I picked this up at a show yesterday because it looked interesting. I can only find 3 similar dials on the two major stamp sales sites - all priced over $20 and none have a negative cancel.

Can someone verify that it is a hard to find dial and opine on whether or not the negative "E" is a railroad cancel (Eastbound).

Thank you

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re: So Boston Station with Negative "E"

Dial refers to the portion of the cancel with the information regarding location, date, time, etc. Killer refers to the portion of the cancel used to make the stamp unusable for postage purposes.

Probably mainly used in identifying machine cancels - an American flag cancel might be identified as "Dial 2, Flag (or killer) 5 for example. There are almost an infinite number of combinations when you factor in locations and stations.......

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re: So Boston Station with Negative "E"

Hi Don,

Thank you. I couldn't match it up to any of the negative letter "E"'s in Cole or Hearst- Zarenski. Will keep it in my most current "research further" pile.

Think I will look for a copy of the Boston book - the cover below came with a note "North Andover, Mass to Boston. BPM 2344 listing 6/23/79 as earliest usage."

This predates that by over a month but we all know how quickly EKU and LKU change and that note is over 20 years old. Also found a large handful of Boston cancels on cover I set aside for further research (Masonics, oddball machines, even a hard to find Leavitt receiver)..so might as well bite the bullet.

Also added a pix of one of my favorite negative cancels

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re: So Boston Station with Negative "E"

It is upside down - it was a round canceller usually without markings so the letters were often applied upside down or sideways - remember that it's only function was to make the stamp so it could not be reused so there was often no attempt made to make things neat and orderly (think about todays use of sharpies an markers).....

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