Recently I saw several discussions on the Net about Cancelled-to-Order (CTO) stamps and precancels. Some of the participants were a little bit fuzzy about the differences, so I thought I would put down a few thoughts on the subject since I collect a lot of this junk. Junk is good because junk is cheap.

Precancels are stamps cancelled prior to use The operative words are prior and use. They are also linked. The cancels are either printed or rubber stamped and their application is done before use. The purpose of precancels was to speed the mail by avoiding the canceling process at the post offices where they were mailed. They were generally used for the mailing of newspapers except in the US and Canada where they were used for first class, parcel post and bulk mail. Many large parcel mailers (in the US) also used precancels as a substitute for perfins as a security device to stop employee pilfering of postage.

In the US, precancels were printed by the government (called Bureau precancels), printed locally under local Post Office control, or handstamped locally (both of the last two categories are called "Locals"). There are thousands of different types and varieties, and precancel collecting can be a major avocation.

In Canada, the precancels were mostly printed. There are enough that collecting Canadian precancels is a very nice specialty area even though the prices on them have risen recently.

Other countries that have issued precancels mostly for use on newspapers are: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Tunisia, Algeria, and Monaco. There are many precancels from Belgium. The printed ones are listed in some foreign catalogs and are collected in Europe in MNH condition. I collect them used as they are cheaper that way. There are many more hand-stamped ones. The towns that issued them are available on a list as are the years of use. You could get a collection of these totaling more than a thousand different. The precancels of Luxembourg are either very cheap or very hard to find and expensive. A good specialty for a masocist. Tunisia, Algeria and Monaco can be completely collected for a small amount of money. The early precancels of France are expensive. The rest are cheap and make a colorful little collection. The precancels of the Netherlands are a well kept secret.

In addition, the countries of Austria, Hungary, France and Turkey had laws that allowed the attaching of newspaper stamps, newspaper tax stamps, and revenues to newspapers before the newspapers were printed. This resulted in some of these stamps being cancelled with newsprint. An interesting collection is so see how many different languages you can find on Austrian newspaper stamps. These stamps are not all that rare in most cases, but they are not all that easy to find either.

Cancelled-To-Order (CTO) are stamps that have been cancelled by their issuing postal authorities prior to sale to collectors. They never had any postal validity. They are no more than labels. The easiest way to tell a CTO is that it has gum on its back and the cancel is neat and clear. Many countries have provided these cancelled stamps to the hobby. I collect them since there often is no easy alternative and many prices in the catalogs are for CTO stamps.

Favor Cancels are cancels applied by postal officials at the request of a collector where the resulting cover or stamps see no postal use. The difference between these and CTO is intent on the part of the collector and the postal authority. The postal authorities' intentions for these stamps is to sell them for postal use. It is the collector that requests the canceling without use. Most current First Day Covers fall into this category if they were not themselves mailed.

Philatelic Usage is where someone with philatelic intent mails an envelope with the purpose of generating a usage or used stamps. This term is usually used with regard to Postal History (now there is an oxymoron) from some small and insignificant place. One of the problems with collecting little island nations is that there is very little commercial or genuine mail from these places, and it often commands a very high price. Some stamps would never be seen on covers (read envelope) if collectors and friends of collectors had not contrived to have the covers created and mailed.Philatelic usage covers are less desirable than genuine use covers but something is better than nothing. Years ago many collectors tried to get mail from as many places as they could. Often the estates of these collectors are the source for covers from the more obscure parts of the world.

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