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Cancelled This is not a post card

Stamped on the back of postcards to avoid Puchase Tax from 1940
Cancelled stamp In 1940, to help pay for the war, the British Government introduced a new sales tax (Purchase Tax).

Photographers had, since the turn of the century, printed portraits on post cards.
Surprisingly few were sent through the post other than in an envelope.
The new tax applied among other things to postcards. Some photographers, for a short time, chose to cancel the post card status, to avoid attracting tax.
Here are two examples.
Utility Goods were exempt from the new tax.

Estimate: Photograph dates from 1940 + approx 3 years