| Q. |
I have a
box full of precancels. What do I do next? |
| A. |
Start by organizing them by City and State. Next,
purchase the Bureau Precancel Catalog and the Town &
Type Precancel Catalog from the
PSS. This will enable you to tell the difference between the
different types, as well as the value of your precancels. Don't
be discouraged if they all look the same at first. After you
sort enough, you will begin to catch the differences more
easily. Typical differences include Bureau types vs. Local
types; bars vs. lines; printed vs. handstamps; etc. |
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| Q. |
What is the best area in precancels to start collecting? |
| A. |
Traditionally, new precancel collectors start collecting bureau
precancels. This is because collecting them is a short step away
from collecting United States stamps, and the number of types is small. Only about 9500 different
bureau precancels exist, so it is possible to put together a fairly
complete collection with a limited means. About 90% can be
obtained for under 25c each. The fact that a single
album is available to hold them all, also makes collecting bureaus
very manageable. |
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| Q. |
Seems like most stamp dealers don't have any precancels.
Where can I find more precancels to add to my collection? |
| A. |
Start by dropping a note to one of these
dealers, letting them know what area you collect. Most of
them only deal in precancels, and have many to choose from for the
beginner. Another excellent place to find precancels is at meetings
& round-ups. There you can find other collectors who
have extra duplicates that they would like to trade/sell, often at
better prices than dealers. |
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| Q. |
What's the best way to learn more about precancels? |
| A. |
Attend precancel meetings & round-ups. There
you will meet experts who are very knowledgeable, and can teach you
more in several hours than you would learn in months on your
own. Next, you should join the PSS,
the world's largest Precancel society. This will get you a
subscription to The Precancel Forum, filled with many excellent
articles about precancels. You will find other members in
your area to contact to trade & swap precancels. |
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| Q. |
How do
I display my precancels? Are there any albums available? |
| A. |
There are several pre-printed albums available to house the more
popular areas in precancels. For Bureau's, the K&P Bureau
Precancel Album is very popular and reasonably priced. |
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| Q. |
When
was the first precancel issued? |
| A. |
The first unofficial precancel was that of Hale & Company of
Boston, MA, on their 1844 local stamp. The first post office
authorized precancel is of uncertain date, due to the many issues of
an experimental nature issued by postmasters and others with or
without sanction. |
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| Q. |
What
is a "provisional" precancel? |
| A. |
A provisional, in precancel usage, is a stamp which has been used
as a precancel though it was not produced or canceled by a duly
authorized precanceling device. Generally it must be collected
on the envelope or package wrapper, to show its nature, as the canceller
may have been used on other classes of mail, and not only for precanceling.
Provisionals may be produced by a package killer (rectangular box,
wavy line roller, double oval, etc.), by a handstamp used to fill in
the name of the town on money order forms, or by a like
device. Since the post office department supplied regular
devices for precanceling, products of a provisional nature are not
listed in the catalogs. |
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| Q. |
What
are mail-order precancels? |
| A. |
Mail-order houses such as Sears
Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, Chicago Mail Order, Burgess Seed and
Plant Co. and others received a considerable number of stamps as
partial payments for merchandise. Rather than sell these
stamps at a discount, they used them in precanceled form to pay
parcel post charges. The larger companies had a postal station
in the building. In the case of the Boston MA Sears Roebuck
post office, it was the "Sears Station". These
stamps were precanceled by a postal employee. Since so many
varieties are received in remittances, there are apt to be many
commemoratives, coil stamps, and more unusual items. Since the
advent of dates on precancels, many of these users started using
"integral handstamps". |
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| Q. |
What
are "dated" precancels and why were they used? |
| A. |
Dated precancels are precancels that have the user's initials and
the month and year of use printed above the precancel itself.
Click HERE for more
information on how they got started. |
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| Q. |
What
is an "integral handstamp" precancel type? |
| A. |
An integral handstamp precancel type is one where the precancel
device (handstamp type) is made to include the control date and
user's initials. |
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| Q. |
What
is the difference between a "handstamp" and a "hand
electro" precancel type? |
| A. |
The primary difference between a handstamp and a hand electro is
the materials the device is made of: handstamp of rubber, hand
electro of metal. The earlier hand electros were of 25
subjects, just as the handstamps. Later they were of 10
subjects. After about 1936, hand electros came with a narrower
spacing between the lines, to leave more space for the initials and
date required on the higher denominations used for parcel
post. The handstamp device is flat surfaced while the hand
electro device has a slightly curved face. |
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| Q. |
I
Purchased an older precancel catalog that uses the older Noble
numbering system. Is there a way to convert these numbers to
the newer PSS numbering system? |
| A. |
Yes and No. There is no direct conversion of the numbers, as
the PSS system was developed in the early 70's using a lot of
earlier research. Since it was re-done, and the source records
were closer examined, and it is based on devices and not types,
there are more than the earlier system. However, since a
particular town only used a limited number of devices, it is fairly
easy to figure out which PSS number goes with which Noble
type. HERE is a
conversion chart. |
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Copyright
© 1998-2007 Precancel Stamp Society. All rights reserved.