To be or not to be : CTO - The dangerous ones 05 b

We can expect CTO stamps from many countries now, after reading my blog, you'll find CTO in your collection for sure. Most CTO's are easy to recognise, but in this last part of my CTO-contribution, I want to point out some 'dangerous' ones.

Stamps that were cancelled by governmental approval, on huge amounts of stamps, to get rid of an overstock.

This happened for example in Costa Rica.

4 rings cancel

5 bars cancel

Costa Rica has a very nice collection of 'classical' stamps from the early years till 1950. Yet, several sets were cancelled by the government and sold under the face value. Maybe a great idea for recycling, or at least to prevent that a lot of stamps were distroyed, but unfortunatly all those stamps found their way to collectors and are now more common than the 'real' cancelled ones. And so I can present them to you, dear followers, so that you can check which stamps are in your collection.

Again here, CTO cancelled stamps have a lower value than postally used stamps.

Luckily, the CTO cancels are easy to recognise again.

Costa Rica - Michel n° 39 - real cancel and CTO cancel

Costa Rica - Michel n° 41 and 42 - 2 types of CTO cancels

Costa Rica - Michel n°57 to 62 - 4 CTO, 2 real cancels