Full Sheets Of Used Stamps?

How often do you guys see full/part sheets of 30,40,50, even 100 stamps in used condition? I just find it astonishing that such things would exist postally used. Under what circumstances would such a thing be used? AND not look all beat up?

I've seen some and am inclined to buy some because they seem so cool, but they also seem a bit freakish to me. Like they've been fabricated in some way, like CTS stamps from Liberia. Is this the kind of thing that would be consistent with someone who wants to focus on postally used collections?

I haven't sen many sheets or partial sheets myself. Just a few 5's or 10's hooked together, which is understandable for pretty or desirable stamps.

I agree with your second paragraph. The possibility of having whole sheets or even part sheets used is a long shot unless you are a collector needing them mailed back to you, searching for varities, trading with fellow stamp collectors or clubs or making a philatelic rarity perhaps.

I don't know about Canada, but here in the U.S., stamped sheets and panes can be evidence of payment of postal services, even though not directly related to affixing that particular sheet to any particular letter or package. Therefore, you can have a self-adhesive sheet fully canceled, but never removed from the backing, and it is not technically CTO. It feels pretty close to a revenue usage, but you can make a good argument that it was paying for postage, albeit in a roundabout way.

So, for U.S. stamps, you would have to know the history of the particular sheet's usage to know how it came to exist, and whether it was CTO or payment of postage. I'm sure there are other possibilities, too.

Good to know. I have not seen that in Canada.

Cjd - this happens in Canada as well at select Post Offices.

I know of one dealer in used souvenir sheets and multiples that gets them from a Post Office after they have been cancelled for the reason you mentioned.

The Post office does not actually affix them to a package, but cancels them as a way to keep their inventory/accounts accurate.
The gum will still be on them. As a favour (I assume) for this dealer, they are cancelled with nice CDS postmarks.

I assume the dealer gets them for free since they have already been accounted for. Nice supply of used Canada if you can get it.

BTW: He admitted this to me freely, so it's not as though he is doing anything illegal. They are pure profit (can't see how the PO could charge for them) and he sells them at what he considers "fair" prices.

Hi to all
Here in Australia it is quite common.
I have a pane of 20 Used Christmas stamps, a pane of 16 Christmas stamps, a pane of 20 Wedding stamps from June 2009 with the gutter in between.
A pane of 10 Australian Football, a pane of 10 for the 200 years of Australian Postal services. And I received a parcel once with 28 Beijing 2008 Olympic stamps, but each one was self adhesive and all stuck on indivually.
Regards
Horamskhe

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lorddenning, I was quite surprised to hear this as well, but I think I understand how it works - still only a guess, I never pursued the details - a PO employee might explain it better.

What happens is that the post office receives packages to be mailed (let's say these are commercial customers, not someone walking up to the counter). The PO puts some king of indication that the postage is paid and then cancels the requisite number of stamps to keep the books balanced (but does not actually affix them to the package). The commercial customer has paid for the shipping but does not request the actual stamps (gets a receipt instead). Dealer gets the cancelled stamps.

Now, under what circumstances a PO can ship something without actually applying the stamps, I am not sure. That's why I suspect it is some kind of commercial thing. Perhaps it only happens at smaller POs that don't have a commercial meter machine.

Again, these are guesses, but that's why I said "select Post Offices", I don't imagine this is common practice.

I talked to an ex-Canada Post employee who is also an expert Canadian Philatelist.

His first question, regarding full-pane usages, was "what time period were these panes used?" I don't recall seeing that mentioned in your initial query.

There are 3 possibilities:

1. payment of postage due

2. payment of "house holder" mail (otherwise known as junk mail, or today, it is called addressed admail

3. payment of business reply mail

Until about 1992, businesses had three options to pay for the above:

1. on account

2. meter

3. postage stamps

studystamps, the question I think that is still unanswered is, under what circumstances (present day), might a person be given cancelled stamps from a Post Office?

Is this in fact acceptable practice, assuming a commercial customer has already paid for said postage in another way?

How would a PO employee mark a package as postage paid without using a meter (which I assume would require payment - hence no cancelled stamps) or the actual stamps that are cancelled?

Would your ex Post-Office acquaintance have any ideas?

Under present day (I assume you mean in 2013 or even today), my contact says that all payments should be 'on account'.

We still do not know when the questions referred to in this thread were cancelled (or did I miss that?).

Studystamps, the sheets I saw were mostly from the 1970's and early 80's. Some had nice CDS, some had very faint block cancels, and some had roller or bar cancels. I saw a sheet of 100 of #717 blue queen cancelled with a smudgy roller type canceler. So obviously this was not cancelled with a dealer/collector in mind. But I'd also find it pretty hard to believe they were on a package. Your three possibilities seem most likely.

Here are 2 sheets used in 1990s that are cancelled but not affixed. One has the dreaded marker cancel while the other has regular stamp cancels that have faded. Both sheets are never hinged but the gum is disturbed. Bought these on ebay so don't know the history behind them.

hi,
second sheet I could not see any cancels prob my eyesight.
Regarding First sheet Lines drawn by marker pen.
If somebody take sheet and mark off with markers will it make cancel ? By the I know you bought on ebay.

I bought several cancelled sheets from a dealer years ago. They were all high face value or postage due stamps from the 40's and 50's. The dealer explained to me that it was a something the post office did with their larger commercial customers to "pay their postal bills as a receipt".

Here is an enlarged portion of the second sheet showing a faint and faded scan.

Pen or marker cancels refer to the use of a writing pen to deface the stamp, and were more common in the 19th and early 20th centuries.