Identifying Hand Versus Machine Cancels

Are there any guidelines, or better yet, reference works, to aid in identifying hand versus machine cancels for modern covers. Take the following for example:


Were I to guess, the top is a machine cancel and the bottom a hand cancel. I've seen collectors who purport to be able to identify not just hand vs. machine but the specific instrument or machine used to make the cancel. Again, my interest is in modern issues, not early machine cancels versus hand stamps.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

For US specifically:

Relatively modern machine cancels were/are metal dies and should look like typography. That is, the impressions have fairly sharp/crisp edges and sometimes there is some indentation in the paper. The ink is usually dense black but can be a watery gray.

Handstamp cancels that look like machine ones were/are rubber or plastic. There will be no paper indent from an impression. Impressions of letters and bars are a bit rounded/soft. Ink color is usually grayer as water-based inks are generally used.

See US FDCs from the late 1950s that had a picture element. Singles on cover were generally cancelled by machine. Cancels for blocks and plate blocks not only had a different placement of the picture but were all handstamps.

Colors don't work in your example but compare the sharpness of the dial and the ends of the bars. I agree with your classification. The difference is not always easy to tell by looking at scans.

Could someone show an example of a hand cancel that looks like a machine?

See the scan in the OP. Or do you mean something else?

I was thinking of one where you could be fooled to be thinking one is the other. The example here is obvious in being a hand cancel with it's perfect centering.

Would you have thought the same if you had only seen the bottom image, and not had the top one to compare it to?

With FDC's, and that is a primary interest in this for me, the machine cancel is usually easy to identify and often is more normally "oriented" than some hand cancels. Also, it has been my experience that the CDS on the hand cancel is larger than the CDS of the machne cancel, which is the case here.

The CDS is really a giveaway for me.

I don't know anything about the cancels of the OP but would of thought the top cancel would of been a hand cancel. The First and Day of the cancel are a little crooked to me and that's why I thought that way.

Again you can always learn something new here!

Not an expert either so I could be fooled too.