Original Gum on a Canceled Stamp
For decades I've always wondered about stamps that are in excellent condition, fresh gum, but yet have a cancellation. What's the story on these stamps? Were they purposefully canceled by the issuing country to prevent unauthorized use or what? Just curious. Have only seen this on foreign stamps which I don't specialize in. Thanks in advance. /s/ Harry
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From Wikipedia
A cancelled to order (also called and abbreviated CTO) postage stamp is a stamp the issuing postal service has cancelled (marked as used), but has not traveled through the post,[1] but instead get handed back to a stamp collector or dealer. They can come from withdrawn stocks of stamps cancelled in sheets and sold as remainders or from new sheets for sale at reduced rates to the stamp trade.[1] Postal services of various countries do this in response to collector demand, or to preclude stamps issued for the collector market being used on mail. Some of the history of CTOs is from stamps being given to collectors on an approval basis, in person or through mailings; the first CTOs began in the late 19th century.
A favour cancelled stamp is a stamp that the collector purchased and took to the post office to be cancelled so they have a "used" copy. It will be like a CTO stamp unless the gum has been soaked off.
The difference is that the favour cancelled stamp cost the collector the mint issue amount. CTO stamps are generated in large quantities and normally sold much below original face value.
As an example, Canada doesn't create "CTO" stamps, however I commonly encounter favour cancelled Canadian stamps. Often the reason they've been favour cancelled is rarity of used examples (used souvenir sheets would be an example) or rarity of cancels (often the collector got the favour cancelling done at their wee post office with nice CDS cancels).
I have seen Canadian and other countries stamps that were used for mass payments by enterprising collectors/folks for collectors, these often will have the gum on the back still depending on the country.
I'm presuming they're issued by the post office, sort of a slant on traditional first day covers. I'm not sure what they count as, I think someone once told me they're quite collected in Germany. I'm presuming the buyers are paying face value for them as they would a FDC (actually more than face for an FDC).
/s/ Harry
In the main these were prepared in Melbourne and have distinctive hand cancels so even where the gum has been soaked off are still recognizable as CTO. There has been a lot of recent research recognizing the different cancels and prices vary for the same stamp according to the cancel used.
Australia has also released CTO stamps in mixtures primarily aimed at the new collector (children), at least from the 70s. Since the 90s there have also been the 'sand dune' CTOs where the cancels are printed, but equally gain catalogue status.
All Australian CTOs are covered in the Australian Commonwealth Specialist Catalogue (ACSC) from Brusden White.
During my 'collector period' of some 30 years I sought very fine used pre 1940 Australia in quantity, and so many CTO were inadvertently hoarded. There are still are few examples available in my store for anyone chasing these.
Looks okay to me, especially as it has gum.
Generally cancels are fine and crisp, but I have also seen some with a little smudging.
Here are three recognised cancels for KGV CTOs from my 2007 ACSC:
Yours looks the same as the bottom illustration.
The 1/4d KGV P14 Small Multilple Watermark CTO in 2007 was AU$300, double the fine used price. Prices today are higher than this but I don't have access to the current ACSC KGV catalogue.
PS: I need to correct what I said about numbers issued (bad memory): The number of packs SOLD was UNDER 2,000.
Thank you very much for the information. It was part of a remainder lot I purchased from a dealer back in the 80's and I'm sure it was left in because it was a CTO.