Numismatist’s currency collection ‘note’worthy

By Riyan Ramanath V, TNN | Dec 20, 2012, 07.17 AM IST

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READ MORE numismatist|Aravind Agrawal

BHUBANESWAR: Which is the largest currency note of all times? When did India have Rs 2.50 currency note and how did it look? Did India ever have currency note of one paisa denomination?

To get answers for all these queries, one should visit Aravind Agrawal's house, which has turned into a mini museum, where currency notes of about 140 countries are on display. Currency notes of different hues attract him as iron attracts magnet.

Agrawal (42), the passionate numismatist, is a native of Patnagarh in Balangir district. For the past three decades, he has been collecting coins and notes of different countries as part of his hobby.

It all started, when Agrawal began collecting stamps in his childhood. One day he received a European currency note which fascinated him. Thus began his quest for collecting more and more currency notes and become an accomplished numismatist. "My mother encouraged me the most to collect the currency notes. I always remained in the look out for the notes whenever I was visiting new places or meeting strangers. I have even travelled long distances to fetch some damaged notes of the medieval period," Agrawal said.

He has currency notes ranging from medieval period to the 21st century. He is proud of his collection which has the largest currency note - a Russian 100 Rubel, which is about 25.5 cm long and 12 cm wide, belonging to the reign of Tsar Nicholas-II in 1910. "Apart from the largest Rubel note, which attracts many visitors, the Rs 2.50 note, which was prevalent during the British rule and during the reign of king George-V between 1914-1918, also bring in the people to my place," said Agrawal. He said he had received the Rs 2.50 note from erstwhile king of Patna, Rajraj Singhdeo.

"The notes and currency are a rich source of knowledge, which inform us about our history and the history of other countries. I have some punch mark coins and some coins belonging to the period of Akbar and Alauddin Khilji. These, I think, are prized collections which can help many research scholars get insight into the medieval period," he explained. His collection boasts of currencies not only of 140 countries but of 24 princely states as well.

Demystifying CTO (Cancelled To Order) stamps

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One of the requested topics for the blog entries has been CTO (Cancelled-to-order) stamps. As the recent post about East German definitive stamps showed several CTO-examples, I think this is an excellent time to demystify CTO.

Eastern Europe countries produced a great number of CTO stamps.

So what does CTO mean?

The short definition of CTO is very simple: a stamp that the issuing postal service has canceled/postmarked in large number before selling them directly to stamp collectors or dealers (with or without discount compared to stamps postal rate).
The history of CTO-cancels begins in the late 1800’s, experienced the hottest peak (so far) in the 1950’s and 60’s, and started to decline in the 1990’s. Very likely most stamp issuing countries have produced CTO-cancelled stamps in some scale, and will do so in one way or another in future as well.
A very common reason for making CTO-cancelled issues was (and is) collector demand – like with the DDR stamps. Building a collection of all the different stamps with relatively light and unobtrusive cancellations is a very hard job – even on single country level. By producing “collector quality” copies en masse, the postal services have managed to achieve several goals with one move. The collectors became happy as they received the stamps with light and unobtrusive cancel without any damages caused by real postage. The postal office services were happy as they didn’t have to do manual cancelling and hear collector complaints of poor job. And above all, the postal ministry managed to create new income channel…If the above sounds familiar, then take a look of the “new issue” services of any country. These are the spawns of CTO.

Several western europe countries, like Switzerland and Liechtenstein, have produced CTO for their new issues service subscribers.

Another common reason for creating CTO-cancelled copies is to exclude stamps issued only for the collector market being used on real postage. A good example of this can be found once again from the East German 5 year plan definitive stamps article. The 20/24pfg stamps 1957 re-issue was never indented outside western collector markets. Thus it exists only in CTO-used condition.

Are CTO-cancelled stamps collectible?

IMHO, yes. CTO is a condition (or state) of used stamp in similar fashion as we collectors categorize unused stamps to mint never hinged and mint hinged (and lots of other subclasses).
But that said, most collectors avoid CTO-cancelled stamps more than plague (or stamps with mildew). And due to this, they have a notably lower catalog value (and demand) than postally used copies.
Personally I accept CTO-used stamps into my collection. However, if I can choose between a real used and CTO-used, then I always prefer real used.

How do I identify a CTO stamp?

CTO’s have many faces, but with couple of simple guidelines anyone can identify them easily.
The most common characteristics of CTO-cancelled stamp are very easy: a neat, usually quarter (single corner) cancels with repeating town/date part. As the cancels are usually printed (on press) directly to stamps, they are very clear and appear on same location. And the gum on the back is still present… Using this rule anyone can recognize at least 50% of worldwide CTO’s.

Many topical stamps from far-away places are usually CTO-cancelled.

However, not all CTO-cancels are applied on print. Especially older CTO’s are created by hand-cancelling stamp sheets. The results are real-looking cancellations with specific places and dates; and usually with full gum.
But as anyone can wash out (soak) the gum off – not to mention CTO’s issued without gum – the only permanent characteristics of CTO is the cancel. Therefore learning to identify various CTO-cancellations is very important. Specialized stamp catalogs and other philatelic literature play a major role with this.

Wurttemberg hand-cancelled CTO's.

It’s important to note, that CTO and favour-cancelled stamps are in some cases very easy to mix. The difference between these two is that favour-cancelled stamps are usually cancelled on small scale (by single or few collectors/dealers) on local post offices, while CTO-cancelled stamps come with prints in six or seven figures. A good example of these are Finnish stamps cancelled around the 1963 currency reformation – a lot of collectors and dealers did favour-cancel huge numbers of complete sheets to get future “trading material”.

What countries should I beware?

Before giving this list, I must warn that this is heavy generalization – most of these areas do provide loads of real used stamps, but they are just a bit (or sometimes a LOT) harder to come by.
Communist states like Cuba, Kampuchea, Mongolia, North Korea, Soviet Union and Soviet satellite states, Vietnam etc. have produced loads of CTO. However, as many of these are nations with huge population, also real used stamps exist.
Some Caribbean, South- and Middle American countries, like Nicaragua, Paraquay, Guyana and many smaller Caribbean islands, have produced large scales of CTO at some point of their of postal history. The same can be said of many (French) African states like Chad, Niger or Mauritania.
One of the best known examples of CTO producers are Dune-states (Ajman, Fujeira etc) in the 1960/70’s. Many of these are very hard or impossible to come with real postal usage.

Collecting cancels and postmarks adds spice and knowledge

By Janet Klug

Collecting postally used stamps seems to have become less popular than it once was. Modern United States self-adhesives have become increasingly difficult, although not impossible, to collect used.

Figure 1. Austrian semipostal stamp bearing a wavy-line killer. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 2. This Tongan stamp bears a July 13, 1951, bull's-eye cancel applied at Haapai. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 3. A United States 1870 2¢ Andrew Jackson stamp bearing a blue leaf fancy cancel. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 4. The slogan cancel used on this French stamp commemorating a judo championship combines to humorous effect. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 5. The vertical barred numeral cancel "549" on this British stamp indicates that it was canceled in Hanley, England. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 6. Polish stamp bearing a Katowice, Poland, bridge cancel. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 7. A common U.S. machine cancellation produced by a machine manufactured by the International Postal Supply Co. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 8. This U.S. stamp bears a Grand Rapids, Mich., precancel. Click on image to enlarge.

Self-adhesive stamps are not always easy to remove from envelopes. Modern U.S. ink-jet postmarks are not as appealing as bygone circular datestamps.
But billions of older stamps bear fascinating postmarks. The postmarks can add great interest, and in some cases, great value to any collection.
Postal markings have their own nomenclature. Although the words "cancel" and "postmark" are often used interchangeably, there are nuances of difference.
A postmark is any marking applied to an envelope by a postal administration, but stamp collectors generally consider a postmark to be the marking that contains the place and date of posting.
A postmark that strikes the stamp, rendering it invalid for further use, is called a cancel. Some postmarks include bars, wavy lines or other obliterators that are intended to strike and cancel the stamp. That part of the postmark is called the "killer" because it effectively kills the postage value of the stamp.
Figure 1 shows a wavy-line killer cancel on a 1968 Austrian Stamp Day semipostal stamp.
Bull's-eyes are postmarks that are centered on the stamp so that the place and date of mailing are clearly visible. They are also called socked-on-the-nose postmarks, abbreviated SOTN.
An example of a bull's-eye cancel from Tonga is shown in Figure 2. One of the outer islands, Haapai, was the place of mailing, and the date "13JL51" (July 13, 1951) is clearly visible.
Fancy cancels such as the blue leaf cancel on the U.S. 1870 2¢ Andrew Jackson stamp shown in Figure 3 are eagerly sought by specialists as well as topical collectors.
The 19th-century fancy cancelers were usually carved from cork or some other material. A desirable 19th-century fancy cancel can add substantial value to a relatively common stamp.
More modern machine postmarks sometimes include slogan cancels that incorporate a pictorial element. Sometimes slogan or other cancels combine with the stamp design to produce a comical effect.
Figure 4 shows a French stamp issued in 1979 to promote a judo championship. The telephone handset shown in the slogan cancel combines with the stamp to illustrate, it appears to me, the TV commercial phrase "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Great Britain used many styles of postmarks in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Collecting any of the types of British postmarks can be an engrossing specialty. Collecting one of each is a great way to teach yourself about postmarks. They have some great, descriptive names too, such as tombstones, spoons, thimbles, squared circles, hooded, barred ovals and steps.
An 1887 ½-penny British stamp bearing a duplex numeral cancel is shown in Figure 5. The shape of the vertical barred cancel means that the stamp was used in England or Wales. Cancels used in Scotland and Ireland have different shapes.
The numeral "549" in the barred oval refers to the town where the postmark was applied.
The other part of a duplex cancel gives the date and place it was used. A small part of the ring of this postmark appears at the lower left edge of the stamp.
Collectors who enjoy collecting numeral cancels use specialized catalogs that identify the towns by their numerals. In this example, the 549 refers to Hanley, England.
A popular type of cancel used extensively in Europe and elsewhere is called a "bridge." A bridge cancel is one that consists of one or two concentric circles bearing the town and country names and a central horizontal space (the bridge) that contains the date.
An example of a bridge cancel from Katowice, Poland, is struck on the 10-grosz Sigismund Monument stamp shown in Figure 6.
Today most postmarks are applied using high-speed machines that handle thousands of letters a minute. Machines that postmarked letters were developed in the last quarter of the 19th century and have been modified and refined many times since.
Figure 7 shows a small cover bearing a 1917 example of a common U.S. machine cancel applied by an International Postal Supply Co. machine.
Stamps have also been canceled in advance of their usage. Such stamps are known as "precancels."
Collecting precancels is enormously challenging and surprisingly inexpensive. There are a huge variety of precancels, making this area of collecting attractive to a collector on a budget.
The 11¢ Rutherford B. Hayes stamp shown in Figure 8 bears a Grand Rapids, Mich., precancel.
For more information on collecting postmarks, contact either or both of the following:
Machine Postmark Collectors Club, Gary Carlson, 3097 Frobisher Ave., Dublin, OH 43017-1652.
Post Mark Collectors Club, Membership Manager, Robert J. Milligan, 7014 Woodland Oaks Drive, Magnolia, TX 77354-4898.
So if you are a mint, never-hinged sort of collector and want to try something different, look into the realm of postmark collecting. Postmarks are a vital part of the history of stamps and postal communication. And postmarks are a lot of fun to collect too.