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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.