Question On CTO Stamps

CTO stamps in my collection look so different, almost to the point of looking like fake stamps to me.

So I am on the fence whether to continue collecting them or just stick with postally used and mint stamps.

Is it just me or folks in the forum also dont prefer CTO stamps as much?

Do all countries issue CTO, or are there countries that never issue CTO??

Just wanted to get some inputs. Thanks!

Thank you for asking this question - I also would like to hear other's input. I am not sure why, but I am not drawn to the CTOs - though there are a few that are nice. For now, I have stopped including them in my VARIO sheets (only a select few) and have them housed separately.

As a worldwide collector I don't mind CTOs in my collection. I have plenty of them and I'm sure over time will acquire plenty more. In some cases like Czechoslovakia I wish they had left the gum off the back, but you learn to deal with it.

Dale

I generally avoid post-1950 CTOs, however, I do retain some in my collection that appeal to me. For the most part my collection is mint and postally used.

Robert

These go back to the nineteenth century, when surplus stamps from some areas were cancelled - often with bars - and placed on the philatelic market. There was an upsurge in CTOs after WWII, as a means for countries to gain useful foreign currency. The next development was the printing of the cancellation during the process of printing the stamp. In addition, there's a long tradition of items being cancelled by favour - eg cancelled at a PO counter without having gone through the post. Most FDCs have taken this form for many years. In general, collectors will prefer a postally used individual stamp, but these aren't always easy to obtain in good condition.

For me, a CTO is always a space filler until I can get a mint or used copy.

C-T-O stamps are looked at by the major stamp auction houses as filler with no real value . Most C-T-O's are sold in bulk and used to fill beginner collections ,if you were to put a price on them it would be 1 or 2 cents each .

If you search ebay right now you would find them in the 1,000 stamps for $10.00 range . Most stamp dealers who buy stamp collections don't put a price on collections with them ,C-T-O just come for the ride when they are buying collections ,as no value .

The world part of my collection was generally inherited from my mother's collection. She worked in a university and over the decades she, and her associates, saved a lot of world stamps used in postage. But I have noticed in some cases in later years she did acquire some CTOs. Those are the only ones I have around, and I do not actively look for them. Just my personal preference. I do look for Panama stamps, and their CTOs I would consider, but because of personal family connections.

In the end, you collect what appeals to you, value considerations aside. Your collection, your rules.

Ken

For many of those who don't care for CTO's, myself included, the reason seems to be that they're basically a contrivance created by post offices to make money off of cancelled stamps (the post office makes nothing when you soak a stamp off an envelope, you see). Mint stamps were presumably valid for postage when they were issued. Postally used stamps were of course valid for postage because, well, they actually got used as postage. A CTO stamp, having the cancel applied by the postal administration without ever having been offered for sale, was basically never valid for postage. Hence many collectors see CTO's as a form of cheating or a fake contrivance rather than a true stamp. I do have many CTO's in my collection, but all else being equal, I prefer a postally used one to a CTO every time.

I don't like CTOs and would like to claim I don't put them in my collection, but the truth is more nuanced. The problem is there are many varieties of CTOs and not all are obvious at first glance, so I have developed a hierarchy of stamps in the order in which I prefer to collect them (I don't collect mint):

- Stamps I love -
- Postally Used, with beautiful manuscript cancels
- Postally Used, Machine Cancelled
- Revenue Cancels

-Stamps I accept but would like to replace -
- CTO Remainders - Stamps like those of Labuan or North Borneo which were postally used, but when they were no longer valid for postage the leftover mint stamps were given CTO cancels.
- Older CTOs on stamps issued prior to 1950, in which I find the beauty of the stamps outweighs my negative feelings of CTOs. Examples include the Nyassa Giraffe and Camel stamps from 1901.
- Favor Cancels - These are sometimes hard for me to distinguish from postally used as they often have legitimate postmarks on them.

- Stamps I Reject, I would rather have a blank space in my album -
- Stamps soaked from FDCs - these have nice cancels but typically are on the day of issue.
- Regular CTOs - Stamps which were issued primary to sell collectors, although they did have some postal use. Typically Eastern European and African Stamps from the late 1940's onward.
- Dunes, which are often not even legitimate stamps

This does not take into account forged cancels which I do not have the expertise to identify as a general worldwide collector but are common on stamps where the used value is greater than the mint like German inflation era stamps. I also cannot tell the difference between CTO, used and forged on Rhodesian Double Heads so I would accept whatever I got due to my own ignorance.

There are some cases where CTOs have a premium over postally used stamps (early Australia), but even in those cases I prefer the postally used varieties.

Australian Roos that are CTO fetch good money.

I understand from my Australian friends that CTO King George V sidefaces fetch good money too.

In fact, some of the CTO Kangaroo and KGV sidefaces material are scarcer than their mint and used counterparts and thus command higher prices! Wow.

And I am told that in an Australian-based stamp forum, there is a dedicated thread just to discuss Australian Commonwealth CTO stamps, and it is almost 100 pages long!

Modern Germany is another area where many collectors prefer CTO to used. Switzerland may also be; I may have read that on this site.

There is CTO and there real CTO. The real CTO is where the cancel was printed along with the stamps themselves. So they obviously have full gum, too. A lot of DDR falls into this category. The Michel catalog recognizes CTO as a collectible variety and even prices it (nearly always at a strong discount).

The 5-Year Plan set issued by DDR in the 1950's is rife with CTO's and can be found in every beginner collection. I collect them as
MNH originals
CTO originals
MNH reprints
CTO reprints(!)

Same here, plus
Postally used

Robert

I used to have an extensive collection of world-wide used pre-1940. I certainly preferred postally used to CTO, but in many cases CTO's were the only affordable used stamps available (from places like Allenstein, for example). In these instances I gladly put them in my collection.

The DDR 5year plan stamps have varieties of the CTO also!