Precancel

Precanceled stamps are typically used by mass mailers, who can save the postal system time and effort by prearranging to use the precancels, and delivering the stamped mail ready for sorting. The postal administration will typically offer an incentive in the form of a reduced price for precanceled stamps in volume. Precancels cannot normally be purchased by the general public, although they are often seen in one's daily mail.{{cite web |title=Precanceled Stamps |url=https://pe.usps.com/BusinessMail101?ViewName=PrecanceledStamps |website=USPS |access-date=9 July 2021}}

Canada used precancels from 1889 to 1982. Initially, they consisted only of waves and bars applied with ink roller, but the town and province was added in 1903, similar to in the United States. In 1922, the precancel was changed to three pairs of horizontal bars. In the 1930s, town names were replaced with a corresponding numeral of either four numbers or three numbers preceded by an 'X'.{{cite news |title=Philatelic curiosities: Pre-cancelled stamps|work=Stamp and Coin Mart |publisher=Warners Group Publications |date=February 2018 |page=33}}{{cite web |author1=Colin Philip |author2=Dave Philcox |title=Illustrated Glossary of Precancels |url=http://www.pssgb.org.uk/glossary.html |website=Precancel Stamp Society GB |access-date=9 July 2021}}

Widespread French use of precancels began in 1920 with cancels including the year and city. This was scrapped in 1922 in favour of a standard overprint in a semicircle reading AFFRANCHts. POSTES (Affranchissements Postes).

During their time as French colonies, Algeria and Tunisia also issued precancels.

Monaco has issued precancels since 1943, with an identical overprint to that of France.

The United Nations Postal Administration has only issued one precancel, a 1½ cent stamp used from 1952 to 1959.{{cite web |title=The United Nations Precancel, 1952–1958 |url=http://www.unpi.com/exhibit_view_page.asp?intExhibitNumber=9&intCurrentPageNumber=1 |website=United Nations Philatelists Inc. |access-date=9 July 2021}}

File:Estampilla de los Estados Unidos 1938 000.jpg

The first use of precancels (both in the US and globally) was by Hale & Co., an independent mail company in the United States in the 1840s which undercut the expensive United States Post Office Department (POD).{{cite web |title=THE MIKE FARRELL COLLECTION OF INDEPENDENT MAILS: Hale & Co. |url=https://www.pennypost.org/pdf/farrell/HaleCo_FarrellCollection.pdf |website=Carriers and Locals Society |access-date=9 July 2021}} The first precancels were created in 1843 or early 1844 and their complexity varies; most were "crude straight lines" across the stamps, but examples from Portsmouth, New Hampshire were precanceled with "P / N.H." in block letters. Hale & Co., along with all other independent mail carriers, was shut down by an 1845 act of Congress.{{cite journal |author1=Gordon Stimmell |title=Review: "Hale & Co. Independent Mail Company" |journal=U.S. Philatelic Classics Society |date=August 2005 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=181–182 |url=http://chronicle.uspcs.org/pdf/Chronicle_207/18103.pdf |access-date=9 July 2021}}{{cite web |title=Hale & Co.Independent Mail |url=https://www.rfrajola.com/Snow1/Snow1.pdf |website=Frajola |access-date=9 July 2021}}

The POD authorised precanceling of stamps in 1887, and produced standardised guidelines on their design in May 1903. US precancels are generally divided into two groups: Bureaus and Locals. Locals, used unofficially since the 1840s, were prepared by postmasters using stamps and equipment they had on hand. Bureaus are those manufactured by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which came into use in the 1910s.{{cite journal |author1=Jeffrey M. Forster |title=Precancels on the 1869 Pictorial Issue |journal=U.S. Philatelic Classics Society |date=August 2005 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=186–189 |url=http://chronicle.uspcs.org/pdf/Chronicle_207/18113.pdf |access-date=9 July 2021}}{{refn|group=note|The exact date of the introduction of Bureaus is unclear; Forster gives 1916 while the Precancel Stamp Society gives 1913.{{cite web |title=Glossary |url=https://www.precancels.com/glossary/ |website=Precancel Stamp Society |access-date=9 July 2021}} This confusion may be due to the fact that in 1913, the POD began distributing precanceling devices so making most precancels consistent, and that in 1916, the Bureau printed precancels for Augusta, Maine, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Springfield, Massachusetts as an experimental venture. The experiment was judged a failure and was discontinued. The Bureau began regularly printing precancels again in 1923.{{cite journal |author1=Ed Kane |author2=Charles Neyhart |title=Precancels as a sideline collection |journal=Book Reports of the Northwest Philatelic Library |date=January–February 2011 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |url=http://www.nwpl.org/documents/jan-feb2011.pdf |access-date=9 July 2021}}}}

Precancels are known from over 20,000 towns across all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and American Samoa.{{cite web |author1=Richard L. Sine |title=STAMPS; A COLLECTION OF PARCELS BEHIND BARS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/02/arts/stamps-a-collection-of-parcels-behind-bars.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=9 July 2021 |date=2 December 1984}}

Around the early twentieth century, some U.S. business colleges used specially pre-cancelled stamps or stamp-like labels to train students in the handling of stamps.Carlton, R. Scott. The International Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Philately. Iola WI: Krause Publications, 1997, p. 264. {{ISBN|0873414489}} Precancels were also used to train Post Office employees in the United Kingdom.

The Precancel Gazette, a magazine for precancel collectors, was first published in 1919 and the Black Book, a catalog of US precancel stamps, was first published in 1940. The Precancel Stamp Society, formed in 1922 from two previously-existing clubs, specializes in the study of precancels. A number of catalogs list all the types of precancels issued in the countries that use them.

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| File:Estampilla de los Estados Unidos 1954 002.jpg

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| Precancel stamp of the United States from Buffalo, New York

| File:10 cents, Canal Zone precancel 1928 (cropped).jpg

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| Precancel stamp from the Panama Canal Zone

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| Precancel stamp of France

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| Precancel stamp of Algeria

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| Canadian precancel stamp from Quebec City

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| Precancel stamp of Belgium

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| Precancel stamp of the United Nations Postal Administration

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{{Commons category|Precancel stamps}}

Category:Postal markings

Category:Postal systems

Category:Philatelic terminology