Egypt classic cancels 02 - General cancels T6 - T12

In this second part of eary Egypt cancels, I continue in the year 1877.
Egypt's chief postmaster, and founder of the Egypt postal system, Giacomo Muzzi, resigned in 1876.

He was succeeded by Alfred Caillard - of French origine - in 1877, and under his supervison, Egypt's handstamps changed from Italian to French.

Type VI

Type VI

Type VII

In 1878, a duplex cancel was introduced, similar to cancels used in the British Empire.
These duplex cancels had a regular cancel in French and Arabic, and next to it, a mute cancel with the letter A. This cancel type was only used in Alexandria.

Type VII - duplex cancel Alexandria

Type VIII

In 1880, Caillard was succeeded by Walter Halton Pasha, who introduced next to French, also the English names on the cancels.
This type, has the English or French name on top of the cancel, and the Arabic name at the bottom.
see also Type XII, where the two languages changed place, giving preference to the Arabic name.

Type VIII

Type VIII pair

Type IX

Also in 1880, a hand cancel with bars was introduced.
For this type, there are several subtypes. The inner ring has bars on both sides, both up and down. There are variations with only bars in the top part, or only on the bottom part.

The number of bars vary as well. Going from 3 bars, up to 11.
Furthermore, some bars  are attached to the inner circle, other cancels have bars that are not attached.

Type IX.1

Type IX.6

Because of the similar design with swiss cancels that were in use at the same time, this type is also called the 'Swiss type'.

Type IX 5 bars and 6 bars

Type IX 7 bars and 8 bars

Type X

The 10th type came out in 1882, and is sought because of its limited use (less then 40 known locations), mainly in the north of Egypt, and some of them in Sudan.
Specific for this type of hand cancel, is the star and crescent under the city name.

Type X - star and crescent

The last known use of this cancel type is 1919.

Type XI

Similar to type X, but now with only a star, is this type XI.

This cancel type was in use between 1907 and 1923.

Type XII

The last type, type XII, is similar to type VIII.
Where in type VIII, the French or English name is on top of the cancel, and the Arabic name on the lower part, the Type XII stamps have the Arabic on top, and the 'foreign' language at the bottom of the cancel.

Type XII - Arabic name on top

to be continued...

Egypt classic cancels 01 - General cancels T1 - T5

When it comes to cancels on stamps of Egypt, the work of R. Seymour Blomfield is the basic catalog for all collectors.

For all cancels in the 'classic era', roughly from 1860 - till the first World War, an extended description is given for regular (postal use) cancels and special cancels.
In this first post, I will start with some of the 12 basic types - regular cancels.

Types I to V have one thing in common, they all have the Italian name of Egypt (Egiziane) on the cancel.
Often however, the key text on the upper part of the cancel, is incomplete or missing.

In this case, the name of the month - also in Italian - can help determinate wheter the cancel is one of the first 5 types or not.

gennaio	January	luglio	July
febbraio	February	agosto	August
marzo	March	settembre	September
aprile	April	ottobre	October
maggio	May	novembre	November
giugno	June	dicembre	December

Type I and II

In 1865 Type I was introduced. All cancels have "Poste Vice-Reali Egiziane"

Type I

From 1867, Type II was also used, here we find : "Regi Poste Egiziane" - Regi means 'Royal'

Type II

Type III

With the introduction of the 3rd type, both Type I and II were used no longer.
Type III has the text : "V.R. Poste Egiziane" - V.R. stands for Vice Reali (Vice-Regal)

Type III

Type III cancel on 1 Piastre - 28 Jan 1875

Type IV

In 1873, a 4th cancel type was introduced, along the remaining Type III.
This time, the text is "Poste Khedeuie Egiziane" - Khedivial Post.
This type comes with a single or a double outter ring.

Type IV - single ring

Type V

The last type with Italian writings, is type V.
The main text here is (only) "Poste Egiziane". It was issued in around March 1873, till June 1880 - next to types III and IV.

Type V

Type V on 5 paras - 21 Feb 1877

Important for this type, is that one of the subtypes (Type V.4) has Arabic text in the middle of the cancel.
The date therefore is in Arabic and not in Latin script.
Those cancels were only used in upper Egypt and the Sudan area. All of those cancels have identical sizes (no matter the amount of text that needed to fit in).

to be continued...