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..Precancels were most often affixed on third-class and fourth-class mail, but were occasionally used for other types of mail such as first-class. The majority of precancels were regular-issue postage stamps, but airmail stamps, commemoratives, and postagedue stamps have also been precanceled. Third-class was typically used sending out bulk mail, direct mail, and marketing mail%u2014such as advertising flyers and catalogs%u2014direct to potential consumers. It was the preferred way to send junk mail. Fourth-class mail was for heavier items, such as merchandise and books, so it utilized higher-denomination precanceled stamps.For the Post Office, precanceled stamps saved time because precanceling a sheet of 100 stamps was much quicker than canceling 100 individual stamps on 100 pieces of mail. To encourage the use of precanceled stamps, the Post Office offered a lower postage rate if the mail was also sorted, which saved them additional time in handling. While regular postage stamps could be stolen by an organization%u2019s employees for personal use, this was not a problem with precancels, because mail franked with precanceled stamps had to be presented to the Post Office by the permit holder. Over the years, thousands of permits were issued for the use of precanceled postage stamps.The earliest documented use of precanceled stamps in the United States was by Hale & Co. in 1844. Hale was one of many private postal services operating at that time, all of which were shut down by Congress in 1845. After that, the use of precancels was taken up by individual Post Offices, but with no uniformity. For example, postage stamps were precanceled with simple pen strokes, handwriting, grid patterns, the word PAID, and sometimes with circular city-and-date markings that were similar to conventional postmarks. A few precancels dating to this early period used a city-and-state marking that foreshadowed 20th-century precancels. During the last two decades of the 19th century, some precancels used simple bars or geometric patterns without a city reference. At the same time, other precancels were becoming more ornate, with circular or oval marks, which included the city and state of the issuing Post Office.The year 1903 was when the Post Office Department specified that all precancels consist of the city and state printed between two parallel lines or bars. In 1913, they took another step toward standardization, and gave individual Post Offices the option of obtaining a precancel device from the national headquarters, which many did. In the beginning, there were two basic kinds available: those utilizing a metal plate (called an electroplate), and a rubber handstamp. By 1916, the use of precanceled postage stamps was exploding. This prompted the Post Office Department to do something that had previously been done only by Local Post Offices. They created their own precancels by having the Bureau of Engraving and Printing precancel 4,000,000 stamps each for three cities%u2014Augusta, Maine; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Springfield, Massachusetts. Collectors refer to these as Experimentals. Beginning in 1923, the Post office began producing precancels in large quantities for other cities as well.Stickney precancel printing press at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing