Requesting A Local Handstamp Postmark

Has anyone had the desire to seek a local handstamp postmark from a post office and simply present a valid stamp on a cover and have the clerk postmark it in your presence, but refuse to give it back to you, stating that it must go through the postal system and be mailed back to you?

It happened to me today and I was surprised at such a response. It seems to me that if anyone wants a valid stamp cancelled on an envelope, why would the post office care that they have to go through the extra effort to deliver it rather than just allow the consumer to take it?

I think it is at the discretion of the clerk. I know when I collected FDC's back in the 60's - 80's, some clerks would cancel and hand back while others said they had to be mailed. Most clerks are obliging, but I think some like to exercise their government authority!

Yes I have! wt1

If you give them only the face side or half of the envelope so there is no possibility that the envelope can be used for mailing the PO will cancel for you. To cancel CTO on a piece of paper works as well.

We go a step further and get them delivered to our PO Box.

Good luck it is a great way to get some of the eye catching stamps used.

John

I have run across this before as well. They are concerned the envelope could be used for some dishonest purpose such as "backdating" a mailing date for legal documents or payments. Usually I explain that for collecting purposes a clerk is allowed to handback a canceled cover. I had this happen most recently while I was acquiring postmarks on my Illinois route 66 map, the clerk nearly refused and then thought that "I guess all these other PO's couldn't be in the wrong". I have nearly 60 postmarks on my fold out map, I obviously was not putting it thru the mailstream.

I went to my usual (small) post office to get stamps today and asked this same question and she said:

"Nonsense! What is it to postmark a stamp for you? Bring in any cover with first class postage and I'll be glad to handstamp it and hand it back to you, no problem. I also have the barrel cancel and postmark cancel, just tell me which postmark you want me to use."

Too bad that wasn't the response from the postal clerk yesterday. Here's the result of my having her handstamp the cancel and then have her insist on putting it into the mailstream to mail back to me:



I guess having two dated "unofficial" first day cancels on the same stamp isn't bad, but I specifically wanted the handstamp first day cancel from Blackstone, MA as that is one of the documented towns where Owney is known to have visited during his lifetime. I'll probably create a nice cachet for the cover and make it into a collectible.

Incidentally, when I asked for this handstamp at Blackstone, MA, I initially asked for the Owney stamp, and they didn't have any! Probably locked away in their vault, since I understand that all post offices get an automatic allocation of these commemoratives. Fortunately, I had some of these stamps in the car from my visit to another post office that I was able to use.

(Based on this series of events, I imagine this will be somewhat of a "scarce" cover if the Owney stamps weren't yet available at this post office, yet I got a first day cancel applied to an Owney stamp at a location where he once visited during his lifetime.)

Note: I mailed this cover at 4:55 PM on July 27, 2011 and received it in my mailbox at 11:00 AM on July 28, 2011. Even though it went through the mailstream, 18 hours isn't a bad turn-around time to receive the cover back.

At least it's refreshing to know there are still some smaller post offices that cooperate with collectors. Here's one of the Merchant Marine stamps issued today (July 28, 2011) with a local "unofficial" first day of issue postmark:

thanks for the discussion on this topic! I have had a lot of issues with getting decent (non-sprayed) postmarks, i.e. handstamped and I prefer 4 bar hand cancel, from the post office.

I love to get postmarks of unusual town names, on stamps with a clear crisp cancel on a stamp. the problem is getting it back without it being ruined by the sprayed on postmark at the bulk mailing centers and otherwise ruined.

I typically have mailed out a smaller envelope with a removable name/address label on it, with a carboard stiffner, inside a larger envelope addressed to the postmaster at some small town with a note and sometimes a scan of what I desire.


Have also had a problem with the RED ink many use on the hand cancels when I rather have the black ink. the red ink smears on many of the glossy/smooth finish of the new stamps....the old stamp paper from the 1950s and 60s was not so bad, the new stamps though have glossy surface along with the fake perfs and self stick backs.
Oh for the old days! :)


Also in the really old days of the 1910s and 20s (before my time) they used to stamp the back of the envelope with the town/state time of the receiving post office...which was a nice touch, and added a lot of info to the covers.

Our local post office will allow me to hand cancel stamps myself but the letters must then go through the mail system. They will try to put them through a process that bypasses the machine cancelling system but it doesn't always work.

NB, thanks for the reply.....I think I will try a small post office here and see how it goes. I have had some luck with tiny town post offices who will make sure they come back without going thru the mass cancelling machines.

You're not going to be successful in arguing the point if the postal clerk is of a mindset not to cooperate with collectors, even though there are provisions in the USPS Postal Operations Manual that specifically cover these issues.

In 2003, someone actually got the USPS Administration to issue a letter to all USPS Employees on this very subject (which is reproduced below). Unfortunately, administrative personnel at the USPS have changed several times since the date of the letter:

The two post office branches in the Kennebecasis Valley (suburbs of Saint John) are both very co-operative with collectors. At the Rothesay P.O., when they see me coming, they hand me the hand-stamp and have gone so far as to put an elastic around the stack of covers I'm mailing and affix a note asking the handlers at the next level to bypass the machine cancelling system. As I said, it doesn't always work but sometimes. I think if you develop a relationship with the postal staff, good things can happpen. The people are usually busy at these two branches, so you have to respect that and not interfere with the "paying" customers.

On another thread, someone was commenting on neighbourhood post boxes and I guess lamenting the demise of home delivery. Not an issue; we have had this system for twenty years and it works fine. Registered letters (usually from a stamp dealer) get delivered to the door cheerfully and the postwoman (in our case) always comments on the colorful stamps, advising me whenever she has left something else at the box.

This used to be covered by section 231.4 of the USPS Domestic Mail Manual. However, checking on the USPS web site, there does not seem to be such a section of the manual any more. The entire of sections 231 and 232 are gone.

Right section. Wrong manual. It is in POM 9 (Postal Operations Manual) a copy of which may be found at this link (refer to page 121):

https://www.apwu.org/sites/apwu/fil...10-13%5D.pdf