Razor Cancels
In 1866 Güller & Sons made the first rotating date-wheel cancelers for Swiss Post, Telephone, and Telegraph (PTT). Twenty-three years later in 1889 Frédéric de Coppet patented his first flexible-head canceler mechanism combining both technologies. His patent described the most significant canceler design in the history of the Swiss PTT. These handmade test cancelers were named “razor” cancelers by British collectors in the 1970’s and have become known as “rasierklingenstempel” in Switzerland.

Gold Medal – Lugano, Switzerland.
Swiss National Exhibition held every 6 years.
NABA 2018 Switzerland
(.pdf 96 page 28.2MB download)

Link to Power Point Presentation:
DeCoppet Razor Cancels of Switzerland – 34.3MB download.

This exhibit won the Grand Multiframe Award and Large Gold at PIPEX 2017, Portland, OR, plus Postal History Society Medal, qualified for Champion of Champions, StampShow 2017, Richmond VA.

The exhibit in various forms has won over 10 Gold Awards since 2007, including Stampshow 2007, Garfield-Perry 2008, WESTPEX 2012, PIPEX 2015, and Large Gold PIPEX 2021 (virtual show). August 2021 WESTPEX Multiframe Reserve Grand, Large Gold.

2 Comments

  1. Frank Vignola
    March 25, 2018

    Am giving a talk to the Greater Eugene and Springfield Stamp club.

    Reply
  2. Wayne Henderson
    October 15, 2018

    Hello Roger,
    I came across your exhibit on De Coppet Razor Blade cancels and found it to be very interesting and informative. The range of material that you have is quite impressive and the amount of work that has gone into the write-up is obvious!

    I noticed the history that you presented on the precursor cancels as well, in particular the Ste. Croix experimental canceler. According to your exhibit, you are aware of five cancels of this Ste. Croix type prior to 1899. I would like to let you know that I recently bought a copy of Zumstein 71D, 1 Fr. Standing Helvetia, canceled with this device on 15.X.98. I assume that it is not already included in your census of pre-1899 examples of this cancel, since I found it in a lot of relatively common stamps with no mention of anything special about any of them. It would thus appear to be a sixth example for your census. It is maybe also noteworthy that it was used during the first week of the razor blade trials.

    Let me know if you would like me to send you a high-definition scan of the stamp.

    Sincerely,
    Wayne

    Reply

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