Pen cancel

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A pen cancellation on the cover of a letter of 'Rechnung', dated Jan 17, 1858.
A pen cancellation on the cover of a letter of 'Rechnung', dated Jan 17, 1858.

In philately, a pen cancel is a cancellation (either of a stamp of postage-due label)[1] done with pen or marker, although, perhaps misleadingly, ones done with crayon are also considered under this heading.[2] In the early, pre-ballpoint pen days of adhesive stamps it took longer to apply a pen cancel than a handstamp, which led to the development of handstamped cancellation devices. According to Linns.com, "A pen cancel may also indicate that a stamp was used as a fiscal".

Pen markings on stamps that are to be distinguished from pen cancels are those on the 2003 Great Britain Occasions "Multiple Choice" stamps in which boxes are intended to be ticked with a pen,[3] as well as some other anomalous pen markings (for example, addresses marked on souvenir sheets).[4]

Pen cancels are sometimes seen today, as, in order not to lose revenue through stamp reuse, postal employees are instructed to obliterate (through use of pen-cancellation, among other possible methods), stamps missed by the cancelling machine or hand cancel; they might also, apparently, be used to keep track of calculations if enough and the right value of stamps on an envelope or package with many stamps on it, have been applied to pay postage.[5] Depending on the type of pen or marker used, a pen cancel may destroy the value for stamp-collecting purposes of a used stamp, or the cover if it is saved on cover, and this has led to complaints by stamp collectors that postal employees accused of overzealousness have applied overly thick and enthusiastic marker cancels. However, there have been thosed who have been pleased to see pen cancels rather than handstamps or mechanical cancelling on packages.[1]

A kind of pen cancel is the X-cancel; similar is the "double crossroads" with two overlapping X's.[6] Other forms the pen cancel might take are the crosshatch, parallel lines, "snake" and "blot."[2]

Pen cancels may also take the form of notations by the canceller:[3] the city in which the item was apparently posted,[4] or perhaps "the initials of [the] local postmaster."[5]

A used stamp with a pen cancel may be worth less than that with another sort.[6] Some people have apparently removed or attempted to remove pen cancels in order to pass off used stamps as unused to increase their selling price[7] or for other reasons. There has been microscopic analysis of allegedly forged pen cancels.[7]

[edit] Footnote

  1. ^ Example of postage-due label with pen cancel. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  2. ^ POST OFFICE IN PARADISE: Cancels - Pen. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  3. ^ New Great Britain Stamps - "Occasions": 4 February 2003 - From Norvic Philatelics. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  4. ^ Pushing the Envelope. Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
  5. ^ Cover with both hand and pen cancels. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  6. ^ POST OFFICE IN PARADISE: Cancels - Pen
  7. ^ Chaplin, Tracey D.; Robin J. H. Clark, David R. Beech (2002-03-09). "Comparison of genuine (1851-1852 AD) and forged or reproduction Hawaiian Missionary stamps using Raman microscopy". Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 33 (6): 424-8. 

[edit] References