Look at both of these covers...This was sent to me from the States in 1966...Both came to my old address, but one had a cancellation and one did not...How did it get to me without being cancelled, was it completely missed...???
Very often small mail pieces (such as a postal card) do get missed in the cancelling machine. In fact, I just mailed to myself some first day of issue stamps on cover, and one of them didn't even get postmarked either, so it still happens in 2011!
Technically, though, the UX48 Lincoln Postcard you have scanned has the three violet lines printed through it, so it is known as a "precancel" in the eyes of the US Postal Service (and the Scott catalog), so that may have something to do with it as well, although I'm not well versed in the background of exactly why they did it that way.
Failing to cancel used postage is so common that my grandfather used to soak them off the mail he received and re-use them. When I first saw him soak postage I thought he might have taken an interest in stamp collecting.
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Posted 10/17/2011 4:32 pm
