Hey Canadians- was wondering if any of you have tired putting notes asking them to not hand cancel with pens? I was thinking of putting a sticker beside them saying “for stamp collector- please avoid pen canceling” or something. I feel like canada post is infamous for wrecking stamps this way…
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I wonder if that might backfire…I mean, I think the people who are pen-canceling are either in a hurry or are just uncaring, and then if they additionally read a (to their minds) little note complaining about them…
Oh, and I have to say I have noticed the Sharpie-cancelled postage from the U.S. has increased for me in the last few months. Perhaps an ex-public-servant famous for using Sharpies had to find a new line of work?..
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If it’s important to me to get a neat cancel on a stamp, I just take it into the post office and ask that they cancel it for me there. I find it helps to go to a dedicated post office (rather than a postal counter within a pharmacy or corner store). If they see me bringing in a letter or a package with nice stamps on it, they’ll generally take the time to cancel it neatly and carefully while I watch (even if I don’t specifically request it).
I know that going into a post office in person might not be viable right now what with COVID and all. In that case, if you don’t mind paying for an extra stamp, you can always put the thing you’re sending inside a larger envelope and send it to the postmaster at any of the locations with special picture cancels. They’ll cancel it for you nicely there and then send it on to wherever it’s going. I did that recently for a card that was going to a Postcrosser who collects cancels and likes trains. Here’s a page showing all the different cancels available from Canada Post.
It’s probably not viable to get a special picture cancel every time as it does add to the delivery time and expense. But if it’s for a collector or it’s important to get it cancelled neatly for some other reason, then it can be worth it as a once-in-a-while thing. 
And it does at least give you a socially distant option for getting nice cancels during the pandemic.
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Why can’t they cancel the stamps like a normal country?
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Those are some beautiful cancellations!
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@birdsatemylunch IKR?! I really want to get the whale cancel on one of our $10 blue whale stamps sometime.
Plus, there’s something really fun about getting to send things to the postmaster!
Also, @anon4239658 was that in response to the Canada Post stuff? Canada Post does “cancel stuff normally”. But sometimes things get missed by the machines. In those cases they often get the dreaded pen cancel. Also, even if the machine doesn’t miss them, sometimes the machine cancels can be messy or overly dark. The same thing often happens in other countries too. (Although I will admit that Canada Post and USPS seem to be some of the worst offenders in that regard.) Normally I don’t worry about it too much but, if I know that the mail in question is going to someone who really cares about either stamps or cancels, I sometimes ask for a hand cancel (ie. the postal worker uses a rubber hand stamp to do the cancel) at the post office or request a picture cancel from the postmaster.
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I love that we do this! I just sent a bunch of cards with the aviation series out to get the aero cancelation! I feel pretty lucky because I have become friends with the post office folks! But I think you are very right about picking the post office carefully. I’d be curious to know if there is a trend for this in certain areas over others? Like maybe there is a district office were there is less emphasis on the proper cancelations? All a mystery!
Another example of destroyed stamp arrived me today 
Fortunately it doesn’t happens often and there wasn’t a special cancellation on it
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We’ll know for sure if any inbound cards have Alabama circled.
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Asking for hand cancels in the USA is an exercise in futility. When I was still at USPS and cancelled my own mail, the distribution center often just dumped it in with the stuff to be machine cancelled. Same with the stuff we did on customer request. Both times I’d tag the bundles but often the folks at the plant just tore it off and tossed it in. We did have tags for metered and already cancelled, back then anyway.
And don’t get me started on going up to the counter. Most clerks will just tell you to go pound sand. My office would hand cancel on request as long as you didn’t bring in a truckload but it seems we were the exception. And besides, even if you did find a obliging clerk the distribution center…
I think we have the worst postmarks of any postal service on earth.
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Here are some of the UK Post Office Handstamps, not always a great alternative, as depending on the counter clerk the stamps can equally be ruined (I shouldn’t really complain, it’s better than a pen)
This first image is from a tea tag back in Feb, the post office counter clerk cancelled these stamps in a very philatelic way at the bottom, they also recieved a printer postmark.
Same post office, but different clerk, who II can remember quite aggressively cancelled the stamps, again also recieved a printer cancel.
Finally a post office closer to work who usually stock a good supply of special stamps and would happily handstamp my postcards but not always the best postmarks
At least I know the ink has been topped up in the local mail centre.
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Why’d they have to do my girl Janeway like that?! 
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Here in Italy we don’t have “town office cancellations” anymore… All the mail of a region, goes to the capital of that region to be processed there. For example, my region is called Emilia Romagna, and the capital is Bologna, so all the mail from this region, no matter which town, will be cancelled with the town stamp of “Bologna” but also lately I had many complaints of people receiving mail with no cancellation at all…
(At least I think better no cancellation than pen cancellation!)
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… and the stamps are usually too close to the corner… and will be damaged because of that.
How about the pieces bitten out of stamps too close to the right side of the card? I don’t understand the hate the USPS has for the mail it handles!
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I think because this mail is from China.
And China Post will affix a seal on stamp from Taiwan.According to official regulations, this is done to cover the words related to ROC on the stamps.
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