REMOVED PEN CANCELS

Pen cancels are worth less than other forms
of cancels. They are also the most frequently
removed form of cancel. Fortunately the
dies in the ink in the 1850's make removal
difficult. Most removal attempts leave a dull
yellow or brown stain, which should be looked for
carefully. Often a forged cancel will be
placed over the yellow stain to hide it.
So look carefully at heavy cancels, they can
reveal a multitude of sins.

Above is a particularly crude attempt at
removing a cancel. In this case the
cancel that was applied in its place
did not exist. Somebody used a date
stamp from a stationary store!

OBLITERATED SPECIMENS

Another reason for fake applied cancels is
to obliterate the specimen overprint. Look
closely and you will the words specimen
under the cancel. Newspaper stamps
have a lot more facsimile overprints than
the original article. Fake cancels are
often applied to hide the tiny 'facsimile'
overpint.

GREEN AND YELLOW CANCELS

Stamps canceled with green or yellow ink
are sometimes worth more than a mint
stamp with faults. However, do not get
excited about a green cancel in such
a situation. If the green (or yellow) cancel
adds considerable value to the stamp
there is a chance it is fake.

Take the above example, this is Scotts #9
with a fake green cancel. The stamp has
a pronounced crease and as such would
reduce the value of the mint stamp.
However, the crease becomes less
important on a stamp when the highlight
of the stamp is a the green cancel.

How do you know if the cancel is fake?
Often you will not, not until you have
it certificated that is. In this instance
you have a nine bar closed circle strike,
which has no record of ever been
used in green, also the size of the
nine bar cancel is way too small.