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

Thank you so much @shugal for your extensive knowledge on German cancellations! Since you’re such an expert, I have a question for you: I live in Berlin Lichtenberg (beautiful place…) and I always want my recipients to know that my cards come from this particular district. That’s why I always go to the post office and ask the super kind lady there to manually stamp my mail: she always does it in front of me and it’s super satisfying…

My question is: these cards are still fed into a sorting machine – they have to, right? So how does the machine know that the stamps have already been cancelled? Aren’t they going to add a second postmark on the already postmarked stamps?

Omg, really? That’s kind of sad! Only recently I found out that Großbriefe are sprayed on instead of being cancelled in the traditional way. I sent an envelope to a friend of mine in Italy, and he showed me the postmark, which was kind of unexpected!


To be honest, it’s just a mess of lines and the writing is also extremely illegible. If the whole of Germany switched to a system like this (and not to the one used in France or Canada which, at least, yields more legible results), I’m gonna be very sad…

Omg that would actually be my dream! Although I’d be so scared to mess up and create a disaster of a stamp :laughing: By the way, what is it with Nordic countries and postmarks? They all seem to skip this part of the letter processing process – even Norway, as I’ve already said… I don’t know about the situation in Sweden though, so I might be generalising based on what I’ve received / heard so far…

You should actually show me some pictures of the 南门营投 stamp on non-Chinese postcards as well! It’d be super interesting actually, I really like these arrival stamps. It’s a shame that we don’t have them anymore, coz you can’t see when the card was delivered anymore…

It’s crazy how there are so many variations… One would think that, in China, this whole thing would be neatly standardised… But, to be honest, even international airport stamps (the ones they put in your passport) have slight differences – this is a little bit OT, but I have to tell you that I’ve seen at least one passport stamp that doesn’t really conform to the pattern.

Oh wow, that’s neat! I need to start collecting these stamps that include the languages of ethnic minorities… It’s actually a very inclusive thing that China is doing, and seeing the Arabic script (for Uyghur) might be a little treat for my eyes :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

That’s my favourite part about living here in Germany! As I’ve already told Shugal, I just need to ask the postal clerk, and they’ll comply with my request :relaxed: I saw a similar handstamp in my hometown in Italy but, as soon as I tried to ask if my mail could be stamped with it, I got scolded. Italian postal workers… always super rude!!

It would be interesting to know more about these machines though… Are they similar to the ones we have in Europe? Or are there big differences? Are these only used for postmarking, or do they also sort the mail based on the addresses? So many questions, but it isn’t easy to find answers online…

(But the good thing is that we’re on a forum full of experts, so we can just ask whenever we have a doubt… And being a curious postmark-lover, I tend to have lots of questions to ask haha!)

Hi! These, on the other hand, are actual commemorative stamps! Since they’re a completely different beast, I think they should be more carefully analysed in a separate thread (that you could start yourself!). Otherwise, what might happen is that we’ll end up only talking about commemorative stamps, and there will be no space left for normal postmark discussions… And, for the sake of neatness and clarity, it’s best to keep the two things separate!

By the way, since DMSOGeek already told you about the Japanese postmark, I’ll just let you know that the Taiwanese one comes from a temporary post office (临时邮局, línshí yóujú) from the city of Hsinchu (新竹, xīnzhú), which is in the northern part of Taiwan. The stamp commemorates classical poetry (古典诗词, gǔdiǎn shīcí). The vertical text close to the middle (发行首日, fāxíng shǒurì) means – I think – “first day of issue”.

(Sorry for using simplified characters! Those are the ones I can use right now – it’d be more complicated for me to switch to traditional… I hope you can kinda see the resemblances between the ones I typed out and the ones on the postmark!)

Wow those stamps are super cute! Also I love how the Dutch postmark is clearly a spray-on one, yet it tries to emulate the look of traditional cancellations… Good job! By the way, many of the cards I receive from the Netherlands have a Nexive tracking sticker on them. I don’t remove them because I never touch or modify the stuff I receive in any way; however, sometimes they cover the stamps (actually they always do), which isn’t the best thing ever…

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In the US, USPS has the following postmarks

Spray on cancels (Automated Cancels at the P&DC Processing and Distribution Center) Most usually have the city and state and the first 3 numbers of the zip code and wavy lines called killer bars. Sometimes they’ll have special marks like Energy Awareness Month or something special for Christmas.

First Day of Issue postmark (FDOI) for a certain stamp that has been issued. (from Stamp Fulfillment Services in Kansas City) You basically send correspondence with a certain stamp attached to a postcard or envelope. FDOI postmarks are popular with FDC collectors. FDOI postmarks are usually avaliable for 90 or maybe 120 days or so. The current FDOI’s can be found on the USPS Postal Bulletin.

Digital Color Postmarks are essential the same as the FDOI postmarks. However, they are in color, but they are done for a fee. The design is different than an FDOI. The current Digital Color Postmarks are found in the USPS Postal Bulletin.

Hand Cancel postmarks. (At the post office) These normally have the name of the post office station and city name and state with zip code in a circular shape. It has the date in the center. The postmark is circular shape.

Pictoral Postmarks (Commemorative Postmarks) certain places issue them to commemorate a place, thing, or event. They are usually avaliable for 30 days. These also can be found in the USPS Postal Bulletin.

Meter Postmarks (at home or an office). Postage Meters are postage printing machines or systems leased by authorized providers for use in at home or office. Meters print postage directly onto your mailpieces or on to meter tape, which you affix to your mail.

I can mention also:
Special Christmas North Pole postmarks. The Santa Claus half moon head shape. Avaliable during the holidays.

Anyone anywhere in the world can request a postmark from USPS.

  1. In person at the certain station. Go the post office in person and ask. It is free.

  2. By mail. Stamp your postcards or envelopes addressed to yourself or others with correct postage. Send them in a bigger stamped envelope addressed to Postmaster or Postmistress of a certain post office station. Usually write a small note requesting hand cancel postmark or postmark of that post office station or city. You can provide sn extra stamped envelope to have them returned to you in an envelope or without an envelope, through the mail stream like regular.

  3. Online. The USPS website and official USPS account on eBay have First Day Covers on sale for certain stamp issues. FDOI postmarks are in black and white and Digital Color Postmarks are in color.

For FDOI postmarks and Digital Color Postmarks, write to Stamp Fulfillment Services requesting the FDOI postmarks. The address is found in the Postal Bulletin and is usually the same for almost all FDOI’s. This is the address.

FDOI – (Name of Stamp Issue)
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

Pictoral postmarks can be requested by mail as well. The address is found in the Postal Bulletin as well. Repeat steps for postmarks.

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Here are some Dildo postmarks. Anyone can get them. Write to the Postmaster in Dildo, Newfoundland and Labrador Province, Canada

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Last week when I opened my mailbox…
Four in a row :frowning::electric_plug:

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Example of an incoming mail postcard. I got this picture from a friend in Bulgaria. I sent him a postcard of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Bulgarian Posts stamped it. (yes that’s the official name of Български пощи, Balgarski poshti). It says Burgas in both Cyrillic and Roman characters and the zip code of the post office.

Also you can see the spray on cancel from USPS with San Diego on it.

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Example of a hand cancel. My friend wrote the Licking Missouri postmistress.

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If the post officers do it correctly, hand-cancelled mail will not go through the cancellation machine. At the post office, they should have two different boxes for outgoing mail: one for mail that is stamped but not cancelled, and one for mail that is either cancelled or has meter stamps on it. Each of these yellow boxes has a space on the front where they can slip in a small piece of paper with a barcode on it, and they should have two different barcode slips in use, one coding for mail that still needs to be cancelled, one for mail not in need of cancellation. At the letter center, all boxes go on a conveyor belt, and based on the barcode slip they either first go to the cancellation machines and from there to the sorting machines, or they go directly to the sorting machines. So hand-cancelled items should not be machine-cancelled. Unfortunately mistakes happen at post offices, or they don’t want to use an additional box just for the few hand-cancelled cards, or, like in Frankfurt am Main, they are not allowed to use extra boxes for cancelled mail “to increase efficiency” (note that all “post offices” are in legal reality branch offices of the Postbank, a sep done many years ago to make German Post look more attractive to investors when it was brought to the stock market). So unfortunately it’s a bit of luck if your cancelled mail will go through as-is or be machne-cancelled again.

Yes, that’s the Großbrief cancellation, which is in use for 5-10 years. Those letters too irregular in shape for the inkjet cancellation will still get the old rollover cancellation (not much nicer…). I’ll provide pictures when I’m back home.

The new cancellation for regular mail looks exactly the same but has an advertising space or the wavy lines next to them, like the current cancellation. Your picture shows 2 cancellations (upside down), instead of the right one (in reality left if you rotate them to correct alignment) will be the advertisement/wavy lines. I’ll provide pictures when I’m back home. When the first tests were introduced, I asked why they werent using a nicer cancellation, like the Netherlands do, the answer was that the cancellation they chose ensures the stamps cannot be re-used. German Post no longer cares for stamp collectors, they fight illegal stamp reuse and forged stamps. I was told that these cost them millions of revenue each year.

These “Nachträglich entwertet” (afterwards invalidated) stamps are very rare. In most cases the uncancelled stamps are crossed out with ballpoint pens. :frowning_face: This stamp is supposed to also be used on uncalcelled foreign stamps, but that never happens.

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You got unlucky with the cancellation, normally they are very clear! Sorry, I don’t have an example now but I fetch all incoming mail at work and the cancellation is very neat in most cases.

That depends. Some postal agencies have two boxes for outgoing mail. One for unstamped letters that will put into stamping machines. Another box for hand-stamped letters that do not run through the stamping machines, but are handed directly into the sorting machine.
Letters are not stamped in sorting machines, but in stamp machines. These are two different machines.
If a post agency puts hand cancelled letters into the box for uncancelled letters they will probably put into the stamping machine and will cancelled twice. I already got postcards where that happened.

Here you can see a stamping machine.

Letters and postcards are running high speed through the machine:

Here you can see the machine stamp. Do you see the blue light? It’s checking if there really is a valid stamp.

And that’s the result:

This is a sorting machine that has nothing to do with cancellation:

And this is how big letters’ stamps will be cancelled in sorting centres:

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Here’s a mini stamping machine at work, cancelling a pile of :postcrossing:meetup postcards:

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This is an interesting topic and I would like to give my contribution to understand how it works in Italy.
In Italy ordinary mail is mainly sorted out by CMP (Centro di Meccanizzazione Postale), automated sorting centers.
We have 22 automated sorting centers in the country. The green dots in the map.


I have just discovered there is also 1 manual sorting center, called CPO, but I never seen the postmark.
So if you drop your mail in the red mailbox, it will be postmarked like this:

Postmark is not 100% granted, very often they are delivered without any mark. Dont’ ask me why. :sweat_smile:

Hand cancellations are still available, but at the Philatelic Offices only.
In Italy we have 547 Philatelic Office, the complete list can be download here: (http://www.fsfi.it/annulli/2017/Struttura%20competenti.htm)
The postmark availbale at the Philatelic Offices can be considered permanent postmarks.
At the moment the available imprint shows the map of Italy, the zip code and name (location of the office) and the data, plus the words FILATELIA and Poste Italiane.


This imprint with the map of Italy has been introduced this year, it is periodically updated.
Before it was like this:

The Philatelic Offices of the main towns like: Rome, Milano, Firenze, Genova, Torino, Napoli, Verona, Trieste have a different imprint showing a famous monument/landmark of the town, like in this one from Milan, which depicts the Duomo:

As you can notice in the photo, we see double postmark: the hand postmark of the philatelic office plus the machine one of the CMP. It can happen. I haven’t discovered yet why sometimes it happens, sometimes not, this is part of the big mystery! :smile:

The permenent postmarks available at the Philatelic Offices can be asked at the desk or material to be hand postmarked can be sumbitted by post, in the same way as for special postmarks (occasional postmarks available for limited time only).

ciao!

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Then I can call myself extremely lucky for having recieved a card with such a cancellation. Although it was “only” a card travelling within Germany.

Edit: I just found a postcard from Finland that got “Nachträglich entwertet”. So it really happens that foreign stamps are also treated with this special cancellation.

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I like that the cancellations of the automated sorting centres in Italy :it: show the city’s name anyway! :+1:

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I really like the current :uk: British and :ireland: Irish hand cancellation stamps. They have a nice frame, which I find very elegant.

I have noticed that there are still many very different hand cancellations stamps in the UK, some of them are very old which is fantastic.

In Durness, a store owner told me that he still uses his old postmark for his post office agency. The British Post Office has already offered him several times to give him a new postmark, but he still prefers to keep his old one. In this stamp, individual metallic numbers for the date will be plugged into the stamp.

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More recently all my mail (from Germany) that is not cancelled receive these Nächträglich entwertet cancellations, looks as if I have a stamp loving person in charge :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I found a hand cancelled example from the US (sent this year)

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In Germany there is another speciality in addition to the normal hand cancellation stamps. There are still some packet ships that supply different islands and they have their own postmarks on board. These postmarks are titled “Deutsche Schiffspost” (German shipping mail) and include the shipping company and the the ship’s name.

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If you like postmarks, postal labels and all the tiny signs of widely travelled mail you might be interested in the Travelling Envelope RR.
Your envelope travels across different countries and collects stamps, cancellations and charming little damages until it returns to you.

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In my country we have both machine cancelation and cancellation by hand. For poscards cancellation by hand is more common.
We also have use an incoming mail postmarks. Postmarks are usually in Belarusian or Russian language. There were used postmarks in English earlier, but I don’t see it nowadays.

These are examples of outcoming and incoming postmarks:

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Before each post office could postmark their outgoing mail with the postmark indicating the zip code and the name of the post office (location).
I am not sure when they stopped
I searched my collection and I found this card which is dated back the 90s , sent from Vulcano, a small island in front of Sicily.
The postmark looks like machine made, but here the origin of the card is clear.


If I get this card now, I guess it would be postmarked CMP Catania.

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Yes, I think you are correct. All the cards I sent from various towns in Sardinia were postmarked CMP Cagliari, where the sorting centre is.