Marker Monkeys And Other Stamp Crimes.

Isn't this attractive?

They're still at it...............

A lot of this is still happening- I notice it on parcels I get from Canada Post- I think it is someone in their system because I seldom see it on domestic parcels.

I seriously think there is a lot of hostility on the part of postal workers toward stamp collectors. They are seen as 'time wasters' by window clerks. I once tried to complain about some stamps being ruined like this to a window clerk, she actually wound up yelling at me- something like 'all you so called stamp collectors- you all just want to take stamps off and reuse them." Guess she thought she had us all figured out.

I don't have a problem with the postal employees using markers or pens on uncanceled stamps. It is just a matter of revenue protection. What makes my blood pressure rise is the use of pens and markers on ALREADY postmarked stampa, as 1775mac showed originally. Happened to me a few years back when a dealer was nice enough to use a nice imperforate coil pair on the posting. It was beautifully postmarked, and then some @#5# destroyed it with a ballpoint pen.

Seems like a lot of you in Canada have a problem with marker monkeys, like it's policy that's pushed from the top down. Cancel ALL stamps.

Some of you said it happens in the U.S. too, but it doesn't seem to be a nationwide policy. I live in Minneapolis, and if my mail isn't hand cancelled by the sender or cancelled by a machine, it just doesn't get cancelled. As far as I remember (which sometimes ain't very far) I've never seen a pen cancel on any of my mail, ever.

Makes me curious, why do some parts of the U.S. worry so much about cancelling stamps and others not at all...

Here is my contribution to the marker monkeys. The ironic thing is the envelope contained Canadin stamps. The clerk must have been angry because the pen marking dug into the stamps.

Vince

A shame. A real shame.




-IBFS

YIKES! And to add insult to injury, some of my favorite issues on there!

AND...the stamps were already cancelled. "Must use ballpoint pen...must use ballpoint pen...must use ballpoint pen..."

I get a lot in the mail crossed off with ink pens, A big X on it.

Bummer.



Robert

This thread is nightmarish, and is leaving me in a cold sweat.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

I received a package from a stamp collector who had used some very nice strips of stamps. Someone, somewhere along the route had sellotaped them along the edges - presumably to stop them falling off

This handheld cancel is now in operation at sorting offices etc in UK to catch at least some of the uncancelled stamps. Better than a marker pen but not ideal for collectors as it obliterates the stamp (as it is designed to do, I suppose).... unless a market evolves in trading various wavy line cancels with varieties etc

43 year old marker monkey at work

1972