CTO Stamps Mint Or Used Value.

@TheArtfulHinger

I'm puzzled when you say "they were never valid for postage".

Except for some of the mid fifties DDR 5 year plan
which had the postmark imprinted in offset by the
printing presses and maybe a few more cases, the majority
of CTO's started off as regular issued stamps where a portion
of the sheets were cancelled and then sold by the Postal
agencies.

I have a bunch of Czechoslovakian and DDR stamps in
CTO, genuinely used and mint codition.
They are all the same except for the cancellation.

I see in a previous post were someone stated that Soviet Union stamps
were printed without gum specifically to be used for CTO's.
I would like to see some sources and examples.
Since the mid 1950's almost all stamp paper
has been pre-gummed and that's they way its fed into
the presses.
Countries that did use no gum stamp paper into the latter
part of the 20th Century were I believe Taiwan, Communist China
and I think Brazil.
Had nothing to do with CTO's but the dextrine gum caused
major curling in those humid places so they were sold without gum.

You can add Laos, Nepal, Vietnam, and DPRK to that list. There are probably others I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Of course stamps with those designs were valid for postage, I'm talking about the individual stamps themselves. A postally used stamp was mint once and was valid for postage before it got used. A mint stamp is of course valid for postage at the time it was issued. CTO stamps, however, never carried mail and never could at the point of purchase from the postal agency. They were never valid for postage even when purchased directly from the post office.

I don't mention any of this in an attempt to try and talk someone out of collecting CTO's, just explaining my particular distaste for them, at least with regards to mint or postally used examples.

I don't see anything in Scott that Vietnam (north or south),
or Nepal issued no gum stamps.
I know it's stated for the 3 countries I mentioned.
Can't check Korea or Laos since I don't don't have Scott Volume 5

I gather you have such examples.

No different from most FDC's.

litho

Non-gummed was the norm in North Viet-nam and, after the liberation, it was, I think, several years before stamps with gum appeared.

Geoff

Thanks GeoffHa

My error. I just re-checked Scott and it is mentioned
in the beginning that From 1945 - 2002 all stamps are
without gum unless otherwise stated.

Also, there is a Scott footnote just before the first listing in Nepal that states #1-24, 29 were issued without gum.

Yes khj I saw that but they were issued in 1903/4 and
1917/18 not into the latter part of the 20th Century
as I wrote in that previous post.

Most Nepalese stamps up until the 1960s were issued without gum. The common definitive sets of the 1950s are a notable exception; they were printed by one of the UK security printers.

For example, here's the first Nepalese airmail issue of 1958 on Delcampe: note the description "no gum as issued".

http://www.delcampe.net/page/item/i...guage,E.html

Laos, during the early years of the Kaysone Phomvihane regime, late 1970s to early 1980s, issued many stamps that were locally printed and crudely perforated on paper without gum. They're some of my favorite stamps of that country. During the same period they also issued topical stamps that were printed overseas with clean perfs and gum; these saw little domestic use. The "real" Laotian stamps of the period are the primitive, gumless, rough perfed issues.

As GeoffHa has already noted, Vietnam issued stamps without gum for years.

Really?

http://www.linns.com/insights/stamp...t-might.html

"More recently, some postal administrations have been offering new-issue stamps that are canceled without having done postal duty but that are not sold at a discount from face value.

"Such stamps are not CTOs even though they did not do postal duty, because they are not sold at a discount from face value. Collecting stamps in this condition has gained some popularity in Europe, but it has not caught on in the United States."

I suppose this reflects the difficulty of finding used, normal stamps in a period where fewer and fewer are used for postage, compared with metered stamps etc.

I've heard some people make the distinction that stamps that are cancelled, did no postal duty, but were sold at normal price are "favor cancelled", while stamps that are cancelled, did no postal duty, and were sold below face value are "cancelled to order".

Speaking for myself, the price the original purchaser paid for the stamp makes no difference to me. They're both CTO, or both favor cancels.

OK thanks for all the examples of no gum or without
gum or ungummed stamp paper from Nepal and Vietnam or Timbuktu
but I still like to see examples of Soviet Union/East European stamps
printed without gum specifically to be used for CTO's
as I originally asked.

Here are some Soviet bloc c.t.o. stamps without gum. The paper of each has the characteristics of not being soaked; it is smooth and without wrinkling, and it is slightly convex...as you would expect with a mint stamp.

Stanley Gibbons describes the Labuan stamp, their 126b, as "Error". So, these stamps were probably among demonitized stock that was cancelled and sold to some fortunate stamp dealer.