Postage Stamp Still Valid With Stain?

I have a sheet of American Dolls stamps (see attached photo) where two of the stamps have some sort of a stain on them. I read the Customer Support Ruling in the link below, but it only makes mention of defacing, which is kind of nebulous because when most people think of defacing, they think of people writing, drawing, or putting a rubber stamp on something.

https://pe.usps.com/text/csr/ps-281.htm

Should absolutely be no problem

Peter

Depends on the interpretation of the USPS's Domestic Mail Manual P002 2.2, which specifies that




are invalid for postage. Whether or not a stained stamp is "defaced" or bears an "unauthorized marking" is the question.

It will probably pass through the mail just fine -- envelopes can pick up all kinds of weird stains in the mail so the postal workers will most likely give you the benefit of the doubt -- but defaced stamps in general are not valid US postage.

Torin, looks like a mint sheet to me. Those two stamps dont look stained but apparently got rubbed by an object, removing some of the ink color probably when pulled out from under something.

I think you may be over-thinking this. The stamps on mail are not individually inspected most of the time. If it's an unused stamp, it should be fine. I assume you're only asking because you want to use these stamps to mail something, so why not use them and see what happens? I'd be extremely surprised if they didn't work just fine.

I agree with codehappy,
"envelopes can pick up all kinds of weird stains in the mail".

No1philatelist: I think what you wrote may have happened. I wish the USPS Manual was more specific relative to the meaning of "defaced" or unauthorized marking."

I am sure the majority of us would agree that the usual understanding of "defaced" would be cancelled with a postal cancelling device or struck through with a pen or marker as you indicated in your first post. As far as small stains, as I previously stated; I do not believe that is what they are.

As for unauthorised marking, they are fine. I would suggest not to write anything on them, stamp them with a rubber stamp or hammer or put any type of mark on them, and they should be fine to use as postage as others suggest.

According to the quote by code it says this.





Well it looks to me that there should be no problem for the usps to cancel them so they are good to use.