Tuesday, August 9, 2011

To be or not to be : CTO - The very obvious ones 01 b

As said in the previous article, most countries under communist influence, have loads of CTO stamps.
Sometimes the cancel is printed together with the printing of the stamp. Where the ink of the stamp stops, the cancel stops as well.

Most Eastern European stamps of the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's suffer from the same disease.
Sometimes it needs several copies of the same stamp to see the cancel was put on purpose.
Most of the stamps are still gummed, and they are 'cancelled' in the capital city in most of the cases.
All cancels are on the same date and often on the same corner of the stamp (you need 4 stamps to read the whole cancellation).
Or did you really think a very dedicated postman was cancelling all stamps at the same date, on the same way...

Especially with the stamps of the former Czechoslovakia, the gum is really nasty and can damage your albums permanently. Don't put them together in a box either, when the gum loosens, all stamps stick together.

How many reasons more to remove CTO's out of your collection!



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