Cancellation (mail) - Types of Cancellations

Types of Cancellations

• Bullseye cancellation also called "Socked on the nose" or SOTN, is a stamp collector's term for a cancellation, typically of circular design, centered on the postage stamp. Such cancellations are popular with some stamp collectors because of their neatness and the fact that the time, date, and location where the stamp was used may be readily seen. The prevalence of bulls-eye cancellations varies considerably by country and time period.

• Cancelled-to-order. Cancelled-to-order stamps, also known as CTOs, are stamps that have been cancelled by a postal authority, but were never used to transmit mail. CTOs are created by postal authorities to sell the stamps cheaply to stamp collectors. Many Eastern European countries and others sold great numbers of CTOs to collectors in the 1950s - 1990s strictly for revenue. CTOs often may be identified as the stamps still retain their original gum. Some authorities use the same canceller for all CTOs, and apply it very neatly in the corner of four stamps at one time. In some instances, the "cancellations" are actually printed as part of the stamp itself.

• Deferential cancellation is a cancellation designed so as not to deface the image of the ruler or regent on the stamp. See example above.

• A duplex cancel includes a postmark as well as the cancellation.

• Fancy cancels. In the second half of the 19th century, many postmasters in the United States and Canada cut their own cancelers from cork or wood in a great variety of designs such as stars, circles, flags, chickens, etc. These are known as fancy cancels and have been heavily studied by philatelists and collectors. One of the most famous is the "kicking mule" used in the 1880s.

• First day of issue are special cancellations with the date the stamp was first issued for sale and the words "first day of issue."

• Flag cancellations are a type of machine cancellation incorporating a design of the United States flag with the stripes serving as the "killer". The first machine flag cancel (preceded by fancy cancels of flags) was used in Boston in November–December 1894.

• Handstamped cancellations are cancellations added by means of a hand stamping device.

• Highway post office cancels refers to cancels added in transit by portable mail-handling equipment for sorting mail in trucks.

• Machine cancellations are automatically added by machines that rapidly process large numbers of envelopes. A 1903 silent film of an operating cancelling machine may be seen here.

• Mute cancel refers to a cancellation that includes no writing and thus "does not speak."

• Numeral cancels are cancels whereby number were used to identify specific post offices. For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which started using numerals in 1844, the shape of bars indicate the actual country of use. Numerals were also used in combination with a datestamp in duplex cancellations.

• Pen cancels refer to the use of a writing pen to deface the stamp, and were more common in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Pictorial cancellations include images associated with the commemoration of some event or anniversary. Some people attempt to use stamps relating to the theme of a pictorial cancellation on the envelope. See further below.

• Precancels are stamps that have been issued with printed cancellations on them, typically to mass mailers. Precancels cannot normally be used by the general public.

• Railway post office (R.P.O.) cancels refer to cancellations applied on mail sorted on trains. The first United States cancellation with the word "railroad" dates from 1838. The last Railway Post Office (R.P.O.) operated by the United States closed in 1977.

• Ship cancels were added to stamps that were mailed on or carried on a ship, commonly a steamer ship in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. In French, the cancellation reads "Paquebot".

• Slogan cancellations contain a slogan, perhaps commemorative or advertising, in the killer box. See further below.