5 Of My Favorite Unusual Precancels

I love collecting the unusual and these five examples definitely break the monotony of the ordinary everyday straight line precancels. There are others out there perhaps you can post, but I thought I'd share these recent acquisitions with you.

Frankie

Excellent examples of fancy precancels!

The one question I have is about the Cincinnati precancel on the Parcel Post Stamp. I can understand the others (as they are older issues), but since the Parcel Post stamp wasn't issued until 1913, doesn't that postdate the USPO's standard that use of the bar type precancels had to be implemented. (Not exactly sure of the date of when that happened, though.)

Very nice. I have the Chattanooga one. Just where do you find these offered for sale? I came across the Chattanooga one by accident, and haven't been able to ferret out any more.

They show up on ebay sporadically. The best place to find precancels is at a precancel roundup, and best of all the national convention which will be in Madison WI in August. I am always looking for different ones myself - here are some more Montclair NJ.
When they are so scarce, you sometimes take damaged stamps until you can 'upgrade'. These were really used and abused on parcel mailings.

I'm not partial to precancels, usually pass them over for more conventional cancels, but those are interesting. That's the sort of thing I would include in my albums for it's visual appeal. Very nice.

My only "strange" precancel is not as pretty as yours, but it's the only one I have.

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The Chicago is a post-cancel, not a precancel - just like these:

Frankie

WOW! I love those! Precancel and postcancel alike! Are there any fancy precancels for Illinois?

Unfortunately, NO!

Frankie

Postcancel? What is a postcancel, I mean aren't all cancels, that are not precancels, postcancels? ...if you know what I mean...

Yes, you are correct. However with post cancels, you have both automated machine applied (sprays or dials) and hand applied. In the case of the above (along with box cancels), these are hand applied.

Frankie

Thanks for that, frankie, they are pretty all the same. I guess I will have to move that impostor to another album :)

I posted this stamp some time ago. The precancel is Jackson on a Jackson Stamp. Great Looking precancel.

Jackson on a Jackson stamp! Now that's a great match. Thanks for sharing Dale.

Frankie