Have been sorting through lots and lots of covers from the last several years. Almost all are defaced with the horrible spray on cancels (Happy Holidays, etc). Wondering two things at the moment:
1. Is there a list anywhere with a picture of what the cancel is actually supposed to look like and the dates it was to be used?
2. Why are some spray on cancels used over a year after they were originally put out?
In the spirit of making my own little reference book (like has been recommended for color reference charts), I have a little binder with examples of each cancel and the dates of use that I have been able to find examples for. This started because I found some letters with seemingly out of period usage. It's just interesting....
Support the Hobby -- Join the American Philatelic Society 01 Jun 2013 10:30:12pm
re: Spray on cancels
Hi Sally,
1: I sent you an email with an excel table. Sorry, it only goes to 2011.
2: Your observation is correct. There is not always a new Christmas spray-on cancel each year used at all facilities. Some processing centers reuse earlier styles and it appears there isn't always full consistency among all of the machines used at a given facility -- some machines use the new cancel, some the old, some don't switch to a Christmas cancel and continue to use wavy lines. Any re-use of slogans other than Christmas would be unusual and could be a programming error. What are the specific slogans that you suspect have been re-used? I have a basic collection of the spray-on cancels, but have not kept it up-to-date for the last year or so.
Thanks very much for the excel chart - I had looked through the Machine Cancel Society website and was unable to find anything. It was very helpful.
The posted photo shows the two cancels that I have noticed so far: the Happy Holidays from 2006-2007 was used in 2010 and the Missing Children one that was used in May and June of 2010 reappears in Dec 2010 and again in Sept 2011.
I just thought it was odd and didn't realize that cancels could be reused. I was using the cancels to organize some covers when I couldn't read the cancel date - guess that won't be reliable anymore.
Thanks again for the quick response. I have sent you an email also,
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 02 Jun 2013 01:13:00pm
re: Spray on cancels
"Horrible"
Shucks most of them are not good enough to be called merely horrible.
I have begun to think that they are a part of a nefarious plot by USPS to dissuade stampers from collecting used instead of Mint examples.
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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. .... "
The past is a foreign country, they do things different there. 02 Jun 2013 02:05:36pm
re: Spray on cancels
Now, now, Charlie, "nefarious plot" is simply not in the typical American's vocabulary.
What we need here is a "conspiracy " theory, and the USA is full of them.
Spray-on postage stamp cancels have become an international curse.
My take on this philatelic travesty is that the global spray-can industry,
seeing that concrete hair-dos were no longer the female fashion, and that
the graffiti market bubble was about to burst, has illegally conspired
to exploit the lobotomized member nations of the UPU.
Ink dots, it's all about ink dots.
John Derry
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"Much happiness is overlooked because it doesn't cost anything. "
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 04 Jun 2013 03:11:30pm
re: Spray on cancels
That sounds pretty nefarious to me, John. Do you think it might have been concocted in the murky obscurity of a cloud filled night?
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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. .... "
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