POSTMARKS and CANCELLATIONS across the globe! [NOT commemorative ones]

As far as I’m concerned, the English version postmark in black color is used for international outgoing mail and I assume every post office is equipped with one. Sometimes I find the English version quite informative as Japanese place names are known to have way too many irregular pronunciations, making it harder for foreigners to guess.
Usually the postage stamps on such a postcard are directly canceled by that postmark only, but in the case shared above, apparently the sender made a specific request, which I also used to do, for the pictorial postmark

(not a commemorative one since it's in permanent use). Pictorial postmarks depict the local monuments or landmarks, not necessarily near the post office but shouldn't be as far off as in another city or district. I believe there's already a dedicated post for Japan's pictorial postmarks. Just to add here, the reddish brown color of the ink for pictorial postmarks is said to be *tobiiro* (鳶色) named after black kites' plumage. Last but not least, the date inside a pictorial postmark follows the convention of Japan's normal postmarks, which begins with the year according the the current era. Typically it would've appeared as R2 for the second year of the Reiwa era, but pictorial stamps don't come with an additional letter plug-in and it wouldn't cause any confusion anyway.
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Romania…

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You’ve got a really special card there, from @samquito!!! He’s the one who coordinates our annual meet-ups here in NM. He also creates special cancellations for them as well. That card was sent form the Bosque Post Office, I believe. I find that it’s extremely rare to receive or send a card from your own state. In the 8 years I’ve been a member, I’ve sent 1 card within NM, and received one, only recently from someone in NM, and it was from Sam! I am so honored that I got to receive a card from him!

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I’m also very thrilled to receive one from him!

I think Postcrossing has taken some measure to reduce the possibility that we got an address near us. Also, lots of people prefer not to receive domestic postcards.

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I guess each number corresponds to a post office staff so that when people complain about some irregularities (e.g. unclear postmark, postmarks on the wrong side) it’s easier to figure out which staff is responsible. Perhaps, some numbers are reserved for automated cancellation/incoming mail postmark. I noticed that all handstamped incoming mail postmarks that I have received have a number of 1-3 but all machine postmarks have a number larger than 10.

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Difficult to say without seeing the complete back of the postcard. It could be the advertisement part of a machine cancellation, or it could be a hand stamp used at a promotional event for sending postcards.

I would also prefer postal meters in a separate thread. I’m definitely interested in them, but I think inside this thread it would get too complicated.

Christmas time often results in seasonal cancellations. There are not commemorative, just the advertisement part was changed to a seasonal message.

Netherlands (Amsterdam 101 14-Dec-2020-17)

USA
Note that the US cancellations do not use leading zeroes for single-digit dates (3 instead of 03)
Cincinnati OH 452 03-Dec-2020


Columbus, OH 430 04-Dec-2020

It seems not all processing centers are using the happy holidays slogan, I got one dated 02-Dec-2020 from Milwaukee WI 530 with the normal wavy lines.

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There was no additional stuff. No nothing.

In that case it’s most likely a promotional stamp not intended for stamp cancellation.

I dug out a few more cancellations. :smiley:

First, a new variant of the German inkjet machine cancellation: color pale blue instead of black! I don’t yet know if it’s an accident or if German Post is testing a different color. So far, I have seen only this one instance.
Briefzentrum 60 (Frankfurt am Main), date 18.12.20-21 (18-Dec-2020 9PM) machine letters md

Ireland, inkjet machine cancellation (I know there was also normal cliché machine cancellation, not sure if it is still in use)
right: wavy lines
center: “date stamp” in three lines: location (Athionf or Athlone Mails Center), date (22-Oct-2018), and a number whose significance I don’t know.
left: advertisement, here “Remember to / Use your / EIRCODE”.

Now for some intersting Singaporean machine cancellations. Singapore has only one mail cancellation center with only two cancellation machines, they show C1 or C2 in the date stamp. There was cliché cancellation in the past (which I haven’t yet dug out), what I’m showing today is all inject cancellation.
Regular inkjet machine cancellation: right wavy lines, center date stamp with either C1 or C2 machine number, no advertisement. This is used on most days for the bulk of Singaporean mail.
Example date stamp:
SINGAPORE
3 DEC 2015 (no leading zero for single-digit days)
C2 (or C1)
SINGPOST

For special occasions, left of the date stamp an advertisement space can be added. This is often used for only a few days. All these special advertisements are rgular cancellations: They are used on all machine-cancelled mail during the period of used, and in most cases on both machines (there have been cases where the two machines used a different advertisement each).

50 years Singapore independence, use only in February 2015

World Post Day (always 09-Oct) has been celebrated at least since 2017 with a machine cancellation and at least since 2016 with free postcards issued by Singapore Post. I have cancellations from 2 years and cards from 2 years: World Post Day postcard 2016 and https://colnect.com/en/postcards/postcard/219797.

World Post Day cancellation 2017 machine C2

World Post Day cancellation 2020 machine C1

World Post Day cancellation 2020 machine C2

Another sign of the significance Singapore Post gives to World Post Day is that the re-opening of the General Post Office was placed onto 09-Oct-2017. The letter below has the World Post Day machine cancellation on the commemorative ATM stamp General Post Office (which also makes the letter an FDC), then in the bottom right corner the pretty cancellation of the GPO (this is a regular cancellation, available on any day the GPO is open), and the commemorative cancellation for the re-opening of the GPO.

Then I found an unusual letter. It’s from China (Taiwan), the Taiwanese hand cancellation may be a special one (it’s an FDC cancellation for the ATM stamp from a stamp exhibition). As it was underpaid (9 yuan instead of 13), it got a Taxe-stamp right of the airmail label with manually entered numbers: 4 (missing amount) on top and 13 (correct amount) on bottom. With that information, the destination country Singapore can calculate the missing amount in local currency by multiplying with the correct postage in Singaporean dollars (0.80 SGD). The result (0.25 SGD) plus the fee for underpaid mail (1.07 SGD) = 1,32 SGB is then entered in the Singaporean tax stamp (top center). This happens at the airport where foreign mail enters the country. Then the mail is transported to the postman base of the recipient. There a postage due label is printed and added to the letter and cancelled with the regional base stamp (I have never seen this cancellation on stamps, it seems to be used exclusively for postage due). As the smallest coin still in use in Singapore is 0.05 SGD (5 cents), the postage due amount is rounded to the next full 5 cents, in this case 1.30 SGD. That amount was then collected from the recipient.

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It’s a test.

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It could probably read “use your”.

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Some more inkjet machine cancellations with advertisements from Singapore.

This one from 2018 with a little reminder to post early for Christmas:

These two from 2019 to celebrate Singapore’s bicentennial:

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Thank you, @Cassiopheia ! Oddly enough, even though the ink is a lot paler than the black ink, the date etc. is better readable than with most German black inkjet cancellations. I’ll send out my collector’s items to the three Briefzentren. :smiley:

Great catch, @Oo_Hawkwind_oO! It reads indeed “Use your”. I corrected my post. Thank you also for the other Singaporean advertisement cancellations!

I’m scanning postcards again and found a cancellation from North Korea.

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A typical postmark from the Philippines.

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A much cleaner scan of a typical Hungarian hand-issued postmark, showing post office “Budapest 181” (Budapest 181 Posta, located in Budapest Airport T2A), Magyar Posta abbreviation “MP”, Date “2020 02 05” and stamp code “NA” (differs by stamp/office)

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The 2 lower ones are from Japan. Can anyone tell me a little more about them?

@aerobear the red Japanese special postmark is categorized as a 風景印 Fukei-in. Here is Japan Post’s description. You have the second postmark in black ink, because they need to add the stamp in English for international mail.

Those postmarks are from a Post Office in an outlet mall in Hiroshima. It is Japan Post’s first post office that is dedicated to their mascot, ぽすくま Posu Kuma (Post Bear).

Outside and inside of the post office.
PosuKuma1 PosuKuma2

And here is my rare postmark.
USA McMurdo research station in Antarctica.
Antarctica
Yes, I deliberately chose the Penguin stamps :wink:

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Cat cancellation says “Ensi päivä” (in Finnish) and “Första dagen” (in Swedish) which means “First Day” of issue.

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I received a Hong Kong machine cancellation today.

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Hi All, not sure if any UK Postmarks have been added or discussed, apologies if all ready mentioned.

Here are some standard Ink-Jet Postmarks on UK domestic 1st and 2nd Class rate letters

Postmarks from my local Mail Centre - Greenford/Windsor

Postmarks from other UK Mail Centres.
For domestic mail, Royal usually put on slogans of sponsors, at the moment most of them are Coronavirus messages or National Health Service (NHS) healthcare sponsors, most common one is about Mental Health issues.
Most international post won’t receive these Postmarks, normally just the wavy lines, the processing Mail Centres name, date and time, this usually applies to both domestic and international postcards.

Above are (rare for me, as if I don’t receive an Ink-Jet postmark, its usually the Ball-point or Marker Pen! NOTTINGHAM I am looking at you!) operational date stamps for mail that has been rejected or missed by the printers, they are Croydon (South London) and Nottingham which is blue ink.

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