Used, Full Original Gum, Never Hinged

well, anybody can collect anything anyway they want, but collecting CTO's is just "weird" to me - again, no offense. I can see collecting pretty colored pictures of any theme on pieces of paper, but with a printed "cancellation", I wouldn't care if they had gum on the back of them or not - BUT people collect what they want to how they want to - if a comma commands a premium over a period, go for the period - if you want to . . .

Robert_Lee76, so far no one got to the heart of your original question. If you revisit the Scott specialized listings for some of the Liberty Series coils (I'm thinking of the 4c Lincoln precanceled), you should find some "fine print" that explains the dealer's marketing copy treatment. In summary, he or she's just reflecting old-timer caution from early to mid-20th century strict controls of the USPO over selling of "mint" precancels.

yes, "old timers" - It was "illegal" to use or even possess "mint, OG - as issued," precancels before sometime in the "60's" (I believe), so to be "safe", dealers and collectors soaked the gum off of any they came into possession of and called them all "used", whether they were actually "used" by an authorized mailer or not. The habit was instilled with them and followers and the habit still "sticks" (pun intended) with a great number of the precancel collectors . . .