US Postal Service Purple Cancelling Ink - 1972-1982

I came across this old newspaper article recently and thought I'd post it.



I think I have a few purple cancels from back in that time period, although I never knew the reason they discontinued its use was because "a common household cleaning product could wash away the cancellation and allow the stamps to be reused."

Just a little piece of philatelic trivia!

I was not aware of that either. What I do know is that stamps and covers of that period ( with purple machine cancels ) are highly sought after!

Peter

Interesting fact! Has anyone come across such a stamp when buying? I suppose they are extremely uncommon.

Does anyone know what the common household cleaner is? This was something that I was not aware of.
Tom

Petersun, if you check covers from the seventies and early eighties you will see purple machine cancels. Most philatelic mail will not have these cancels, because philatelic covers were usually handstamped. But if you check mail with regular first class postage ( 18, 20, 22 and 25 cents ) you can still find them!

Peter

Bleach and/or detergent and water washed away the cancels, after complaints to the USPS by the stamp collecting public about it.

Actually, the period article below goes into a little more detail suggesting that two prosecutions were made for the crime, and the US Postal Inspection Service apparently became wise to the crime when Linn's Stamp News began receiving higher than normal "buy prices" for stamps with purple cancels:

It is something that I've never encountered or at least I don't think so. A $500.00 dollar fine was certainly a light sentence considering how much money the man could have made.
Tom

The purple mchine cancels are avidly sought by some used PNC collectors and some plate numbers on some stamps are quite scarece with the PMC's even though thay may be common with the normal black machine cancels.

A caution note - some people confuse the puplish-magenta hand stamp cancels for the purple machine cancels.