An image of an 8-cent stamp purported to be locally pre-canceled at Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Pre-cancels with the city or town name were done for the convenience of both post office officials and bulk mailers so as to save time in getting items into the mail stream.
The stamp to which the “Gratz” pre-cancel has been applied was issued on 10 May 1971 to meet the new first-class postage rate of 8-cents. It is known to collectors as Scott #1338F. A similar stamp with a 6-cent denomination, was issued on 24 January 1968, and is known to collectors as Scott #1338.
At the time, pre-cancels came in two basic types:
- Bureau Pre-cancels – Officially issued by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C., usually for larger cities.
- Local Pre-cancels – Officially applied at the local post office with a device provided by the Post Office Department or U.S. Postal Service.
If the pre-cancel shown here is genuine, then it would be a “Local Pre-cancel.”
If the pre-cancel was applied with an unauthorized device such as a rubber stamp, made by someone not authorized by the government to create a cancelling device, then the pre-cancel is not genuine.
It is not known whether the Gratz Post Office was ever provided with a government-issued device to create pre-cancels.
Items such as the one pictured here are best avoided by collectors. The basic stamp itself, because of the huge quantities issued by the government, usually isn’t worth any more than the face value – in this case 8 cents – and when sold for several dollars each as genuine-government-issued, could actually be considered as fraudulent, unless the seller can show proof that the Gratz Post Office actually applied the pre-cancel.
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