Machine-Made Postal Cancellations

Updated March 7, 2009

Be sure to try the
[eagle and thunderbolt cancel]
Machine Cancel Society web page.

I have been collecting machine cancellations for many years, primarily as used in the United States. For instance, as part of my collecting, I created a listing of earliest and latest known dates of usage for American flag cancelling machines used at military facilities in the U. S. [19K Adobe PDF]. This list appeared a few years ago in the journal of The Machine Cancel Society. (Need the free PDF viewer from Adobe? Here it is... or try here...)

To help people who are confused about the identification of a machine cancel, I have devised a set of Web pages that allow you to identify certain types of United States machine cancellations from the early period of the 20th Century. If you have a "mystery" machine cancel that fits the page's current capabilities, try The Machine Cancel Finder.

Also, I have created a web page that shows some examples of United States machine cancellations, mostly from the early 20th Century. Give it a try!

My Interests

I now primarily collect examples of those machines used at WW I military facilities in the United States.

I used to collect Perfection machine examples.
Here is an older Perfection List (and Wantlist) as a Javascript-enabled page.

My Old Perfection List (and Wantlist) as static content.

Example of Type 1 Perfection Cancel (5k GIF)

Example of Type 2 Perfection Cancel (4k GIF)

Example of Type 3 Perfection Cancel (7k GIF)

Example of Received Type Perfection Cancel (5k)

In the past, I have collected some slogan cancels, particularly from Southern California, where I grew up.

And a Parting Reminder...

Note that the Machine Cancel Society (MCS) is devoted to studying the history of machine canceling world-wide, including the history of the machines and their makers, as well as the markings themselves on covers and cards. See: The Machine Cancel Society web pages.

Machine-Made Postal Cancellations

My Interests

And a Parting Reminder...

More Links