Greetings all. I have a couple of Canadian stamps that appear to have overprints. See image below. However, I have no idea what the overprint is and what purpose it served. I tried an online search but could not find numerical overprints like on the stamps I have. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much.
These are Canadian pre-cancel overprints. The stamps were in effect pre-cancelled ahead of time to speed up the processing of mass mailings. The 0700 code indicates that these stamps carry a Montreal pre-cancel. The following link will give you some more information about this:
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 04 Dec 2020 03:46:50am
re: Canadian Overprints . . . possibly, maybe?
You will also come across tons of US precancels that
bear similar overprints except the city and state will
be in print, plus the lines are usually single bars.
It is another very interesting area to collect and even
specialise in.
Some were printed in complete sheets at the Bureau of
printing and engraving, for a particular city. Others
at (usually) a city's main post office and a few by a
major local post offices manually. Some have added
initials such as MW or SRC for Montgomery Ward and
Sears Roebucks giant mailings.
Two advantages, first, since the mail need not be
individually canceled by the post office or sorted
manually the mailer gets a discount, second they are
less likely to be used by employees at home.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
I am more familiar with the US pre-cancels which as you say, usually has a city / town name or some sort of letter identification. That's why the purely numeric pre-cancels left me a little flummoxed.
But once again the help and willingness to share knowledge here on SoR has been amazing. Thank you all for your responses.
The latest . Pre cancel catalog has just been released.
Can be purchased for about CAD$22. The Standard Canada Precancel Catalogue 8th edition. Published by Unitrade.
Mine is on its way.
david
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