The Lists

This page links to lots of lists. Four are complete lists of post office names, and the other ten are detailed lists of cancels. All are in Word format (.doc) and downloadable so that you can use them on your own computer and adapt them as desired. The complete lists and the 10 cancels lists were updated in March 2020, but have been superseded by my book 'Collecting Nigerian Cancellations' which was published in July 2021 by WASC. It is available as a free-to-download .pdf file from https://www.wasc.org.uk/NewFiles/online-pubs/Collecting%20Nigerian%20Cancellations.pdf. In the book the 10 detailed lists have been merged and converted into a format which makes them easier to use than the old lists on this site. Earlier sets of lists are available on the archive page. Each list uses blue highlight to show changes from the previous version.

Feel free to download and use these lists but please bear in mind that:

They are now out of date. The book contains the most recent versions
You may not publish these lists without my prior permission. I assert my rights to them as author
Information in these lists has been drawn from a range of sources including the three books described on the Sources page. The authors of those books also have copyrights
You will not find the detailed lists much use if you do not also have the books to look up illustrations of the types referred to
I very much hope that you will contact me with information to improve and add to the lists

The lists of offices

Complete list in alphabetical order: The list includes all new offices in the most recent detailed lists of cancels and the names of offices believed to have opened but for which no cancels have been seen. I've added opening dates for the great majority of offices, updated location information for some, and where I'm reasonably sure, I've indicated when I think a recorded office name actually refers to another office. That can reflect a change of name, a typo in offical lists,or a suspect identification by a collector. NB - this is a big file to download - over 4 MB. This list updated June 2020.
List of labels for collectors: Contains all the office names, formatted into labels 22mm square. Helps keep your collection tidy, though you will need to make your own labels for each cancel type. This list updated March 2020.
The unseen offices. Drawn from the Complete List, this file shows the offices which are thought to have opened up to 1980 but for which no 'live' cancels have been reported.This list was last updated June 2020.
List of NIPOST offices reported on the NIPOST (Nigerian Postal Service) website. The NIPOST site contains a post-office finder facility, in which offices are given state by state. I have taken the information and re-organised it so that office names are given in alphabetical order, followed by the name of the state where the office is located. Rob May tells me that this information was correct in 2001 but has not been updated since.
I have five lists of offices dating from 1949, 1963, 1966, 1973 and 1988 published by the postal authorities. I can send .pdf scans if you email me, but these are large files!
Cancels on cover. The lists indicate the number of covers seen for each cancel (if any). I've compiled a spreadsheet of covers which includes dates, transit cancels, destinations, markings, amount of postage and regisration labels. I'd be happy to share this list if you contact me to ask.
The lists include an increasing amount of post 1980 information. New cancels are described by Jones number where appropriate, and where there is no Jones equivalenet I have attempted simply to describe the cancel rather than start up a new classification system for such post 1980 cancellations.

The detailed lists of cancels

The A-Z lists of cancels are divided up for manageability into ten separate documents. The head of each document provides a key to abbreviations, use of colours etc. For each office the known cancels are listed, classified according to Jones, Proud, Ince and Sacher as relevant, with ealiest and latest use dates. The final two columns of each table give the date range of cancels in my own collection, but you can of course delete those... These lists were last updated March 2020 and have been superseded by the lists in Collecting Nigerian Cancellations.

Vol 1-9 cover all cancels which came into use on or after 1 January 1914, when Nigeria became a single country. Vol 10 covers all cancels which came into use before then, and includes details of code letters, colours etc. Earlier sets of lists are available on the archive page.

Updating lists

These lists will no longer be updated here, but Collecting Nigerian Cancellations will be updated on the WASC site from time to time.