Postcard cancelled with Sloper punch

The first postcards with imprinted stamps were issued by the Austrian postal administration on 1 October 1869. The British Post Office was initially not in favour, because the concept demanded a cheaper rate for this form of open communication. 

However, the public were enthusiastic about the new idea. Exactly one year after the Austrians, Britain issued its first card imprinted with a ½d (half penny) stamp of new design. It came in two sizes both sold at the same price of one ½d. Some 575,000 cards passed through the London Chief Office on the first day (1 October 1870) and in the first full year 75 million were posted. 

In a Circular of 10 October 1870 postmasters were informed:

"The postage stamps on some of the Post Cards will be obliterated by means of a punch instead of by the ordinary obliterating stamp".

In London the punch cancellation was of perforated holes in the form of an orb and cross, with a punch supplied by Joseph Sloper. The example shown here is one of the earliest known examples of the London perforation, 22 November 1870. Sloper's machine was trialled in different formats in London and Liverpool. In June 1871 four machines were ordered (three for London and one for Liverpool) at a cost of seven guineas each.

Other methods of punching the cards included clipping (Manchester) and single central holes (Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bradford). This use of punching for cancellation ceased in 1876.