Socked on the nose

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Socked on the nose ("SON"), in philately, refers to a cancellation in which the killer, or, if the postmark does not have a separate killer, the (typically circular) postmark itself, is right in the middle of the stamp. The ideal SON has the entire postmark inside the margins, although this is not always possible, as the stamp may be too small or the postmark too large.

Some philatelists and collectors of cancellations have a special interest in, prefer, and/or collect SON mainly because the date, time, and place the stamp was used/postmarked can be identified by the cancellation.

This allows specialized collectors to collect, for example, all of the postmarks of a particular country, state, city, county, etc., without collecting entire covers.

Since modern machine cancellations are normally arranged so that the "wavy lines" or other killer are applied to the stamp, leaving the postmark clear, dealers and collectors desiring SONs will position the stamp on the cover so as to fall under the postmark.

Bullseye is another term for socked on the nose, however bullseye also refers to the earliest stamps of Brazil.