Kicking mule fancy cancel handstamp

1870-1900

The number of 'fancy' cancellations applied to mail in the 1870s through 1890s was as varied as the imaginations of those postal clerks who created them. One of the more popular designs was a 'kicking mule'. Usage has been recorded from several towns, of which those applied at Port Townsend, Washington Territory, in the 1880s are best known. More information about the Port Townsend 'kicking mule' cancel appears in "Tale of the Kicking Mule" by Lee Cornell, privately published in 1949.