Cancel Index

Covers Indexed by Cancel

A Cancel or Cancellation is the hand or machine applied mark that is used to "cancel" the stamp on the cover. It usually consists of a round dial and long "killer" bars that are applied on top of the stamp and thus mark it as used. The dial typically contains the ship name and date of cancellation. A cancel may have no date (or no legible date), exactly one date (most typical), or multiple dates (rare). The killer bars sometimes contain text between the bars.

Indices:

The Collection uses "The Locy System for Classifying Naval Postmarks, As Revised ©, of the Universal Ship Cancellation Society" (ie, Type 1, Type 2, etc). The Universal Ship Cancellation Society publishes and sells an excellent reference: Catalog of United States Naval Postmarks (ISBN 0-9657316-0-X).

After you select an index, you are presented with one or more pages listing categories based on the grouping criteria. Each page will have approximately 50 categories. Categories with recently added or updated entries are identified by having an asterisk (*) at the far right.

After selecting a category, you are presented with one or more pages listing all entries in the collection that belong to that category. Recently added or updated entries are identified by having an asterisk (*) at the far right.

"Recently Added or Updated" entries are those that were added or updated either within the last month or the last three updates (whichever is greater).

Covers versus Index Entries:

Entries in an index are based on a cancel. In most cases, a cover will only have one cancel and therefore only generate one entry in the index. However, if a cover has multiple cancels or a single cancel has multiple ship names or dates, then the cover will generate multiple entries in the index: one for each ship / date combination. When displayed, the index will indicate if one entry is for the same cover as another entry appearing earlier in the list.

Using the Index Entry [Menu] Feature

When you move the cursor over the [Menu] text (found in the first column of each entry), the screen will automatically expand to display a menu of options related to that entry:

Display Thumbnail Image of the Cover
Display Front Image of the Cover
Display Back Image of the Cover
Display Information about the Cachet
Display List of Cancel Types for the Ship
Display Ship History (from Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships web page)
Display XML Source File for the Cover
Display List of Duplicates of the Cover
Display Miscellaneous Information available for the Ship
Display Contents of this Cover

The menu will display as long as the cursor remains within the menu area. If you move the cursor off the menu area then the menu will disappear. Note that the [Menu] text does not do anything if clicked.