One of the greatest challenges every stamp collector faces is identifying stamps and postmarks that use foreign writing system. Like most western people, I’m most familiar with Latin alphabets and numbers. So when I last week reworked my collection of Japanese stamps, I was ahead of some serious challenge. Fortunately the years have thought me few handy tricks / cheats worth sharing.

Before heading onwards, a word of warning… I have no real in-depth knowledge on topic of Japanese stamps / language, and the below tidbits are something I have learned from web, other collectors etc. They can be (and very likely some are) misleading piece of advice. So use these at Your own risk

Identifying postal and non-postal (revenue) postmarks

Most worldwide stamp catalogs I have come with a footnote about non-postal (telegraph, post giro etc) cancellations on early Japanese stamps. Always the same warning: non-postal (revenue) cancellations are extremely common and of much lower value (20% of postally used catalog value). Michel generously provides 4 sample images of common non-postal cancellation types, and recommends a book about the topic. And that’s the best advice general stamp catalogues have about this topic.

I don’t know if specialized Japanese stamp catalogs (Sakura, JSCA) would contain more information / advice on this topic, but the practise of big four (Michel, Scott, SG, Yvert) is definitely irritating from the viewpoint of common collector. So how to identify what’s what? Below are some heavy generalizations I’ve learned:

Bota postmarks

If the cancellation looks like big blob of ink ( / killer cancellation), it’s called Bota postmark. These are sought after postal cancellations.

Unfortunately I don’t have any of these to display. Yet.

International postmarks

If the cancellation is using Latin letters, it’s so called International postmark. Again, these are sought after postal cancellations used on specific post offices.

Telegraph postmarks

If the cancellation has double circle with a small inner circle (without inscription inside), it’s usually a telegraph (revenue) postmark.

Double-circle postmarks
If the cancellation has double circle with larger inner circle (with inscription inside), it’s usually a postal cancellation.

Non-postal postmark
If the cancel looks like below, it’s usually so called non-postal dater:

Dates on the postmarks

Japanese postmarks usually use regnal years, dating from the year of the Emperor’s ascension, counting inclusively. So in order to receive western years:

• for Meiji Era, add the year to 1867
• for Taisho, add the year to 1911
• for Showa, add the year to 1925
• and for the present reign, add the year to 1988.

And especially with older (pre1940s) stamps, remember, in the postmark, the script reads from RIGHT to LEFT.

Closing words

Personally I don’t care much whether or not the cancellation on stamp is postal or non-postal (revenue) use, but I do know that for some it’s very important criteria. I’m just happy to include at least one sound & nice looking copy of each stamp to my collection

If You know more about the topic, please feel free to educate me (and rest of blog readers)….One things for sure though…. Collecting Japan is one tough nut for us occidentals !

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