(RCSD) No more Ball Point pen cancells?

I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped' the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are to rip a
corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will they also
rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question: There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?
Bob Harper

US Postal Service improvement over ball point pen cancels is the felt tip
marker!
--
Bill Lehr
JOBI Philatelic Services
specializing in US postal stationery
APEX, APS, NSDA, SDI, IFSDA, IPDA, UPSS, PSS
312 Lower Coleville RD
Bellefonte, PA 16823-8726
814-355-8871
http://jobi.bizhosting.com

"Bob Harper" wrote in message
news
I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped' the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are to rip
a corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will they
also rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question: There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?
Bob Harper

"Bob Harper" wrote in message
news
I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints
about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped'
the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of
view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are
to rip a
corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks
that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will
they also
rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question:
There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to
seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?
Bob Harper


I am pretty sure that is a myth. I received a pen-cancelled envelope
only yesterday and the postman said that his instructions had not
changed. Sorting offices do not usually have handstamps.

Douglas

Tearing off a corner of a stamp should not make it invalid. Often when
separating stamps, a corner is torn off inadvertently.

Tony

"Bob Harper" wrote in message
news
I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped' the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are to rip
a corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will they
also rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question: There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?
Bob Harper

On Dec 2, 6:05 am, "Bob Harper"
wrote:
I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped' the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are to rip a
corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will they also
rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question: There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?
Bob Harper

Since what we are talking about is a ball point pen, what about
inventing a similar inexpensive pen that works like a handstamp. It
should be able to achieve the same effect at the same speed. The
canceller holding the pen pushes a tab on the back like a ball point
pen, it opens the "point" and the point is in the shape of a letter,
number, X, Z, star, word, initials, etc.

On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 13:05:28 -0000, "Bob Harper"
wrote:

I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped' the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are to rip a
corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will they also
rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question: There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?

Each carrier "should" have a hand stamp. Each sorting office, relay
office, blah, blah, blah should have some type of handstamp.

There are self-contained units like the Staples offerings or one can
purchase custom ones from rubber stamp outfits.

Sheesh... it should be as simple as that. I think that the pen,
marker and other sordid mutilations are simply out of laziness or
scorn.

Harumphhh!

In a recent message wrote:

On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 13:05:28 -0000, "Bob Harper"
wrote:

I have been advised that Royal Mail have had so many complaints about
Posties using ball point pens to cancel stamps which had 'skipped' the
machine cancellers, thus destroying them from a collectors point of view
that they have stopped this practice.
Obviously R.M. must protect its revenue so the new instructions are to rip a
corner off any uncancelled stamps.
How? Will the postie carefully lift a corner? with most self-sticks that
may be possible but PVAlcohol gum may not yield so easily so will they also
rip the cover?
How does ripping the corner avoid displeasing the collector?
How do U.S.P.S. or La Post among others deal with this question: There are
in fact so many questions to answer that RCSD is an obvious place to seek
answers. Royal Mail, are you reading this?

Each carrier "should" have a hand stamp. Each sorting office, relay
office, blah, blah, blah should have some type of handstamp.

They used to.

The delivery office at Godalming used to have one that they obligingly
used when I took back a cover with scarce commemoratives that had escaped
being postmarked.

I then had an arrangement with a gentleman at Guildford Sorting Office
who would put nice postmarks on covers destined for philatelic
correspondents (or even myself), but then I was told that the canceller
had been withdrawn as all sorting (and cancelling) was done at a big
central sorting office in the South of England.

I now have an agreement with my postman that any commemorative
covers will be subsequently cancelled at a local Post Office. Sadly that
is being closed in the New Year.

Our village has no Post Office, nor does the larger one a mile down the road.

Our nearest PO is four miles away. That is being closed.

Another 5 miles away is also being closed.

One at Rippingale (7.5 miles) is also being closed.

The one at Old Somerby (eight miles) is being closed.

The one in Grantham (10 miles) that I use most is also being closed.
It is always busy, but the queues are less horrendous than the main
Post Office at the other end of town. The subpostmaster is exceedingly
helpful, and he stocks commemoratives, and never mutters when I insist on
the use of stamps.


Harumphhh!

Indeed.

--
Tony Clayton
Coins of the UK : http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk
Sent using RISCOS on an Acorn Strong Arm RiscPC
.... I'm dangerous when I know what I'm doing.

On Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:38:02 +0000, Tony Clayton
wrote:

Each carrier "should" have a hand stamp. Each sorting office, relay
office, blah, blah, blah should have some type of handstamp.

They used to.

The delivery office at Godalming used to have one that they obligingly
used when I took back a cover with scarce commemoratives that had escaped
being postmarked.

The one in Grantham (10 miles) that I use most is also being closed.
It is always busy, but the queues are less horrendous than the main
Post Office at the other end of town. The subpostmaster is exceedingly
helpful, and he stocks commemoratives, and never mutters when I insist on
the use of stamps.

Ouch! I guess, even though my village is small, the Post Office
remains. I have a pretty good rapport with them, although I never
truly asked for anything.

The mail-lady usually drops in stamp related "things" when she finds
them or not deliverable - not often, but it has happened.

When I send out my Freebie Stamp Project envelopes - they all seem to
get a CDS! I only found this out by a few returns from addresses
forwarded / unknown. I thought that was awesome, considering the ink
jet cancels these days.

The postmaster and I have discussed a few delays and so forth and is
very helpful in researching these issues. I like that and don't abuse
it. :^)

It seems that the old, local P.O. is going the way of the Dodo bird. I
still see plenty of them round in the Adirondacks, but commems are
tougher to come by at some places. My home town P.O. stocks enough
and I try to use them on all my mail. Population - 5,000 or so
people.

Harumphhh!

Indeed.

Like you said...

wrote:


Each carrier "should" have a hand stamp. Each sorting office, relay
office, blah, blah, blah should have some type of handstamp.

There are self-contained units like the Staples offerings or one can
purchase custom ones from rubber stamp outfits.

Sheesh... it should be as simple as that. I think that the pen,
marker and other sordid mutilations are simply out of laziness or
scorn.

Harumphhh!

Yep. Similar to one of these:

http://www.stamp-connection.com/dept...ng_stamps.html

But of course, the idea makes too much sense. It would never be implemented.

|---------------------------------------------------|

| Edward A. Locke |

| huygens1962ATyahoo.com |

| http://www.spaceandastronomystamps.com/ |

|---------------------------------------------------|

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:45:26 -0600, Edward A. Locke
wrote:

wrote:


Each carrier "should" have a hand stamp. Each sorting office, relay
office, blah, blah, blah should have some type of handstamp.

There are self-contained units like the Staples offerings or one can
purchase custom ones from rubber stamp outfits.

Sheesh... it should be as simple as that. I think that the pen,
marker and other sordid mutilations are simply out of laziness or
scorn.

Harumphhh!

Yep. Similar to one of these:

http://www.stamp-connection.com/dept...ng_stamps.html

Bingo. I bought one for APS usage a while back. Also, a friend
bought me one for home usage - return address. Inexpensive.

But of course, the idea makes too much sense. It would never be implemented.

Exactly. The idea behind the P.O. is to make money to sustain itself,
not to cater to secondary purposes like pleasing part of the public.

In the grand scheme of things, I have to agree that whatever means
necessary should be used to be cost-effective and get the job done -
BUT - as a stamp collector, I love to see S.O.N. / CDS cancels.

It IS an imperfect world, but it is the one I must live in. :^)