Prexie Bureau Pre-Cancel List

Someone did recently post info on the first precancel. Don't quote me; but I believe he/she said it was from Virginia, but in a part that is now West Virginia in the 1800s.

How many are there:
bureaus are approx 9,500
locals are 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 (and counting)

I don't know if bureau precancels are still produced.
Sporadic local precancels are still produced but apparently on small scale. Last year, or two, an ebay seller (with a precancel permit) had put up for sale some Mint precanceled Express Mail stamps that he normally used to mail purchased items to his buyers. I vaguely recall that he was from the state of Washington (or CA).

That would be me! Wheeling, VA now WV in 1847. It's all posted in the Silent Precancel post.

Mike

I saw a great exhibit today on precancels..i did not realize they went all the way back to the early days of stamps...i also learned that people will counterfeit precancels...i suppose they do that to make a stamp more valuable..unless they counterfeited stamps themselves with the precancel already on it !!

As far as I know, they are not.

I didn't think so, either. I haven't heard of or seen any for many years now.

I think I'll start a thread on recent precancels, but not here since they won't be prexies.

More Prexie intel! Bureau Prints

Scott Value Towns & Type
803 1/2c 199
804 .01 701
805 1.1/2 404
806 .02 161
807 .03 87
808 .04 30
809 4.1/2 27
810 .05 44
811 .06 45
812 .07 44
813 .08 44
814 .09 38
815 .10 43
816 .11 41
817 .12 33
818 .13 28
819 .14 23
820 .15 38
821 .16 6
822 .17 27
823 .18 5
824 .19 8
825 .20 39
826 .21 5
827 .22 4
828 .24 8
829 .25 23
830 .30 27
831 .50 24
839 .01 269
840 1.1/2 179
841 .02 101
842 .03 46
843 .04 13
844 4.1/2 3
845 .05 6
846 .06 8
847 .10 4

Mike

The last Bureau overprinted precancel in 1988 is Scott's 2266 overprint 'ZIP+4' in red.
However, this and others with overprints are only found with overprint on it.

The last Bureau overprinted with precancel on a stamp that can be found without (2262) the overprint is 2262a in 1987.

The last Classic Style Bureau (words between 2 lines) 2231 in black "Blk RT/CAR-RT/SORT", & does not exist without overprint, please note this Ambulance issue is different from 2128 or 2128a, the size of Ambulance 17.9mm on 2231 & 18.4mm on 2128/a.

Last Classic style precancel is 2133a in 1985 in black "BULK RATE" between two lines.

Natural precancels are precancels that were designed to be precancels without needing to add some sort of overprint to show use.
These began with the Christmas issues in 1970 & 1974.
The 1970 X-mas issues Scott's 1414a, 1415a, 1416a, 1417a & 1418a were different then there non-precanceled partners but these were not overprints but integrated into the stamps original design before printing.
The 1974 X-mas issue was US's first self-adhesive stamp and clearly marked "Precanceled".
Starting with 2453 in 1990 all so-called "Bureaus" are naturals all with have terms like, Bulk Rate, Presorted First-Class, Nonprofit Presort, Nonprofit org., Presorted First-Class Card, Additional Nonprofit Postage-Paid, Additional Presort Postage-Paid, for some examples.
Many of these are now Self-adhesive and may be manufactured by American Bank-Note Co. (ABN), Avery-Dennison (AV), Stamp Venturers (SV), 3M Company & the Bureau of Engraving & Printing (BEP).


Mike
Previously posted in another thread!