US Postcards 1892 & 1896 With Franklin Stamps.

Both postcards 1st 1892 and the 2nd 1896 have some black stains on the stamp and stationery stamp. Are these some sort of cancels or some markings. If it is some cancel, couldn't they have used the round postmark on the stamp and not damage the look of the stamp with the stains. Feed backs and inputs appreciated. Thanks.

The round dark stain is a cork cancel used as a "killer" to prevent reuse of the stamp. Both postal cards (not postcards) do have the round circular date stamp (CDS) postmark with the town, state and date as usual. This is a common form of postmark plus killer cancel that was used in the 19th century. Sometimes the cork cancel is plain like the above, but some clerks had carved the cork with designs and those are called fancy cancels - some of which are very collectable and highly desired depending on the design.

The other factor - both cards are uprated for international postage, and highly-prized by specialists. These would do well on ebay despite the heavy cancels.