Pre-cancellation of type b 1 (MICHEL) : typographic overprint with the location (mono- or bilingual) and year of validity (four-digit).
This overprint is used on this stamp from 1933 till 1937.
MICHEL grants only 1 number for this overprint, regardless of the location, year or the position of it. Belgian Specialized Catalog however grants a different number for every year and location. It also distinguishes the precancels according to the position of the overprint:
第一 = readable from the bottom to the top
第二 = readable from the top to the bottom
This gives the following list of precancels:
PRE257 = ANTWERPEN 1933, position A or B
PRE258 = BRUXELLES 1933 BRUSSEL, only position A
PRE259 = LIEGE 1933, only position A
PRE271 = ANTWERPEN 1934, position A or B
PRE272 = BRUXELLES 1934 BRUSSEL, position A or B
PRE273 = LIEGE 1934, only position B
PRE287 = ANTWERPEN 1935, only position A
PRE288 = BRUXELLES 1935 BRUSSEL, only position A
PRE298 = ANTWERPEN 1936, position A or B
PRE299 = BRUXELLES 1936 BRUSSEL, position A or B
PRE317 = ANTWERPEN 1937, only position A
PRE318 = BRUXELLES 1937 BRUSSEL, only position A
Attention: there are also other, hand placed pre-cancellations with monolingual or bilingual indication of the location and a two- or four-digit indication of the year of validity. These are no typographic overprints and MICHEL doesn't grant a catalog number for such hand placed (type a) precancels. The Belgian Specialized Catalog distinguishes more than 6000 different hand placed precancels.
