The need for postal authorities to prevent the re‐use of stamps is as old as stamps themselves, dating right back to the Penny Black. The British postal authorities had problems getting the process right initially as the first ink they used to apply their hand‐stamped cancellations could be rubbed off! Eventually a logical method of hand postmarking evolved. Interestingly, even in the early days, wherever hand stamps were not available, pen marks were used as a cancellation device. And in the late 19th century, the first cancellation machinery was introduced in the USA.
Australia Post’s processing centres are very interesting places. Sorting the mail involves working with sophisticated equipment (including letter cullers, feeders, facers, and letter indexing and sorting machines, plus multi‐line optical character machines and bar coding equipment).
While this makes for an intelligent and efficient processing system, the one thing the machinery can’t do is distinguish between philatelic mail and regular mail being distributed through the mail network. This means that every article is treated the same.
Australia Post’s Dandenong Letters Facility processes all the letters in Victoria. It processes 6 to 7 million letters a day, which represents 20% of Australia’s mail volume, and makes it one of the largest letter processing facilities in the world.
So the need for a high‐speed cancellation machine is paramount. The first part of the mail sorting process involves machine franking the envelope (cancelling the stamp). However, where automatic stamp cancellation fails, manual cancellation is required.
Mail collected from suburban post boxes first run through a machine called a CFC. – Culler, Facer, Cancellation machine. The CFC looks for particular substances and special inks embedded in the stamp for security reasons. The letters run through image scanners that search for Indicia – air mail stickers, franked articles, imprint and contrast bars, which do not need cancellation. Then they run through the scanner heads, which identify the security features and send these letters through the cancellation dyes, which print the date on the stamp to cancel it.
From the CFC, the mail is sent to an MLOCR – Multi Line Optical Character Reader, which reads the address and sprays the information as a bar code on the bottom of the front and back of the envelope, and then sends the letter to the Bar Code sorting machines. The MLOCRs also have a date stamp and machine number, which is printed across the top right‐hand corner of the envelope, again crossing the stamp.
Any mail that can’t be sent through the machines, for example letters containing flash drives, pens, magnets or anything inflexible, is cancelled manually with the mail centre’s name and date on it. If a letter going through the machines is missed, it will also be cancelled using a hand stamp, where available, and where it is not, with a pen mark.
However, there are times when a letter misses these processes and it may be a Post Office box sorter, counter operator or postie who discovers the uncancelled stamp.
For posties, the slash of a biro is a practical cancellation option when on the move. Some counter staff may use biro, simply because they are unaware the mail is philatelic mail, as opposed to regular mail.
How to protect your philatelic collection against biro cancellation
Postmarks serve a practical function as a way of cancelling the stamp and showing where and when the article entered the mail network. But for collectors, how a stamp is postmarked forms part of the story of a stamp itself.
Collectors posting philatelic mail, who would like a specific cancellation and for it to remain intact, are advised to go to a retail Post Office and request that the cancellation is sent undercover. This means the post office staff will enclose your letter within an Australia Post official envelope, protecting your cancellation as it travels through the mail network.
This article was produced at the time of publication and will not be updated.
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