Maltese Cross Term used (but erroneously) to describe the 1840 obliteration of Great Britain. It is actually an eight-pointed cross formed by four triangles, their tops meeting in the center, their bases indented-the top points should not overlap.
Maltese Cross - More properly called a croix patE the form of a dumb cancellation handstamp used to cancel British postage stamps in 1840-1844, also used later as a watermark.
Mare - (French) Sea (e.g. "Leta-arrta. per mare").
Tracings of four Maltese Cross cancellations used in Ireland (Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Eyrecourt) are shown in Figure 4.
Maltese Cross (MC): first cancellation used on British stamps, 1840; name given by stamp collectors; design based on the Tudor rose and not the eight-pointed cross of the Knights of Malta; ...
In Great Britain the first postmark employed for the cancellation of the then new postage stamps was the Maltese Cross, so named because of its shape and appearance.
Some people seemed to like the new design, and enhanced it with hand coloring. Examples such as this, with its clear, well-placed Maltese Cross cancel, sell for thousands of dollars.
Mulready Parodies, Lampoons & Caricatures ...
As vanguards of postal frauds, the heroic story of stamp cancellations unfolds in the 1840s when the first Penny Black stamps were released in Great Britain. The first stamp cancellations had a Maltese cross design.
Used for a variety of purposes including: cancellation of postage stamps (see maltese cross); War time security cancelling, and postage census.
 See also: Cancel, Stamp, Used, Cover, Postal history
  
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