No Cancellation...

I haven't had this happen to me before. A letter arriving without any cancellation whatsoever. I could reuse these and be fined unimaginable sums of money along with prison time if I wanted to!



I will add these to my next future kiloware package. Nice little treat for whoever gets them.


-IBFS

I have quite a few of those! By the way, did you notice the two different Hugo Black stamps? I guess one of them is seriously underinked?

Peter

OK, forgive my ignorance..........
If the stamps are uncancelled, how would anyone know if you reused them? Is it really illegal?

Not trying to be a smartass here, just want to ask the obvious..........

Courtesy of your friendly US Postal Inspection Service ... note the phrase "whether cancelled or not"!:

No...I did not. I see the difference in the face. That stamp is US Scott #2172. There is a color variety of "dark olive green" and "light olive green" (Scott #2172b). I wonder if this is the explanation?



-IBFS

I delved a little deeper into the US Code references provided in that warning. Reusing an uncancelled stamp will get you one year in Federal prison. Removing a cancellation will get you 20 years. And fines. Yikes.

Robert

This is why all those peelable stamps cannot be soaked. Those of us who enjoy soaking stamps have to stick with the older issues if we want to have any fun.

Some peelable stamps do come off if soaked. Some try to come off but are difficult, as if there were a "rubbery" consistency between the stamp and the paper. Others won't budge. I'm yet to figure out the mystery to this. Obviously the type of "sticky stuff" on the back of the stamps is not standardized.


-IBFS

Not that I would want to go up the river for 20 years, but how can one remove a cancellation from a stamp?


-IBFS

By using chemicals to dissolve the inks. Dishonest people have been doing it for the last 125 years, mostly to valuable 19th century stamps.

I've seen some cancels all but disappear just by soaking in water. How someone would intentionally remove a cancel, I don't know.

Robert

Jeff, I get uncancelled stamps making it through the mail every week. It seems to be getting much more common. You will see more.
As for removing cancels it is easier than you would think. I bought a box lot years ago that among other things had various chemicals and instructions for removing cancels. One was a philatelic product sold for specifically for cancel removal. It had a goofy warning label that made no sense. I tried it on some junk stamps and it all worked. It was very disapointing to me to know that cancels could be removed so easily. Fortunately for me, I only collect used stamps. I like cancels, so the temptation to become a master criminal did not interest me. As a side note, at a recent club meeting someone brought a few covers with "fake cancels" to show. That was really disheartening. The fakes were very good and they fooled me.

No thanks to ebay, either, when you can buy things like this and postmark anything you want to:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/North-Liber...200989476905

wt1, Let's hope the bidder is buying it for a novelty and not a devise to forge cancels. I wonder how legal it is to own one of these?

Ok folks, I'm a little skeptical here..........
More than a few times in my long life I have put stamps on packages/envelopes and then for whatever reason didn't mail them. So, I would soak the stamps off (this was before self stick) and apply them to other envelopes and attach with the good ol mucilage.

So, how in the world would the PO know that these were never previously used. Said another way, how would they know that anyone was "reusing" a stamp that had not been cancelled?

I have to say, years ago folks were "scared to death" of messing with the USPS. Just the word "postal inspector" sent shivers down folks spines. In hindsight, that image seems like it was mostly a big scare tactic.

It's been mentioned before that the USPS and/or the Postal Inspection Service have more important things to do than to go after the average citizen who may re-use a few postage stamps. It's still illegal, but unless you're caught mailing hundreds of pieces that way, it will probably be overlooked, as the authorities strive to spend their resources on more important things (i.e. drugs and weapons that get moved through the mails, not to mention robberies and violent acts that occur at post offices).

There has been mention (sources are rather dubious, though) that the USPS sometimes uses an "invisible ink" in the cancellation process and the computerized facer/canceller used today in sorting machines can detect stamps that have been re-used. As a result, there is possibility that the letters could be "spit out" and reviewed by postal authorities before making it to their destination (or contacting the sender about re-using stamps) which could potentially delay a mailing, so most would consider re-using stamps on non-critical mail that would not be a problem should it get delayed (i.e. don't use them to mail your credit card bill, or it might get there late).

As I said at the outset, occasional re-use of uncancelled stamps is probably not going to get the average person a visit from postal authorities, but on the other hand we're only talking about a few cents in postage, so why risk it? Besides, most of us collectors have bunches of extra postage stamps lying around so there's little need to do this in the first place.