Will I Ever Get A Cancelled Stamp?

I have received so many letters and packets from the UK without cancels, that it has become the norm.
When a cancelled envelope appears in my mailbox from the UK, I jump up and down all excited like a kid at Christmas.

Today at last, I got an envelope with a cancel



.....but hang on a sec, where are the stamps ?

Oh yes, here they are!





That's it, I'm off to Mount Pleasant in the morning!

Uncancelledcancelledbus1

And to make it worse you can't even gluestick them. Most oversized envelopes I receive are also uncancelled.

Londonbus1, I noticed here in Canada over the Christmas season that many of the Christmas cards that were in larger envelopes were not cancelled. It appears that larger than normal envelopes are being missed by the automated cancelling machines. My parcels that I receive are always cancelled.

Same thing here in Aus. The big A4 size envelopes quite often have
stamps on them, that have not been cancelled.

Steve

My scan above is a small regular-sized envelope.
Just bad luck.

but it does appear that worldwide, the cancelling of letters and parcels has gone completely to pot.

Londonbus1

I know the feeling Londonbus so you are not alone.

I belong to a society out of the UK that sends me their bulletins with very nice stamps on them, but, alas, no cancellation. This has happened so many times to me to the point that I was thinking that the Royal Mail used up all their cancelling devices and never bothered to order any more.

What is even worse though is when I receive a cover that has not been cancelled but some bright joker in the post office stroked a ballpoint pen through them all I would rather they leave then uncancelled altogether.

I know though that the Royal Mail is not alone either when it comes to uncancelled stamps because Canada Post and the USPO are just as bad as well.

Just think, all those stamps in limbo :(

Chimo

Bujutsu

Sounds like the MBPC !
I have NEVER received an envelope from them with a cancel.
And they always use such nice stamps !

Which is why some lucky sod always gets nice stamps for gluesticking !

GB gluestick for sale shortly. Please send the link to Royal Mail

Gluestickbus1

I just received this in today's mail...dare I complain that the cancel is too light?



It is an Orkney cancel, but I can only make out the date, really.

That 1-pound Machin with the security printing is a sharp stamp. I understand that it won't come off the paper, so I guess it stays. I'm going to play around with trying to capture the gold "Royal Mail" security feature in a scan.

I think perhaps that some of the problem is in the new-fangled sorting, flipping and cancelling machines used.

Perhaps if the stamps are placed on the envelope so that they cover on vertical side the flipping machine which reads the phosphor tagging on the stamps so as to flip the envelope to the correct orientation so that the stamps will get cancelled is confused and flips the envelope so the stamp(s) will be cancelled but only if they are placed on the correct spot along the top right corner. Anywhere else and they miss being cabcelled.

If the envelope has more stamps on it than can be cancelled by machine (like londonbus1's example) then if the machine thinks it has got it right it doesn't send the envelope over to be hand-cancelled.

If the mail piece is non-machineable (square, oversized, odd-sized) it usually gets sent over (by machine) to the one fellow in the whole plant whose responsibility it is to cancel these arrant missifs. That is, if he is there and not on break or holiday or sick. There is a fellow here in the Halifax sorting plant that has the pride of craftemanship in him so that if your mail happens by when he is there you get a socked on the nose cancel. That hasn't happened in Halifax since 1899 when a retired sea captain was the Post Master of a downtown post office here.

Sometimes the machines, sometimes the people.

If the mail is put in at a post office that relies on the clerks sorting the envelopes by region and code and cancelling the non-machinable mails, at times, depending on who is working, and how proficient they are at sorting and doing all the other chores and duties required by that position (more during holidays of course) then at times the mails do not get cancelled there.

The important thing to do, or the priority, seems to be to sort and slot the mail first so it gets to its destination more quickly. cancelling stamps is a lower priority that efficient handling of the mails.

That is why I don't mind so much paying 59c + 15% tax for a stamp for mail within Canada because I have the feeling that it will get there in a reasonable time. If we paid an extra 5c to have our stamps cancelled then they would all be cancelled to death you can be sure of that, but we pay for delivery of the mail.

The skill of sorting and correctly identifying the address to be sent to is not so much an art these days with most mail addresses being type-written (except for mis-spellings). We have lost the personal touch somewhat, even having to ask for stamps instead of meters because of 5% extra profit for the shop owner, and less time taken for those less efficient in their work.

Maybe though it is the country and the thinking of the people involved? Every letter out of Germany or Austria I have had has been nicely cancelled. France seems to get cancelled according to the whim of the canceller and his personal feelings on my mail that day and then mishandled a bit to rough it up to teach me that mail for a non-Frenchman is to be treated this way, Australia is trying so hard to get their darn machines to cancel things any which way, the USA and Canada mostly do not understand how more than two stamps can ever fit on one envelope so they don't even consider the possibility, Japan is so efficient it is scary sometimes, Scandinavian countries seem to have the art of machine cancelling down to a science.

Has anyone ever done a study of different countries cancels compared to other countries in the way that they are cancelled, the artistry involved, the personal feeling expressed, the design of the cancels themselves. I think if I was allowed to design my own canceller device then I would be sure to cancel every piece of mail that came within ten feet or so of me to say this is my work, this was cancelled by Puzzler, (bit of primal chest beating here) and I want everyone to know what a good job has been done by me. (or artistry involved, or feelings expressed, etc)

Look, just let me run the Post Office for a while, OK? Who's in charge here anyway?

Actually Londonbus, it is the TPO&SS (Travelling Post Office & Seapost Society) that I belong to over there. They always make it a point to put very nice stamps on their covers to me, but, for the most part, they do not get cancelled.

We (my wife and I) have finally got a couple of the people at the local PO here to cancel Canadian mail that comes in here w.o cancellations. Even if it comes in from, let's say, Toronto, or anywhere else here in Canadas, they will cancel the stamps for us here. Sure beats stamps in limbo <G>

Chimo

Bujutsu

this is better as compared to being hit by the marker monkey

Agreed Johnstamp.

Nothing I hate more than stamps on cover destroyed by a ballpoint pen or monkey marker.

I actually made up a small album in a cheap binder with covers that were destroyed in one way or the other by the post office authorities and called it "Tales From the Dark Side".

You know the old saying, 'if you end up with a lemon, you might as well squeeze it' lol

Chimo

Bujutsu

Londonbus1,

I would be more than happy to make you a custom cover and have the stamps hand canceled. Here's the ones I mailed today:





I filled the whole top edge with a coil strip that matched.


These next 2 were printed on larger manila envelopes




Email me your mailing address and let me know what you would like me to create for you (example: A man in India that I trade with likes Polar Bears so I made him the polar bear cover and then used the current polar bear stamps for postage.)

Lucky

I want the embossed ones! Thanks for posting! Lucky. Where is there a group for information just about embossed / cut corners?

Maybe they just censor your mail Londonbus? I know the packet you sent me was canceled.

Glad you got some nice cancels Barb! Most of the mail I send seems to miss the canceller too.
You could say it works both ways !

Lucky...What a tremendous offer. I would love an envelope of Flags with the Coil strip like the one you posted above.....Fantastic.

Let me know what I can send you in return. Send me an email.
I'll send you my address.

Some great people here, just great

Londonbus1.

Londonbus1,
It would be my pleasure to make one up and send it to you.

Bfranton,
I don't know of any sites or groups for you to go to and gather information about embossed stamps. I made this cover for someone who collects them.
I could make you a similar one but using examples of embossed Air Mails instead. Email me your address if you are interested.

Lucky