page_title: Coded postal obliterators
section_title: British Post Offices abroad
hierarchical_section_title: Coded postal obliterators / United Kingdom and colonies / British Post Offices abroad
caption_attribution_description: English: Uruguay fragment with barred oval "C28" of British Post Office Abroad in Montevideo, Great Britain 6d + 1sh + Uruguay 1866-67 10c Numeral. Русский: Вырезка с оттиском овального буквенно-цифрового почтового штемпеля «C28» британского почтового отделения в Монтевидео.
context_page_description: Coded postal obliterators are a type of postmarks that had an obliterator encoded with a number, letter or letters, or a combination of these, to identify the post office of origin. They were introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1843, three years after the first stamp was issued. They became common throughout the nineteenth century but very few remained in use until the twentieth century.
  The practice of cancelling a stamp on a letter with a device to prevent reuse and applying alongside, or on the reverse of the article, a dated stamp including the post office name, began in 1840 when postage stamps were introduced in the United Kingdom.
  Soon, in many countries, various systems developed where the obliterator had a code identifying the post office of origin. Most such codes were enclosed within a design of dots, rays, bars or concentric circles or ovals to ensure the effective cancellation of the stamp. Similar designs without an enclosed code are known as dumb or mute obliterators. Later the duplex canceller with the datestamp on the left and the obliterator on the right came into common use.
context_section_description: Coded obliterators were used at many British post offices operating in foreign countries (mainly in Central and South America and the Ottoman Empire) using British stamps. They include:
  Argentina: "B32" (Buenos Aires)
  Bolivia: "C39" (Cobija)
  Brazil: "C81" (Bahia) "C82" (Pernambuco) and "C83" (Rio de Janeiro)
  Chile: "C30" (Valparaíso), "C37" (Caldera) and "C40" (Coquimbo)
  Colombia: "C35" (Panama), "C56" or "C65" (Carthagena), "C62" (Santa Martha), "E88" (Colon) and "F69" (Savanilla)
  Cuba: "C58" (Havana) and "C88" (St Jago-de-Cuba)
  Danish West Indies: "C51" or "D26" (Saint Thomas)
  Dominican Republic: "C86" (Porto Plata) and "C87" (Santo Domingo)
  Ecuador: "C41" (Guayaquil))
  Fernando Po: "247" (Fernando Po)
  Haiti: "C59" (Jacmel) and "E53" (Port-au-Prince)
  Mexico: "C63" (Tampico)
  Nicaragua: "C57" (Greytown)
  Ottoman Empire: "G06" (Beyrout), "C" (Constantinople), "F87" (Smyrna) and "S" (Stamboul)
  Peru: "C36" (Arica), "C38" (Callao), "D87" (Iquique), "C42" (Islay), "C43" (Paita), "D65" (Pisagua) and "D74" (Pisco and Chincha Islands)
  Puerto Rico: "F84" (Aguadilla), "F83" (Arroyo), "F85" (Mayaguez), "582" (Naguabo), "F88" (Ponce) and "C61" (San Juan)
  Uruguay: "C28" (Montevideo)
  Venezuela: "D22" (Ciudad Bolivar) and "C60" (La Guayra)
caption: British stamps with a "C28" postmark of Montevideo, Uruguay
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