{"id":1468,"date":"2015-01-15T16:42:22","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T16:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stampsofarmenia.com\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2015-01-15T16:42:22","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T16:42:22","slug":"alexandropol-b-genuine-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stampsofarmenia.com\/?p=1468","title":{"rendered":"Alexandropol “b” – genuine or not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pictorial stamps and the overprints itself are already \u00a0a rich\u00a0treasure trove. If we put our attention to the cancellations used even more interesting diversities and things to research come to view.<\/p>\n

Of course, like with the overprints, sometimes things are not easy. For instance lets have a look at the following cancel:<\/p>\n

\"alexandropol<\/a>\"alexandropol<\/a><\/p>\n

The town name is clearly Alexandropol (nowadays Gyumri) – without an “Erivan” addendum and \u00a0the character is a Cyrillic “b” letter (handwriting style).<\/p>\n

\"b<\/a><\/p>\n

For comparison the Cyrillic alphabet (snippet from Wikipedia).<\/p>\n

\"kyrill<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the Alexandropol b cancel apparently used at the 28 of February 1920. What makes this stamp special is that it is really, really rare. It is not mentioned in the Tchilinghirian and the early Zakiyan book. The are however descriptions of this cancel in Ashford and the current Zakiyan.<\/p>\n

This is the Ashford type 7 cancel drawing (it is made by hand).<\/p>\n

\"ashford<\/a><\/p>\n

Not much information is added but the following text:<\/p>\n

Double circle date stamp of earlier\u00a0type (Diam. 25 mm. Horiz. lines thin,\u00a07 mm. apart) reading ALEKSANDROPOL \/\u00a0* * b. Impressed in black.<\/pre>\n
Two type “b” cancels are listed in Zakiyan #30 and #35. Here the corresponding drawings.<\/p>\n
\"zakiyan<\/a>\"zakiyan<\/a><\/p>\n
This alone is already vexing. How can there be two different cancels with the same “numeration” character? Like Ashford, Zakiyan did not use scans or photocopies but hand made drawings as well. This is a problem since sometimes special marks (the dent in the Delishan cancel) are not present and we do not know how accurate distinct characteristics, like position of certain characters and stars are.<\/p>\n
Let us take a look at the\u00a0dimensions of the present cancel.<\/p>\n
\"m1\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The outer circle is 28.5 mm wide.<\/p>\n
\"m2\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The inner circle is 19.8 mm wide.<\/p>\n
\"m3\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The distance between the horizontal bars is 12.3 mm. This is rather much. Normally only 10 mm is found.<\/p>\n
\"m4\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The unframed Z is 7 mm long.<\/p>\n
Now we can rule out the cancel Ashford described because his cancel is only 25 mm wide. Perhaps this is Zakiyan #35 which is smaller than #30.<\/p>\n
When comparing the cancel on the stamp with the drawings more discrepancies are found:<\/p>\n