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On the next pages you will find a list with all the French cancels in the collections of Jan Paul van der Pas and Eef Smitshuysen, and cancels mentioned in the magazine  DMG-Motivgruppe Mitteilungsblatt from Mr. J.C. van Soeren.

We do not pretend to give you a complete list of all cancels, but we did our best. Therefore we will welcome any supplement you can send us. Many French cancels were used with or without department numbers. Also many cancels were printed with advertising text on the left and/or right side of the town-mark. Some of these left-right and number variations are mentioned in the list, but many other cancels must have one or more variations.

In future issues of the stamp collector we will describe some of the French cancels in small articles. (more information about the caves on the cancel). In this list no FDC cancels are mentioned, just the common ones.

How to obtain the cancels: many cancels are still in use today. If you write to the syndicat d'initiative in the town with a cave-cancel, they will send you some information (about the town or cave) in an envelope - posted in the town with cave cancel - very often with special envelopes. Try nr. 22. Les Eyzies, you will be surprised. Still in use (but not 100 % certain) nrs. 4, 9,11,15,18, 22, 23, 27, 29, 33, 40, 41, 46, 47, 52, 56, 57.

Some of the older cancels are very rare and therefore very hard to obtain. Send eventually your whishes to the editor, perhaps we can help you.

Notes:

Numbers 5 and 6 are not completely pictured. These very old cancels are a bit bigger then they are shown in the list (more text). Numbers 23 and 41 are private machine cancels. Numbers A1 -A3 Show artificial caves - in fact old building stone mines, nowadays used for wine storage.