Page 19 - Demo

These three stamps have been precanceled. Such stamps are canceled before being used, typically with two bars, above and below the city and state where they were mailed. Precanceled stamps were generally used by bulk-mail customers who would pre-sort their mail in order to receive a lower postage rate. Each of these stamps has its original gum, and each was likely precanceled as a favor by a postal employee for a collector. The three cities on these examples are roughly 400 miles from each other.Mapleton, OregonPrecancel Type 841Wallowa, OregonPrecancel Type 721Mount Vernon, WashingtonPrecancel Type 846This is a misperforation, often known as a perforation shift. In this case, the perforations are shifted vertically by approximately 4.5 millimeters, with the likely cause being a misalignment of the sheet of stamps in relation to the perforating equipment. Imperfect stamps like these are supposed to be destroyed by the Post Office. Some collectors consider them oddities or freaks, while others specialize in errors.PERFORATION ERRORCHICKEN STAMPSPRECANCELS