Post Office War On Collectors??

In the span of 7 days, I have received mail with the following pen cancellations. Today got me so ticked off to the point I thought I would vent it out here.

Are any other members getting these on a regular basis?

Chimo

Bujutsu

I just got a pen-cancelled cover, across the many stamps, from Florida. USPS legally allows that form of cancelling stamps. Quick for them, "dirty" for us. Brute force technique...

Well ... it is not just allowed, I believe it is mandated. Any stamp that somehow gets past the canceling machine is supposed to be hand canceled by someone else along the line - mail handler, carrier. I wonder if it is more likely that the machine canceler misses odd-shaped envelopes.

Starting in the late 1950's and early 1960's Canadians could not get number plate blocks at their local post offices, but only from the Canada Post philatelic center. The sheets in the post offices had them trimmed off. I don't know if this had any effect in making plate blocks any scarcer or not given that many panes of stamps were printed.

ha, this is the opposite of my thread last week complaining about mail I received that wasn't cancelled at all. Our letter carriers in the states must be too lazy to even carry a pen and cancel the odd mail.

I get it all the time. The part I find most annoying is when a collector overseas takes the time to actually affix stamps to the envelope, my local PO brings out the felt pin to make sure they get cancelled. I can understand why they do this to local ( whatever country you live in) stamps so we can't reuse them (not that we can get the fool peel and stick off the envelope again), but what is the purpose of messing up a good overseas cover? I have chatted with my postmaster many times on this, and each time I am reminded that is what they tell them to do... Oh well!

Bujutsu, I get where you're coming from but really every one
of those stamps is way past the current postal rates.

Like the 3c Xmas stamp was issued 50 years ago for
( I believe) when we had a lower rate for unsealed letters
or was it for the city rate?

Even if cancelled what good are these stamps as far as postal
history is concerned?

In this case the rules about defacing postage to disallow
reuse of stamps were strictly enforced and credit
should be given to the Canada Post employee who did this.

He only did his job.

I get so many uncanceled stamps on my mail, it isn't even funny. If I were unethical, I'd barely have to buy any new postage. The next most likely scenario is the pen cancel, and dead last is the likelihood of getting nice, neat, crisply canceled stamps.

Could we all avoid the use of the 'war' metaphor?

War On Cancer, War On Poverty, War On Drugs ...

In the case of this thread, how about "Gratuitous Violence Towards Stamps"?

I agree that the letter carrier was just doing their job; remarkably neatly, in some of these cases.

Cheers,

ikeyPendantic

Occasionally, I still get packages with uncanceled stamps. I just take them to the local post office and they hand cancel them and hand them right back to me.

I have to disagree with you on this litho. Yes, their job is to cancel stamps, and, they have the equipment to do it with 'properly' too. Old issues that are not the current rate is not the issue here, but, the plain ignorance on the post office's part to use a pen in the first place, or laziness, whatever. I for one, do not give credit to the individual in Canada Post for this deed. To sum up, they have the proper equipment - so use them!

Chimo

Bujutsu

Lots of good points here. I received similar "cancels" in the last few days. One tactic is to try to avoid this happening, by getting anything you send to collectors hand cancelled, and hope others will catch on. But Bujutsu's question goes further I think. For me, inkjet cancels are ugly and carry little of the history of CDS cancels, so the post office is certainly not catering to collectors there even with current stamps. (I know, people collect these new cancels . . . any port in a storm . . .) For someone who collects only used stamps, this problem, plus the deteriorating quality of stamp issues generally, makes collecting all the modern stuff look less and less interesting every year. Thank goodness for classics . . .

I believe I read about this in another thread, but I will re-iterate here.

The cancelling machines in use today at CP do not recognize older postage stamps and hence do not cancel them. (They use some kind of recognition software to make sure the cancel lands on the correct place on the cover).

That is why almost all covers with older (non current) stamps come through uncancelled.
In my experience, the PO where I live does not bother to cancel them (with a pen or otherwise). They are supposed to as a part of their job description.

So once the cover goes through uncancelled, the postal clerk either a/ cancels quickly with a pen b/ cancels with a hand-stamp (not usually - I assume because they do not want to take the time), or c/ lets it pass uncancelled (like where I live).

I think the best solution is if you get it uncancelled, take it to a local PO and ask them to hand cancel (as mentioned already).

If they come through with pen, the only thing you can do is try to build a relationship with your local PO (or where-ever the pen cancel is being used) and ask them to hand cancel your mail as it comes through (the success of this will likely depend on how busy the PO is).

That's a good point by 3dadeo. Maybe talk to your letter carrier and see what they can do for you.

One of my grandchildren (coolest kid I know) has a highlighter with UV-reactive ink and a blue/UV-emitting LED.

You could try tagging the envelopes (eg draw a box around the stamps) and see if you can induce a cancel on your older untagged stamps.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I'd rather get stamps not cancelled - and therefore unused - then a stamp with a huge ugly pen line through it. Any day.