Manuscript Penmanship On Covers And Stamps.

Here are some of my recent acquisitions of manuscript and pen cancels. This is the new and focused interest in my collecting. I don't know if there are established descriptions for the cancels below. If there are I'd appreciate having that information.


Year date cancel. ....Is it advisable to erase the pencil date on the cover?



manuscript "G"....................initials



whirlwind...............................scribble


town cancel in manuscript



manucript initials

Nice ones. That "whirlwind squiggle" might pass for a fancy cancel

Nice examples, the manuscript and pen cancels normally carry a premium on value. I have several covers with pecil date, position numbers, etc., and I never erase them. For what its worth most award winning exhibitions have covers with pencil notations.

Russ, I'll take your advice and not erase pencil notations. Thanks

Nice work Quigngt!!

Quigngt,

It is a shame that modern day "pen cancellations" aren't made with similar artistry!




Russ,

Looking at the 2011 Scott Specialized U.S., it seems that pen cancels significantly reduce the catalog value of the stamp. Am I interpreting the cancellations data incorrectly?

Steve

Manuscript with postmaster initials, town names and full dates are becoming extremely sought after with premiums extremely common. Simple "X" or squiggle will detract value.

Thanks Russ, that's good to know.

These new additions just arrived.

The Scott 26 Washington may have been used as a revenue. Opinions welcome.





And Scott 236 8 cent colombian. Is it a fancy cancel or a hand written pen cancel? Again, opinions are welcome.

that last one is really sort of hard to tell if it's a fancy cancel or a pen cancel but it looks like it bled a little into the paper or something but an intelligent guess would be that it's a hand cancel. I have a few but from reading this thread maybe I'll have to get them out and take a look. Very neat!

Man I don't remember writing that? Is this an older post? Ahhh back in April.. I love a good manuscript OR the simple "X" especially if it's done script like or the classic pirate like "X marks the spot". In fact I will and have paid more for a stamp with that "X" than one with a big blurry cork cancellation or a big smudge! So here is a good example of it just depends on what someone is willing to pay vs. what the catalog says. I like what I like.

Just in last week. I originally was not going to collect revenues with manuscript cancels since those are very common. But when I came across this one, I changed my mind. I can only dream of writing like this.




The following #117 with a beautiful H is very well centered, maybe XF, bright green color and great paper condition as well. It didn't come cheap but still a little less than 30% Scott CV.

The script is beautiful. There's nothing like an nice flowing pen to add some life to a stamp.
And I also agree ILS, that sometimes a simple X is interesting too




Looks like the same anti-royalist was still working at the post office 55 years later.

I also like some of the manuscript/pen cancels, including the one I use for my avatar.

I discussed it https://goscf.com/t/4265

Of course, for a frightening perspective from the other point of view, check out any of the Marker Monkey threads

KirkS

Why is it that with Revenue Stamps manuscript cancels detract from the value but with Postage Stamps it adds to the value ?

stallzer, I have learned over the past year that the more elaborate manuscripts generally have a higher value for both revenue and postage stamps. Most revenues are manuscript canceled but most postage stamps are not. So supply and demand probably enters in prices realized. Additionally, I think it is fair to say that most manuscript cancels on revenues are not elaborate. On postage stamps you will see a simple "x", straight line, tic-tac-toe, etc being called manuscript cancels but are really nothing more than a simple pen cancel. I am not an expert in manuscript cancels since I am in the learning stage but these are my observations.