CTO Stamps Real Or Fake?

Hello, greetings from Indonesia. I've been collecting stamps since I was 10. Now I'm 40. Though I lost all my stamps during the move, I now start collecting again by purchasing online. But I always come across Cancelled To Order CTO stamps. You know, the ones with postmark printed instead of stamped. I am frustrated to be honest. They look so great but feel so fake. I am clueless, please help me by enlightening me....

1. Are CTO stamps considered original stamps?
2. Is there any fake CTO?

3. ALL CTO stamps I have are printed on art-paperish or posterish paper, no glue on the back. They don't feel like real stamps. More like play things for kids. Are they original?How can I tell my CTOs are real or not?

4. CTO stamps series... the images I mean... Were they ever released as functional real stamps? Or are all CTO stamps exclusively CTO, never released to function as purchasable real stamps to be stamped for mails? - I'm sorry if this question is confusing. I hope someone understand what I mean...

Below I attach some of my CTO. I really love dinosaurs stamps. All of them are frustratingly CTO. Curiously, many African countries released dino CTO, which makes me wonder about their authenticity....



I really miss the old days when snail mails were trendy. I miss stamp trading...

Anyway thanks for reading and prior thanks for enlightening me....

CTO does NOT always mean the stamps have a cancellation that was printed together with the stamps themelves!

Most 3rd world areas have "cancellations" that are offset-printed even with a coarse screen!

Some CTO's are very interesting!

I love those in photogravure for both the stamp design as well as the "cancellation" - British Commonwealth like Kenya or Tanganyika or the USSR!

Right now I am writing an article about the CTO's of Hungary. No Hungarian stamp expert has any idea how to recognize them! And they can be recognized just by the FEEL - let them slip through your fingers!

@GaleOptix:
That is very interesting. No wonder Im confused when searching about CTO online. Here, online sellers always label printed postmark as CTO. Is there any better or mpre precise term for such CTO stamps?

Yes I agree, many CTO are great to look at. But Im worried about being scammed. Printed CTOs can be expensive here, around USD 5-10 per set.

I NEVER find printed CTO with coarse surface. All that I have are always smooth-surfaced, semi glossy just like thin art paper used in magazines.

Please do share the article link after u finish it. Although I havent come across any Hungarian CTOs, I need to read it :)

CASTIELUS ---Enjoy what you have, no problem adding them to your collection , I have close to 75,000 different CTO's and even some like SAAR which catalog over $100.00 per set {they catalog over $400.00 for postal used .}. Every collector makes their own decision how to collect.

The 'Somali Republic' sets were not authorized by the postal authorities of Somalia (in fact, there wasn't a Somali postal service at the time they were printed.) Those stamps were printed by some private enterprise with no official affiliation with Somalia, solely to sell as topicals.

Western Saharan independence isn't recognized by most countries, but there is a de facto Sahrawi government in the southern part of Morocco, and they did authorize the stamps in the top row of the sheet. They are not officially recognized in international mails, but some get used for postage anyway. They're as legitimate as stamps from unrecognized states like the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or breakaway states like Katanga.

The Cambodian, Cuban, and Soviet stamps were all regular postage issues.

Sensing a theme here. Castielus you may enjoy this thread:

https://goscf.com/t/14431&whichpage=1

I totally agree with Floortrader

I have a few collections that have a good amount of CTO's. Most are inexpensive and they look great in my albums.

Dianne

Bring on the CTOs! I may not have as many as floortrader, but I happily include them in my collection.

Dale

I personally can live without them.There is something unnatural about this junk. In this photo I'm attaching, the CTO isn't even a full circle. It's just big enough to cover the usual corner of the stamp. I give this kind of stuff a big

To reiterate what has already been said, collect what you like, and don't let anyone tell you it's wrong to do so. That is one of the major beauties of the hobby.

I have been in that room, and it's not pleasant.
This is where you find yourself, give it time, don't give them away, or destroy them, just put them aside.

CTO's are a genuine part of the Philatelic Journey
Most CTO can reside in a good collection, (example Czechoslovakia)

"Printed on" CTO's are a step too far for me.
I still collect them if they come across my desk, but hold them in some disdain.

Even Australia has "printed on " CTO, they have a story, produced as give away's in childrens packs.

I consider them "Cinderellas" yet the stamp itself is genuine.

Be kind to yourself, it is only a hobby, that will one day leave your possession.

CTOs can often be recognised by the fact they have the cancellation but also still have full original gum. Many were printed far in excess of any postal need so they can raise revenue for the government of the issuing country and perhaps the printer. The phrase Wallpaper describes them well in my opinion. As others say collect what you enjoy. Most CTOs will never be valuable.I have GB Penny blacks, Penny reds, Watermark varieties and all sorts of "proper stamps" but I still love my African miniature sheet CTO which in an attempt to maximise sales has logos pictures and devices which mean it falls into 8 different topical or thematic categories. Sorry I can't show it but I have no scanner.

Bumping an old thread to get the forum's opinion on a dilemma. Going thru kiloware and up to the Poland pile. For some of the 1980's Polish stamps on paper I already have a CTO example in my collection. So the question is would you soak the postally used examples and replace the CTO stamp already in your collection. In some cases the postally used stamp would not be as nice as the crisp, flat CTO. Maybe a heavier cancellation, bent corner perf etc. We're not talking a lot of stamps, maybe a couple dozen. There are a couple of the postally used stamps I'm already grabbing as they got thru with no cancellation marks, so they actually look nicer then the CTO. In some cases soaking the used ones may result in having to soak additional stamps not needed on the same paper, and potentially breaking up some post mark that maybe someone down the line may enjoy. The other thought is these are pretty much worthless whether CTO or used so maybe I should just leave everything as is and move on. Any thoughts?

I had this dilemma when I was collecting Cuban stamps. I found quite a few genuinely used copies, but they were pretty knocked about, so Ijust stuck with the CTOs.

Gibby - I think the decision will probably revolve around whether your interest is mainly in being able to clearly see the stamp design, or mainly in the postal use of stamps.

You could always mount both, treating them as varieties, as it were, of cancelled stamps, just as you might mount color varieties together; doing so would also demonstrate that some of the stamps did see postal use. I have done this myself in same cases.

Or, start a cancel collection if the strikes are clear enough.

Why not keep both?

Many CTO stamps were issued by 'communist' countries. It was one way for those countries to generate income in stronger currencies that could be used across the world. To prevent use, they were cancelled. They are a proxy for (unmounted) mint.

Although it was possible to correspond 'through the iron curtain' most stamps remained in the country. In 1980, my dad took me on holiday to Bulgaria and we bought a lot of unmounted mint (not CTO) Bulgarian stamps as souvenirs.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, the internally used stamps and the mint stamps became available to everyone and in larger quantities. Collectors of mint stamps, usually, do not like CTO and collectors of used stamps frown upon them as they were never used.

For those countries that did not allow collectors to choose CTO stamps, they still tell a story of the world at the time.