Gum

Does the gum condition matters if you are collecting precancels?

George

Only if you like to display your precancels face down.

But seriously, most precancel collectors that I know consider it a minor issue or a non-issue.

For someone who wants NH, it doesn't matter what kind of stamp it is, they will always care about gum condition. They'll even want CTOs that have never been hinged.

Isn't it difficult for the ordinary collector to get pre-cancels "unused"? It is my understanding that only approved mailers can get them.

You can find some.. I posted a picture of a unused pre-cancel from the 30's (I think)

That was only true for the classic Bureau Precancels. But there was nothing to stop dealers/collectors from obtaining them from the mailers.

And you can always get local precancels from the post office.

Post office began selling precanceled stamps to the general public in the 1960s on select Christmas stamps. And remember the Weather Vane Christmas stamp? That one was ONLY sold as a precanceled stamp.

Nowadays, you can purchase "service inscribed" precancels from PFSC in Kansas City. Some post offices still have their local "precancel" device. Find a friendly clerk, and they can put a local precancel on almost any valid US postage stamp (assuming they can find the precancel device!).

Just read this post when looking at some MNH precancels. This is one example although it is grossly off-center, but it still shows O.G. as a precancel:

There are over ten thousand precancels out there. If I was actively collecting them, I would get them in whatever state I could.

Whoot!! as of today, 9,997 to go! I found 3 yesterday I started an envelope 2 days ago because of this board.

Roughly 9500 different Bureau precancels are out there. The vast majority are very affordable, although there are occasional oddballs like Liberty, MO (only two Bureau types are listed in the catalogue, one at $250, the other at $1500!). Still, you have to dig to find something listed in the catalogue for more than $10.

And if you collect Town & Type precancels, you never need to worry about finishing your collection. Nobody really knows how many different ones there are, but it's estimated to be around 1.5 to 2 million!

http://www.precancels.com/beginner/howmany.htm

Ryan

Precancels are an interesting speciality to any stamp collection, though few are worth much in monetary value.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had 600-and-some-odd different precancels for cities across the nation (and that didn't include hundreds of duplicates). That figure has increased to 706 different cities and towns as of today. You can choose to collect by precancel type, state, region, theme, stamp variety, etc., but as posted previously, you may have to dig to find anything that uncommon.

For example, just today I came upon a stack of precancels from NY and NJ and included was a precancelled stamp from New Market, NJ. I had not heard of that town before, so I checked and learned the post office in that small area closed in the 1960's. So there is yet another area of precancel collecting: Acquiring old precancels from now-closed post offices.

The possibilities are virtually endless.

DPOs = Dead Post Offices (or Discontinued Post Offices). Yes, that's a common collection for precancel collectors. There's even a printed list for 4-letter town names as well (I haven't yet seen the reasoning why people are interested in 4-letter names, though). Who knows, there's probably somebody somewhere who only collects precancels from 'town names that end in "N"'. ha ha

Ryan

Or, you could collect precancels that have your name as the city or in the city (e.g., Bryan, TX).

k