Modern Non-Usa Spray Cancels... Thoughts?

Many American forum members are not at all thrilled with the USPS's switch to spray ink cancellations. Their quality is usually horrible, and there is a thread here for the discussion of such cancels.

But I have seen some rather decent spray cancels from other countries. So I am curious how folks in other countries feel about their postal service's spray cancels.

While living in the USA I have received some spray cancels from other countries.

My feelings;

UK: Generally quite heavy, but legible.
Austalia: There are simply TERRIBLE!
Canada: ditto
Netherlands: The best I've seen but still quite ugly, I'm afraid.

I imagine most postal services use similar equipment and I'd venture to guess that there is a "economy/draft" print mode (just as there is for consumer-purchased printers) that allows one to print at higher speeds with less clarity. As postal services are typically looking at their bottom line, most mailing machines are likely set to the "economy/draft" printing mode so as to speed up processing and save ink, while still accomplishing the goal of defacing the stamp(s) to prevent re-use. I suspect there is absolutely no regard for stamp or cover collectors in that decision, it's merely a means to help the bottom line.

Some examples:

Cute that the UK cancellation urges people to write the post code clearly and then blur the cancel.

That's exactly what I was thinking, rohumpy!

Here are a couple that I have received.

Very nice, legible Finland cancel:


I assume this one would be legible, but the ink obviously didn't stick to the areas of the stamp had clear tape on it:

This one arrived today...

The Canadian spray on cancels are usually just slogans with vertical or diagonal lines that are reminiscent of an obliterater I suppose. Sometimes you can get a used stamp with just a few lightly inked lines that makes for a nice and clean used specimen. They don't have a whole lot of philatelic appeal really though.

THE REAL - I agree! At least with the Canada sprays, you can end up with a used stamp where you can actually see just what stamp it is! :-)