|
Post by schnacks on Nov 22, 2017 21:08:30 GMT
I'm just wondering if anyone else is seeing this: stamps cancelled with big fat marker slashes? I use a lot of vintage stamps, and so do some of the people who write to me, and it just seems to me to be a kind of vandalism. They really do deface the stamps. It just feels angry! Sometimes it's when there are only two stamps, sometimes when there are 4+. And yet, I get so very many letters with just one stamp, completely uncancelled.
I don't know if there is anything that can be done. I have heard that you can cancel the stamps yourself (using your own cancelling stamp), if you do it in front of an employee (eg at the PO counter). Is it possible to ask them to hand cancel it themselves?
Any other advice/experience shared much appreciated!
Thanks
|
|
|
Post by mailartist on Nov 22, 2017 21:38:00 GMT
A separate question is who "owns" the stamps. Someone may buy and install a mailbox, but my understanding is that an official US postal mailbox is "the mail's." (In other words, I can't buy and install an official mailbox on my property, with the understanding that some other entity will deliver items there.) Are stamps similar, with the person buying the stamp paying for a service (delivering the mail), but the US government retains "custody" as well?
Interesting questions . . .
I have seen such slashes, and I expect that it's some postal worker who has discovered a letter has gone through unfranked. Were people not inclined to "steal" stamps by picking them off and reusing them, the postal workers may not be so worried if they could trust that a "used" stamp remained "used," whether franked or not.
This issue may concern others more than me (since I don't see myself as a stamp collector, but more as a snail mail enthusiast), but I understand that a stamp needs to be franked, and whether it's by wavy postal machinery, or someone with a permanent marker -- I don't care. In my mind, it gives a "personal feel" to an envelope (evidence that a real human being handled and looked at it, and that the envelope has a personal story and journey), rather than it just being run through postal machinery.
Never heard of personal cancellation, with an individual stamp. Not sure how that would work. I also think that the stamp could well end up double cancelled, since I'm not sure the machinery would recognize an alternative frank.
I do know that our local postal clerks are insanely busy, but they are generally happy to hand cancel my letters with the local stamp. Yours might be also, so that way you know your outgoing mail will look right? (Not sure how to handle that with incoming letters, though.)
Also, if I'm needing a hand cancel, I try to pick a non-busy time of the day to do so. So, not when there are 20-some people in line.
|
|
|
Post by mailartist on Nov 22, 2017 22:38:25 GMT
This absolutely true story just came to mind, which underscores how complex "postal ownership" might be:
A few weeks ago, I pulled from our mailbox an unusual, but seemingly innocuous, mailer from a local, currently serving politician. (I don't recall who, or what party. The mailer was patriotic red, white and blue -- so it could have been any party, sad to say, based on how this story unfolds.) Anyway, it claimed to be a survey mailed to everyone within the represented area, with questions about "How important do you rank . . . " with several issues listed and a way to indicate my level of concern.
Fine. I'm happy to participate in the political process. It's what you do as a citizen.
Ah, but before making a mark on the thing, I read all the way to the end. Okay, so I'd have to affix my own Forever stamp. Once again, fine. I'm happy to participate in the political process. It's what you do as a citizen.
But then: I was required to provide my email address (which I generally don't, offhand, except to family or close friends), which, if I did, constituted my permission to send me any and all missives, at any time, for any purposes, and in any quantity, for perpetuity of time.
NOT fine. I'm happy to participate in the political process (it's what you do as a citizen), but I don't want to be badgered by email any more than I already am.
I go to chuck the thing, but then read some even more interesting verbiage. It tells me that returning it is voluntary, that I'm under no legal obligation to complete the survey -- but the piece of paper I was holding in my hands was printed and mailed by taxpayer dollars, and thus is, and remains, property of the government, which I am not permitted, ever, to destroy.
I held in my hands an (extortive?) "survey" that I didn't ask for and had to pay to submit (giving not just my political views, but permission to use my contact information any time that office pleased). I was not required to submit it, but it was "illegal" to toss it out. What was I to do with it then? Pass it along to my great-grandchildren, along with the heirloom family spoon collection? Or frame it and hang it on the dining room wall?
I am all for government working to solve real problems, and citizens following the laws of their countries, but this seemed comical, if not unethical bordering on illegal. (After all, if pyramid schemes can't be mailed, then political extortion probably can't be either.) I suppose I should have just dropped the entire thing (unstamped and without a single additional mark on it) into the nearest postal drop, and let the Federal Dead Letter Office decide if they want to invoke the ire of the local government by tossing it out. But you know what they say about hindsight, and I didn't want to burden one governmental arm by the blathering nonsense of another.
In any event, I handed this egregious political office mailing to my husband, and said "No way I'm sending this back, but I can't ethically trash it either." I'm not sure what he did with it (wink, wink), but I confess that I haven't seen it around since . . .
Wait! What's that I hear outside? [Distant police sirens, getting louder and louder, before stopping entirely. Loud BANG, BANG, BANG, on the door, followed by "Open up! Politic police! You're under arrest!"]
|
|
|
Post by mailartist on Nov 22, 2017 22:42:01 GMT
Schnacks, I rather suspect that you just have an overzealous mail delivery person directly upstream from you, who is attentive to such omissions. I know that I've received a lot of vintage stamps on letters, so I'd just say to send and receive more mail. Eventually you'll get some more "pristine" stamps.
|
|
|
Post by Mia on Nov 23, 2017 0:01:50 GMT
Not just the US. UK too. Will dig out info tomorrow.
|
|
|
Post by schnacks on Nov 23, 2017 0:15:58 GMT
but the piece of paper I was holding in my hands was printed and mailed by taxpayer dollars, and thus is, and remains, property of the government, which I am not permitted, ever, to destroy. This is quite unbelievable, but I believe it. It's the kind of Crazy Nonsense that the US is so good at. I wish that it was true that EVERYTHING created with taxpayer's dollars was illegal to destroy. Ha! I'm not a stamp collector - I just like using old stamps. And I kind of hate to see them defaced with marker. Cancellations are fine.... I have also received envelopes covered in older stamps that were nicely cancelled, obviously by hand. I'm with you on the not overburdening the postal workers, and I'm not trying to be precious... as I said, it just seems a bit unsympathetic to scribble on them with markers. It must be *obvious* to them that someone using so many old stamps must be doing it for aesthetic reasons...
|
|
|
Post by mailartist on Nov 23, 2017 0:57:38 GMT
It must be *obvious* to them that someone using so many old stamps must be doing it for aesthetic reasons... A Forever is a Forever stamp, forever. but those pesky "old stamps" require arithmetic: Imaginary Postal worker, looking at a constellation of vintage stamps on a US letter: "Let me see, a four-cent stamp plus an 11-cent stamp is . . . 4 + 11 . . . hmm, 15 . . . adding an eight and a 14 is 15 + 9, so 23 plus . . . what again? Oh, fudge! And there's also a F stamp on this? How on earth much is an 'F stamp'?" No wonder the franking marker might be a bit vigorous! My rule of thumb, when I use these "oldies," is that I will "round up" (i.e., affix a little more than needed), just to compensate for the "gee, I gotta add" factor. (Since I can often get them at less than face value online, it seems a fair thing to do.) Not sure how modern postal machinery "reads" Forever stamps, but I think vintage stamps have to be scrutinized by hand, because they will be bumped back to the sender if the amount isn't correct. Then again, I did have a letter delivered without a shred of postage on it. It was a lovely handmade envelope, so maybe the artiness of it obscured the fact that, hey, the sender forgot to put a stamp on!
|
|
|
Post by Mia on Nov 23, 2017 10:46:57 GMT
|
|
|
Post by schnacks on Nov 24, 2017 1:08:36 GMT
|
|
|
Post by erin on Nov 27, 2017 18:58:04 GMT
I have one! It's free to apply for one but the stamp itself (and special shade of ink) cost me over $100. I rarely use it since I have to physically hand the mail to a clerk and there is only one post office I'm allowed to do it. Sometimes the clerks have no clue what it is and then I have to explain/bring out a copy of my permit etc.
But there is a large group of MPP collectors and for a time I was busy sending out my postmark to everyone who requested one.
|
|
|
Post by erin on Nov 27, 2017 18:59:10 GMT
oh! and most of my mail from Canada has the stamps cancelled with a marker slash.... I've yet to figure out why that happens!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2018 4:13:07 GMT
oh! and most of my mail from Canada has the stamps cancelled with a marker slash.... I've yet to figure out why that happens! This frustrates me too and I contacted Canada Post on Facebook to ask about it, here is their response: As you will appreciate, our primary function is to move the mail as quickly as possible using mechanized equipment and to ensure prepayment for the service. Occasionally, items may escape cancellation by our equipment, and our delivery staff out on their routes will stroke these uncancelled stamps for revenue protection. While this action is permitted, we realize it also makes the items uncollectable from your point of view. Rather, we would have had to ensure that they received proper cancellations in the first place through our postal equipment. As we modernize our equipment, we are keeping in mind the needs of collectors like you. We are aiming to maintain the security of the mail while preserving the collection value of stamps. We know it’s important for collectors. You may be assured that we will continue to strive to find the proper balance between quick handling and collector preferences.
|
|
|
Post by Mia on Mar 14, 2018 12:07:42 GMT
Norvic's Blog has information about stamps (UK mostly), but today, I read about a campaign against pen cancels - UK suffers from them too.
|
|