Yet I see people on
ebay and elsewhere sometimes calling what I think of as mint stamps unused stamps.
I think it comes from confusing non-stamp terminology with stamp collecting only terminology.
Used is a stamp used to pay a postal rate on a piece of mail and thus, because of this use, without any undisturbed gum remaining (mostly) and also canceled to show it's use and to prevent reuse.
Mint is (similar to coins terminology 'like a coin right from the mint') but with stamps meaning 'like a stamp right from the printers', or in our case 'right from the Post Office', thus uncancelled as referred to above.
CTO stamps of different forms and eras, because of their mixed state of usually being gummed and cancelled are both at the same time. Here it comes down to two things: what a dealer tells a buyer and what a buyer knows for himself.
So, with this last sentence, should a dealer / seller acknowledge the used state of a stamp by stating postally used as I see a few eBayers doing? Well, this can be assumed (usually) because they are cancelled and just by saying used.
But with the newer cancelled to order or favour cancelled items available from many post offices, if a collector is unwawre of this pre-cancelling (not precancelled) done by the post office or printers even and is just taken by the beauty and orderliness of the nicely placed cancels on the pretty stamps, well, what is one to do? Should people be required to say Beautifully Cancelled or something? Some actually do!
Some of this is just learning as you go along. Some of it is people having learned one way and not liking another way and thus clashing with those who like any other way, and that's most of us.
I used to collect CTO's because they matched the pictures in my Harris Statesman album and I was happy. Except when they stuck. Then I soaked them all off and was happy.
So should we blame the album makers? Or large (or companies that wanted to be large) stamp companies?
They were just giving a certain segment of people what they wanted. Stamps to fill up their albums. Pretty, nice, cool, neat, beautiful stamps. Nicely cancelled.
Only as I grew more and more experienced with stamps and postal history did I wish to have stamps postally used.
Even in Europe and elsewhere now you can order stamps from the post office already nicely cancelled. I think there is a price in European catalogues for this variety? of stamp.
Used is usually, mostly cancelled and cancelled is usually, mostly postally used.
If you want Not to collect CTO stamps for some reason then you have to learn to tell your cancels apart. It's that easy.
Posted 05/21/2012 9:39 pm
Hello friends!
