Telegraph date stamps

In addition to the date stamps produced for use at the Electric Telegraph Office in Sydney, date stamps were also provided - from about 1880 - to most of the major Post & Telegraph Offices in Sydney and in the rural areas. These quite distinctive date stamps were oval in shape and made from rubber.

Smaller offices were not provided with the rubber ovals and here the usual postal date stamps had to be used to cancel stamps affixed to transmission forms and to date telegram delivery forms. Indeed it appears that very often, whichever datesamp was closest was the one used. The rubber ovals were used in both the Colonial and the Interim periods.

Modern (post 1920s) rubber date stamps can be accessed either through the list of NSW Telegraph Offices or by name from those which have had such rubber telegraph date stamps.

There is no listing of the telegraph date stamps produced for NSW Telegraph offices. Those described below are some which have been seen. Assistance is required to confirm dates and formats as well as to extend the list.

Click on the following hyperlink for details of the Australian classification scheme for Telegraph date stamps.

All the date stamps listed were made from rubber and almost always struck in purple. The words used to describe the office varied significantly but the following descriptions encompass the known examples: