Editing Cancellation (mail) (section)

==History==
The first adhesive [[postage stamp]] was the [[Penny Black]], issued in 1840 by [[Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain|Great Britain]].  The postal authorities recognized there must be a method for preventing reuse of the stamps and simultaneously issued handstamps for use to apply cancellations to the stamps on the envelopes as they passed through the postal system.<ref name="sg_p42">[[#Stanley Gibbons|Stanley Gibbons]], p. 42.</ref>  The cancels were handmade and depicted a [[Maltese cross]] design.  Initially, the ink used was red, but it was found that this could be cleaned off and the stamps reused, and so after a series of experiments, early in 1841 black cancelling ink was used, which was more permanent. The color of the stamps was also changed to red-brown so as to ensure that the cancellation showed clearly.<ref name="sg_p42"/>

Britain soon abandoned the Maltese crosses and in 1844 began to employ cancellations displaying numbers which referred to the location of mailing.<ref>[[#Stanley Gibbons|Stanley Gibbons]], pp. 51-55.</ref>  A similar scheme was used for British stamps used abroad in its colonies and foreign postal services, with locations being assigned a specific letter followed by a number, such as A01 used in Kingston, Jamaica, or D22 for Venezuela.<ref>Stanely Gibbons, ''Stamp Catalogue, Part 1, British Commonwealth 1987'', London & Ringwood (89th ed. 1986), pp. GB65-GB72.</ref>

[[File:US stamp 1851 3c Washington.jpg|upright|thumb|An 1851 U.S. stamp with a [[pen cancel]]lation]]
Early cancellations were all applied by hand, commonly using hand stamps.  Where hand stamps were not available, stamps often were cancelled by marking over the stamp with pen, such as writing an "x".  Pen cancellations were used in the United States into the 1880s,<ref name="scott2">[[#Scott US|Scott US]] p. 29A.</ref> and in a sense continue to this day, when a postal clerk notices a stamp has escaped cancellation and marks it with a ball point pen or [[marker pen|marker]].

[[File:Sicily13.JPG|thumb|upright|1859 stamp of Sicily with deferential cancellation designed not to deface the "sacred image" of [[Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies|King Ferdinand II]]<ref>Franco Filanci, ''Lettera & Francobollo: Raccontiamola giusta'' Reggiani, Italy 2008, p. 16.</ref>]]

In the early period of the issuance of postage stamps in the United States a number of [[patent]]s were issued for cancelling devices or machines that increased (or were purported to increase) the difficulty of washing off and reusing postage stamps.  These methods generally involved the scraping or cutting-away of part of the stamp, or perhaps punching a hole through its middle.  (These forms of cancellation must be distinguished from [[perfins]], a series of small holes punched in stamps, typically by private companies as an anti-theft device.)

High speed cancellation machines were first used in Boston between 1880–1890 and subsequently throughout the country.<ref name="scott2"/>

Today, cancellations may either be applied by hand or machine.  Hand cancellation is often used when sending unusually shaped mail or formal mail (e.g., wedding invitations) to avoid damage caused by machine cancellation.

Postal meter stamps and similar modern printed to order stamps are not ordinarily cancelled by postal authorities because such stamps bear the date produced and can not readily be re-used.