Foro de Filatelia Argentina

CTO or cancelled to order is a way of preparing cancelled stamps for collecting purposes. It can be done by manually cancelling a complete sheet of stamps so that every block of 2x2 has a cancellation in the middle!

But is can also be applied mechanically by using special printing plates that contain these "cancellations". This practice was very popular in the Eastern European states like the German Democratic Republic and the USSR.

Nowadays it is common practice for all fake postage stamps with fancy pictures on them coming from the printing houses in Cuba or Rumania to have "cancelled stamps " of Nicaragua, Guinea-Bisaau etc.

But what about CTO printed for Argentina????

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Stamps like these have been printed in photogravure both the stamp design as well as the "cancellation"!
















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Two vertical strips that (more or less, not quite!) go together:



The prints are awfully neat!

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The prints are awfully neat, but compare the top one with the bottom one!

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The prints are awfully neat, but compare the top one with the bottom one!

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The prints are awfully neat, but compare the top one with the bottom one!

But should not two prints of the same postmark be exactly the same, especially when the prints are so clean and neat!?

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On the Kenyan and Ugandan stamps you may even see the ink running away towards the left from the photogravure printed "cancellations". Ths effect is called "direction of printing" and is particularly helpful establishing different printings of photogravure printed stamps.

The run-away effect was discovered independently by Douglas Myall [1972, UK] and Huig Tielman [1973, NL]. Huig and I developed the idea later on to be applicable for all printing methodfs that use cylindrical printing forms. Even the Swiss recess-printed stamps since 1936 can be split up in separate printing like discerning the WIFAG and the GOEBEL presses!

And that goes for Argentinian ones [photogravure and may be offset-litho] as well!

Rein, The datestamp on Sarmiento block of four is real, made with acurrent date stamp. Undoubtedly is a real CTO made on request for, presumabily, beginner living in the small village Calonia Sagre is. In 1952 the 1c Sarmieni was nearly useless and was mostly used to have a souvenir of certain conmemoration or events for which our Post Office prepared a special handstamp. The only printed handstamps printed typographycally by the Post Office were applied on First day souvenir cards arround 1946/8. This cards were also sold as an entire by the Post Office since they wwere printed by Casa de Moneda for the occassion.
José