U.S. Machine Cancel Identifier – Barry Rectilinear
![[barry machine cancel]](../machines/barry_rectilinear2.jpg)
Your machine cancel was made by a Barry machine that had a rectilinear postmark. That looks like a long word, but it simply means that the postmark was made up of several horizontal lines of text.
The killer for this example is a set of horizontal lines. There are various mixes of cancels made by Barry machines, including those with rectilinear postmarks and wavy lines in the killer, or angled lines in the killer. Other Barry machines impressed circular postmarks and oval postmarks.
The rectilinear postmarks of the Barry machine have horizontal lines above and/or below the lettering. This is in contrast to the rectilinear postmarks of, for instance, the Columbia machine, or the Hampden machine.
Because of potential confusion about Barry types, I’ve created a web page that shows the various Barry cancelling machine types in one place.
Barry cancels can often be identifed by the fact that the feeder mechanism for the machine was a series of pins that grabbed the card or envelope near its right edge. If there is evidence of slight pin impressions near the right edge of the card or envelope, the cancel may be a Barry.
There is a bit more information available about these machines on my Machine Web page.
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