller. And of course, I used a colored ink pad.
Scott