Cancelled to Order (CTO) Stamps

Wayne Kiser

Cancelled to Order (CTO): “term used to describe stamps cancelled, usually in quantity, by the issuing postal authority, for sale to the stamp trade, without the stamps having passed through the post.”

How can you detect if a stamp is a CTO other than the pre-cancellation/glue combination? If it is a true CTO, then possibly the value has been reduced because of the pre-cancellation/glue combination. Therefore, couldn’t you just soak off the glue making it a Used stamp - how would anyone detect that this soaking off of the glue has been done and thus making a CTO into a Used stamp cancelled and without glue?

Rene Bravo

Hello Wayne, the CTO image is the perfect cancel (semicircle or date )in a corner which does not deface the item, never used and perfect gum. Soaking off the gum still makes it a CTO and modern stamps with perfect cancels from "notorious" countries will always be known. Why one would try to falsify a stamps status is an open question of personal integrity, BUT a CTO looks very obvious in most circumstances.

Wayne Kiser

Thanks - I understand when it relates to the sample that you’ve sent as a sample, but what about a single stamp? Also, “why one would try to falsify a stamps status” isn’t something that I would even consider but if it has happened by someone trying to falsify a CTO to make it look look like a used stamp only, etc., how would you know?

Michael Generali

CTO cancels are often printed on the stamps at the time of production, or even later. CTO can be favor canceled, such as first day cancels. The bulk of CTOs come from Eastern European (Soviet Block) countries. The CTO cancels are usually clear and sharp, and are the same image for the country. Postal cancels will be much different. so if the gum is soaked off a CTO stamp (common when stamps get stuck together) it is usually obvious that the cancel is a CTO. It just takes getting used to spotting them.

Wayne Kiser

Should sellers disclose to the buyer that they are purchasing CTO stamps?

Greg Doll

YES!

Brett Moulton

speaking of CTO I got too many like said above I got some that are Postal Cancel with Mint Glue, then also like said got some CTO without glue specifically because they got stuck together n needed a soak for release n preserve, then I have a few that are obvious over prints on CTO possibly some attempt of forgery to increase it's value?

Phil Merrill_

I think most of us old folk are familiar with the usual suspects: the Eastern Bloc, the Dunes, some of the African countries. Modern CTOs I'm less familiar with. I remember in the 1970s when I bought stamps from the post office in St. Vincent they offered cancelled stamps but not at any discount.

Recently, as I have begun collecting again, I've found CTOs from countries I did not expect. I have the two early Europa issues from Luxembourg CTO, and I have a set of Swiss semi-postals CTO.

Last year I did have the rare pleasure of soaking a quarter-pound of postally used East German commemoratives. With all the CTOs we saw from eastern Europe back in the day, it's easy to forget that people really lived there and they really used stamps.

Dennis Jorgensen

Many post office philatelic offices today offer cancelled stamps at face value, which should be classified as CTO. It's not just Sand Dunes doing it.