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Archiver > SOG-UK > 2001-06 > 0992372138


From: Jeremy Wilkes <>
Subject: [SoG] You can't trust anything
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 14:55:38 -0400


I should be interested to learn a little more of the date stamps on the
telegrams.

Presumably there is an error in the dates given by Simon Pugh, as a date 24
hours after a wedding in 1939 would still be in 1939, unless the wedding
had been on new year's eve.

More details of the two datestamps would be useful. Was the post office in
the U.K.? If so, were the stamps single-ring counter stamps, or some other
device? Which office was involved?

It is difficult to believe that the Post Office was deliberately giving a
false date. Apart from the fact that this would negative the purpose of
using a dated stamp, it could produce various undesirable results, not
least appearing to cancel postage stamps before they were issued. It could
also assist in fraud.

Fixed-date stamps were comparitively unusual during the last century. An
error in the insertion of a slug is a more likely explanation. We are told
of the checks that are made when a datestamp is altered, before it is used.
However, errors in postmarks are fairly common.

Jeremy Wilkes

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