One Page. CPO in the Netherlands
Contents
Coded Postal Obliterators (CPO) in the Netherlands
Introduction
The CPO cancel (in Dutch: puntstempel or nummerstempel) was introduced in the Netherlands on April 1, 1869. Number stamps were used by 259 post offices in our country up to and including 15 June 1893. Auxiliary post offices were not numbered. Cancellation was perfect by this type of stamp. But sometimes the postage stamp was also slightly damaged by the "points"
Because the stamps were only used in the period 1869-1893, the CPO's are found on the postage stamps available in that period:
Format of the CPO
The CPO has a symmetrical shape and has 26 points, which are arranged in a diamond pattern with the number in the middle. The official name of the stamp was "Nommerstempel", but the public soon spoke of "Puntstempel". The number is a code for the post office of dispatch.
List of Offices which used CPO
A complete list of all 259 offices can be found on the Internet. Some examples:
1. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/PuntstempelFor almost all offices (1-259), I have examples added to the respective city pages of the Netherlands at:
https://www.stampsoftheworld.co.uk/wiki/Category:CPO_in_the_Netherlands
Some particularities
In order to avoid misinterpretations between numbers 6 and 9, and 66 and 99, in some periods of time an extra "dot" was added. Here are examples:
