Multiple stamps

Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction. I'm new to letterboxing & travelled down to Dartmoor (I live in Surrey), and thought I'd make a start with some stamps in pubs, buildings etc. Quite a few of the places that I visited contained boxes with more than one stamp. Several had half a dozen stamps in the box. Generally, I couldn't find any reference to more than one stamp in my guide. Are these other stamps just old ones or are they all contained somewhere in the guide? If I stamp my book with all of them, do they all count towards my first 100, or must they appear in the current guide? Thanks in advance.

Every stamp accounts towards your collection if they appear in the 'Catalogue of Dartmoor Letterboxes' or Not! Most probably they are old boxes they had or could even be old boxes that was out on the Moor.

A couple of places like 'The Fox and Hounds', Lydford and 'The Fox Tor Cafe', Princetown, has a different stamp for every month but has the same box number in the Catalogue.

Hope this helps and you have many Happy Hunting Days!

Though most stamps in public places are catalogued there are those which are not registered and left as part of a walk or special occassion (i.e. New Years Day, Easter, Christmas etc., or sometimes on a personal occassion.) I have placed non registered boxes in such places a number of times over the years.
The landlord / owner may well a collection of stamps placed with them and find it easier to put them all in a single box / container.

TWA

On the subject of pub/other building boxes... Has anyone else noticed how the number of pub boxes has decreased over the years.

It seems a pity that many good pubs have gone out of business: The Treby Arms in Sparkwell, and the Royal Standard in Mary Tavy amongst others.

I'm sure a good pub has a good letterbox. Any favourites out there?

It may not be in catalogue, but the Kings Arms south Zeal has one behind bar.

Nice locally relevant stamp of the tinners rabbit. placed by Tinners Morris.

The whole idea of letterboxing and joining the 100 club, is to find boxes on dartmoor, it's ok to have a couple of pub boxes towards your first 100 but not too many.

Why not. not everybody has the physical ability to get onto the high moor. I thought part of the point of pub/ cafe boxes was to allow the less able to participate.
AND the thirsty boxer gets to add another stamp at the end of the day.

There could be another reason behind the dwindling number of pub boxes... pubs are getting taken over by breweries and/or landlords, not all these breweries or landlords realise what letterboxing is about, so the stuff gets chucked out.
In the event of multiple stamps appearing in venues it is a case of "old stamps" having been removed from the moor and the catalogue (in a lot of cases) and being kept in the pub. A good example can be found at the Hound Tor mobile van where some of the stamps I have found on the moor in the past.

Some years back I went to The Brent Tor Inn and they used to have 114 stamps in their box!

Then you have the other aspect of letterboxing - it isn't as popular as it used to be 20 years ago

Thanks for your replies. The mobile van at Hound Tor was the first place I went to, and I was a bit confused by the fact that there were assorted stamps in the box. In future I'll take an impression from all the stamps that I come across.

Nik - KOTM wrote:There could be another reason behind the dwindling number of pub boxes... pubs are getting taken over by breweries and/or landlords, not all these breweries or landlords realise what letterboxing is about, so the stuff gets chucked out.
In the event of multiple stamps appearing in venues it is a case of "old stamps" having been removed from the moor and the catalogue (in a lot of cases) and being kept in the pub. A good example can be found at the Hound Tor mobile van where some of the stamps I have found on the moor in the past.

Some years back I went to The Brent Tor Inn and they used to have 114 stamps in their box!

Then you have the other aspect of letterboxing - it isn't as popular as it used to be 20 years ago

Picked up a great number from here also, but not 114!!! Lots of Boxes we have found on the Moor over the years are not listed, either long deleted, WoM, "Holiday Box" I would have a guess that we have around 40% of un-identified boxes. All do count though.

teignexplorer2 wrote:Every stamp accounts towards your collection if they appear in the 'Catalogue of Dartmoor Letterboxes' or Not!

Personally, I would not count every stamp towards my collection. I would count a box with multiple stamps as one box. However, I will take a copy of all the stamps. I must have over 30 stamps from the Old Police Station Cafe in Princetown alone.
Having said that, some of them may be registered seperately so I suppose that could count as two (?). Personal choice.

it all depends how close you are to getting a badge to what you count towards your total, if you are a few off then , you try and scrap the barrel, so you can get a badge at the meet

How it used to work... to join the 100 club you have to find 100 boxes on the moor without a catalogue!
Boxes in other buildings and pubs did not count, nor did Word Of Mouth boxes, or unlisted boxes.
I was in the Plume of Feathers when a load of people started asking Tony Moore about what counts and what doesn't - and he said THEY ALL COUNT which at the time doubled my count due to the number of WOM boxes I had collected.
I have also seen someone collect 300+ at a meet and claimed his 100 and 200 badges that day... cheating really...
However, having said all that, most of the people I know try to do it the traditional way by collecting their first hundred from the moor without a catalogue!

Hi Nik

Read what you said .
Letterboxing I regard as a hobby (sorry for the old time name!) and not a competition: to see who has the most stamps, got the most in one day , or in one trip , or who is most 'first time' in the book!

Just enjoy the great outdoors - while you can! What you do not get is not a loss - there is always others to get. Need to get that full set ? - missed some - who has so far had a perfect life? - it does have setbacks.
Now that I am a bit old in the tooth I ramble on ( like all older people do) but I now realise what my parents were trying to tell me - live life for NOW and enjoy all that you do!

TWA

Nik - KOTM wrote:I have also seen someone collect 300+ at a meet and claimed his 100 and 200 badges that day... cheating really...

Cheating? Yes. But only themselves