United States Precancel Stamps

United States · 1900 ·

This is a general category for United States precanceled stamps. Precancels are stamps that have been canceled by the post office before being affixed to mail, typically used for bulk mailings. They are identifiable by the overprint, which usually consists of the city and state name between two lines or bars.

Precanceling was introduced in the late 19th century to speed up the processing of large volumes of mail, a practice that became widespread in the 20th century.