Question About Pen Cancels

In any case where the used example is worth more than mint it is only refering to a genuine official cancelation, and too often they are forged to make a profit.

Richard

I find it unfortunate that the stamp grading gurus are so down on pen cancels, especially those on early classics. On the other hand, it makes it possible for those of us with restricted budgets, able to obtain some of the higher value classics that the big boys don't want. I have seen many pen canceled classics that are much more attractive than, .. cross roads cork cancels for example.

nuggethill, your 26, is absolutely gorgeous.

However, I find modern ink pen, markers, sharpies, etc to usually be quite unattractive.

I was looking at my Scott's Specialized and began to notice that most pen cancels 25-40% lower valve, however, if you have an old pen 'precancel' it could be more!

i share the same sentiment..i hate pen cancels..they are becoming more prevalent

I agree with Quiqngt, some of the pen cancels on the early classics are quite nice. I have a small collection of classics with only pen cancels. Some of the cork cancels I have seen have all but obliterated the stamp. Later pen cancels made with sharpies etc however I feel do lower value. So like Marty I sometimes take advantage of a pen cancel on a classic to save a little money and still have what I feel is a nice stamp to add to my collection

I think early pen cancels give a used stamp a bit of class. I welcome them in my collection.
Allan

yes we must learnt o appreciate everything

I'm with you Allan:

How about posting some scans of your pen cancels -- you can see I like the #63 (my avatar).

KirkS

I have to learn more about scanning my stamps for posting.

Allan

It's not too tough -- your biggest issue will be that when you scan a stamp, it will be a large file -- in both dimension (pixels wide and tall) and in file size (bytes on the disk).

You'll want to decrease both of those -- get the dimensions down to about 500 pixels in the largest direction, and get the size down to 100KB or less -- those are the requirements for uploading to this board. If you know how to adjust your scanner resolution, bring it down to 72 dpi or maybe a 120. If you go to the max (600 or more), the file will be too large.

If you're going to upload your scans to another website and link them from your posts, then they can be larger in size and dimension.

Getting your image scanned and sized is the hard part. Uploading is fairly easy -- there's a tutorial in the left side menu on this (and every) page.

If you have questions, just ask.

KirkS

ALLAN,ALLAN,ALLAN we all want to see what you have.If you only knew what I put these people through,when I first joined on here,I didn't know how to scan and then shrink ect,ect,ect,a stamp to post on here,and mind you I had very little computer experience,I could check my email,and google things and that was it,I struggled and struggled to try and figure it out myself and then with alittle help from the SCF guys and gals I tried to follow their suggestions,and was about to throw my computer out the window cause I just couldn't do it,and then oldtriguy said "Let me call you" at this point im about to get locked up in the NUT HOUSE and Dave must have sensed this,so he called me and walked me through it,just like a few months ago BUD how do you think bobby131313 got your avatar? we did that remember? if you lost my number email me and ill give it to you again,or if I dont hear from you ill just call you,i still have your number have scanner on and a few stamps you would like to show us then call me and we will go slow through it step by step,just like what Dave did with me

I would side with those who say they hate pen cancels. There is nothing that I find pretty about them and they do reduce the value of the stamps themselves. Also,I note that postal clerks seem to relish in cancelling any high value modern stamp, and by this I would be referring to those sending priority or express mail, by a pen cancellation as opposed to a neat stamp cancel. One of the bonuses of collecting stamps that either are of high enough value to require insurance or registration or for those of us who occaisionally receive priority or express mail is for a sensitive sender to use a high value stamp rather than a meter. This assumes you can peel the stamp off the envelope. The other nemesis I have seen from postal clerks is, even if the stamp is not pen cancelled, it is destroyed by their need to tape it to the envelope as well.

funcitypapa:

I agree with what you say about MODERN pen cancels; I even mentioned that in my original post. Just a couple weeks ago, I received a parcel with the $17.50 Yellowstone stamps -- and it had been scribbled with a ball point.

For no logical reason, I'm a little more forgiving of the ink on some of the older issues -- hence my choice of avatars.

Thanks for resurrecting my thread.

KirkS

Pen cancels on classic issues often have a great look and can make for a great collection. IMHO though, on modern stamps (1920's and on??) they are graffiti and destroy the value of the item.

Shame on the incompetent/lazy/destructive postal clerks who destroy otherwise perfectly collectible stamps for no good reason.

I used to feel they were interesting...on other people's stamps. Now I just find them just "crude", and not looking well on a page with other stamps with more organized cancels.
Allan