CTOs and what to do with them?

The term 'favor cancel' is not used in some parts of the Philatelic World. In the UK it is hardly ever used to describe what scb is describing.

It is an interesting, if often annoying topic that seems to crop up with amazing regularity.

And there are many sides to the argument and many views....and let's not forget the Terminology from the different parts of our troubled world.

I used to collect First Day Covers from Great Britain. I had big eyes in those days and they were beautiful...they still are.

I collected via the Philatelic Service and my covers came inside another envelope on, or just after the first day of issue. In my eyes these are Cancelled to Order pure and simple, a way of making extra funds with little or no re-sell value. If you order someone to cancel a stamp for you it is a CTO, even if it does not have gum. Many, many CTO's can be found without gum.

Some years after my first journey into First Day Covers, I purchased some kiloware from a leading British Dealer and when they arrived I immediately realized they were cut-outs from First Day Covers. I complained, sent them back and got a refund. But the dealer did question my reasoning. Later, on purpose and with only the devil in mind, I ordered from 2 other British Dealers similarly-advertised lots. One sent me cut-outs from First Day Covers, the other postally used examples. No guesses which lot I kept ?

Around the same time I visited a friend who collected GB from day 1 until the present day, Mint and Used. His collection was amazing and I asked to see some of it. I came to the Used stamps and quickly noted that a number of 'used' stamps in his collection were actually cut-outs from FDC's and I pointed this out. Then followed a discussion about the topic and slowly, slowly he began to replace those CTO's for Postally used copies.

I am not against CTO's, they are there for a reason as are all Philatelic Items and we collect what we like, how we like. But going back to the USA sheet shown previously, the term for this in many parts of the Philatelic Community is CTO, as it is to me. The cancels were not printed with the sheet as I read it, maybe that was a grammatical error....or just that Terminology popping up again.

But here is another argument.

Like most collectors who buy, sell and exchange, I get a lot of covers that are not cancelled because in this day and age, for many Postal Services, it is not important [except for the twisted minds of the Royal Mail hierarchy in the UK]. So with British stamps, I take them to a Post Office when I am in the UK and complain [first of all] and then ask them to cancel the stamps for me. I usually go with quite a bunch as 95% of my mail from UK arrives clean.

But are these  postally used stamps ? I asked the Teller to cancel the stamps so in reality that makes them CTO's.  But that same cancel might be seen on a letter which did arrive cancelled and can someone tell the difference ? No, short of taking fingerprints or a DNA examination, they cannot.

There are many different sides to the story/argument/discussion and nothing is Black and White.

But it is interesting and a lot of fun.

The only question that remains is, "What will I do with my unwanted FDC's"?

On my last few [and frequent] visits to Britain I have learned that I should have waited to buy my [worthless] treasures. FDC's, even up to the end of 2014 can be found for as little as 20p each.....not much return on a cover that initially cost around £3 !!

Such is life......and stamps.

Londonbus1........FDC's anyone ?