The LNER Encyclopedia

The label shown here *might* say LNER - or something else - size of each label is about 13 mm wide by 18 mm high. Does anyone here know what it is?



Many thanks for any help you can provide.

Here is how I work it out:

The letters on the left are N and L - I don't think there's any question about that.

The two letters on the right are tricky, though. The large one could be an R or an A.
I think it's an R, but I could be wrong.
The smaller letter on the right could be an E or a C. I have a slight leaning towards E,
because the cross bar of the R extends beyond the leg of the R to form the cross bar of an E.
But it might be a C.

Combining all of those options in all reasonable ways, I get the following sixteen letter combinations:

NLAC, NLAE, NLRC, NLRE, LNCA, LNEA, LNCR, LNER, NCLA, NCLR, NELA, NELR, LANC, LRNC, LANE, LRNE

The only one of those that means anything to me is "LNER."

It certainly looks like the initials LNER and from the style I would say that it is from the 20's/30's so the date would fit, but it is unlike any LNER item I have ever seen. The house style for LNER printed material was "Gill Sans", a typeface designed for the company, and the usual logo was either the one at the top of this page or an intricate intertwined gothic style.

They look like parcel stamps from an independent company. I would have thought that if they were British in origin the figure would either read 2d or 2/- in those days 2x2/- would be an astronomical price so i am presuming we have 4d worth of stamp if they are British.
I agree with 60041 that the lettering should be gill sans bold or the intertwined gothic of the early twenties and they dont look like any LNER label ive seen.
Another thing has occured to me if they are parcels stamps would they still carry the current Kings Head perhaps any stamp collectors on board can tell us that one

There were all-sorts of different stamp like stamps for commercial/etc use. I agree they look like something along those lines. Most would not have had the King's head unless they were an "official" (eg. Government Dept). Such officials were typically standard postage stamps with perforated initials - eg. "IR" for Inland Revenue. From what I remember from my childhood, officials and their kin are a whole sub-branch of philately.

Richard

Thanks for the replies. I acquired the item in the US, from a dealer in rail philately, who bought it with a collection of train-related stamps, so he assumed it had a rail connection. I've been asking around for five years now, trying to find out what it is. A few days ago I sent the image to Linn's Stamp News, the main US philatelic weekly, they will print it in their Collectors" Forum, perhaps one of their readers will recognize it. I will post any reply it generates here. All the best.

That makes sense. The graphic style looks much more American than Britain.

Good luck with your hunt for the owners of the labels, i just had another look at them and wondered if the initials were Us in origin.

From memory, the stamps you call, "officials" are known to philatelists as "Perfins" and were used not only by government departments but also by local authorities and large companies, the objective being to identify them as theirs in case of theft or abuse. Once postmeters, or franking machines, became available, they went out of fashion. Whether or not railway companies or BR used them, I know not, but perhaps someone out there does.

L&Y Man

If it is from USA, might not the letters stand for Lehigh & New England Railroad?

L&Y: Yes that jogs some memories: Perfins have the initials perforated with little dots. I remember "Officials" have black overprinting - some may well have been perfins as well.

Richard

Speaking from memory again, there was a time when official receipts and cheques were subject to stamp duty of 2d. The easiest way to comply with this was to go to the local post office and buy a sheet of 2d stamps, one of which would be affixed to the receipt. This is why pre-decimal stamps bore the inscription, "Postage Revenue". The banks had an arrangement with the Treasury to have "stamp duty paid" printed on cheques. Large companies, utilities and local authorities would have their 2d stamps overprinted with their name, again to prevent theft and/or abuse.

L&Y Man