Small Group Of US Precancels Pic

I recently cracked open my Harris Liberty album, and came across these pre-cancels from my first days of collecting US stamps.

I've decided they need a new home with someone more appreciative, but want folks to take a peek at them first just for kicks & giggles.


One thing I noticed was the poor print quality in the 3cent Lincoln from Toledo. Note all the ink voids, mostly in the area of the lower left "3".

These also make me wonder if pre-cancels are known with spelling errors? I can't help but think that they exist!

(click for large image)

Precancel spelling errors - yes! but they are not high priced items in general. The most common class of these come from Ohio, where the state is actually inverted, not misspelled - to come out as OIHO. Sometimes letters are doubled or tripled as in LITTTLE AMERICA, WY. They are a fun, inexpensive field to collect.

Wow... with 50 states, and a span of years issued, I'd think collecting these would drive a person INSANE!

:-) :-)

Precancels are fun and most can be had on a relatively small budget. The "trick" to collecting them is to first realize there is no way you can ever acquire a complete collection ... it's just too vast. Most collectors will isolate their collecting interests to a specific city, state, or route (i.e. Route 66) and focus their collections to a smaller region. Then it becomes quite manageable.

I saw a large lot of Massachusetts percancels on Ebay. ABout $50 for tons of sorted glassines.

:-)