Precancels are, as the word suggest, pre-canceled postage stamps.(In French: Pré-oblitérés, in Dutch: Voorafstempelingen). They were introduced by postal authorities to save time and labor in handling certain classes of mail. They also opened the possibility to discount on large mailings.

Countries I'm aware of, that have issued precanceled stamps are Belgium, Canada, France, US, the Netherlands, Morocco, Algeria, Luxemburg and Monaco

Click on the stamps for more detail.

Bulk mailings, sometimes consisting of as many as a million pieces, made necessary some devices that would reduce the work of affixing and cancelling postage stamps.

Printed permits and metered stamps have replaced precanceled stamps to a large extent. However 'special rate' stamps are still produced, as well as that local precancel devices in the USA that are still valid to be used. Other countries also support still precanceled stamps.

I'm a member of the Precancel Stamp Society (PSS) #7170, the 'Nederlandse studiegroep voorafstempelingen', and the Texas precancel club (#1237)

Please check my list of useful precancel links

This page is constantly under construction. All suggestions are welcome.

Last updated: March-27,2001 (by Hans Hilte)