On 4/27/2012 2:50 AM, gogu wrote:
Ã� "Terry Ã�ãñáøå óôï ìÞÃ*õìá

I am not sure what you mean by 'post office seals' from your European
viewpoint (picture?),

The seal applied by the post office when you send a letter!
"Cancelled" may be the correct term but I am new in the hobby and I don't
know much about terminology;-)

In the US, a Post Office Seal is a gummed piece of printed paper,
perhaps 2 x 3 inches, used to seal an envelope closed. The first, in
1872, were used to seal the envelopes used to carry registered letters.
They are also used to seal envelopes left unsealed by the sender, torn
open by the P.O. machinery, or opened for inspection (customs or to find
an address is the outside addresses are illegible). A few years ago, I
received a mangled magazine in a plastic bag closed with such a seal.
They now contain the words 'Officially Sealed'. Scott gives them the
prefix letters 'OX' in its US Specialized Catalog.

If the cancellations on the advertised sheet are uniformly dark all in
the same position (typically one cancel cutting the corners of 4 stamps)
then they were probably added at the printer or included in the original
printing plate. They have no postal value and calling them mint is
fraudulent. In fact, they are not really postage stamps either as they
were never valid for postage. There are made-for-collectors copies of
postage stamps sold by the P.O.

tjr