CTO Or Not ?

When you see a cancellation, how can you decide if it is a CTO or a normal one ?

What are the critera which can decide you to a CTO or not ?

Thank you

The main criterion is whether or not the canceled stamp still has gum (if it does, it is very likely a CTO, or at least a precancel of some variety). Likewise, cancels that seem perfectly struck in one corner of the stamp are characteristic of CTO's (one strike canceling four stamps at once).

Here's an example from Romania in 1957-58 era. You can see the neat cancels in the corners of each stamp. They probably canceled the whole sheet at once. The 1.75 stamp in the bottom row 2nd from right is probably the only postally used stamp shown.

Let's take my example:
Here a Swiss stamp with a cancellation.
How to know if it is a GTO ?
There is no gum ( used stamp)

CTO's most commonly used in Eastern Europe during the communist era, but not limited too, usaully very clear thinned line cancels most canceled at the corners allowing one CTO to cancel 4 stamps on a sheet at a time!

Priatel
Where cancels to order appear on older stamps, I'd primarily associate them with smaller countries producing material chiefly for philatelic purposes - eg Haiti, Liberia, North Borneo - rather than, say, Switzerland. This doesn't look like anything other than a normal postmark to me.
Regards.
Geoff

@ GeoffHa
I agree but in my case the stamp Mint Hinged has a value of 21 USD and used 1300 USD !

Priatel. I think there are several varieties of this stamp. You may want to check again, though I hope you have a valuable one. Good luck!

Priatel
I think the question is more likely to be one of whether the postmark was forged than of whetehr is was a CTO or cancelled for favour.
Regards.
Geoff

@Partime
In my case, no.
This stamp is Scott#68 because it is granite paper (faserpapier) and there are no varieties for the 1F gold.

My topic is for determinating if a cancellation is a CTO or not.

But is a CTO stamp not considered as a traditional used stamp? ( of course if the cancellation is from the era of the stamp) ?

In other words, can you (may you) say that my stamp cannot be classified as "used" because it has a CTO ?

I would like to know that before giving it for expertizing.

Correct, CTO = Cancelled to order or what is known as a favor cancel which makes the item philatelic by definition. A used stamp is one that has fulfilled it's postal obligation. Genuinely used usually commands a higher price but not always the case. Australian Kangaroos can be the complete opposite.

If there is a huge difference in value between used and mint, then GeoffHa is right, your real concern should be with a forged cancel, not with CTO.

But as far as CTO is concerned, the high catalogue value given in this instance is for postally used, genuinely postally used. If your copy were a CTO, then that high catalogue value would NOT apply. CTO and postally used are two totally different things.

Used catalogue values are almost always for postally used and if there's any doubt, it will be specified. Where CTOs are more common than genuine postally used (Eastern Europe, some Banana Republic countries), then the catalogue will state: "used CVs are for postally used, CTOs sell for much less."

@Hieronymus
Yes I agree; but HOW to recognize a CTO stamp from a normal cancellation. We are talking about a stamp of around 150 years old !

The only thing to do, I think, is to give it for expertizing to determinate if the cancellation is genuine.

For old Swiss stamps, I never saw, written in the catalogues, the remark you indicate that has to be mentionned.

What nobody mention is that a high value used stamp must also be posted in the correct time period . If the cancelation is done at a later date then its a favor cancel and most likely handed to a clerk at the P.O. and then handed back across the counter .
The problem is very real with Third Reich material were the used is of higher value than mint and the cancelation hand stamps were stolen/liberated after the war and you can still buy these cancelation devices today ,yes the actual cancel device .

I believe in many cases that Scott actually does the opposite - the default used values are for CTO and they'll have a note saying that postally used examples sell for more. They'd almost have to do it that way as almost every Eastern Bloc country sold CTOs of almost all stamps for decades, and this is by far the most common way they are bought and sold on the marketplace. If they used postally used values for all of them it would greatly skew the values, since postal use of many issues would have been almost nonexistent. The real world value of most Eastern Bloc CTOs is just pennies (or Scott's minimum of 25 cents, if you will), but if the default were postally used, I'd guess most would be valued well above the minimum, some dramatically so. The expense to complete, say, the Soviet Union postally used from 1950-1990, would have to be dramatically higher than CTO (or even mint), assuming it could even be done.

While CTOs are most common to the countries named earlier, they also show up in some unexpected places. The Canal Zone CTOed their official stamps as did Switzerland on their officials and the stamps issued for the League of Nations and their organizations. Generally, there stamps were not available to collectors in mint form.