All About Hand Cancellation
Let’s face it: those beautiful, vintage looking circular stamps with the date and PO location are more elusive than ever. With their efficient scanners, USPS is sending every envelope they can through them and forgoing the hand-cancellation you may be after. Here’s the low-down.
An envelope will get a hand cancellation stamp only if it is “non-machineable,” meaning it can’t go through the scanner machines. Examples of traditional correspondence that is non-machineable: square envelopes and envelopes with wax seals. There is a tax for these items called the Non-Machineable Surcharge. You may have seen this phrase on certain stamps, like the one below. In 2021, this surcharge is 20 cents.
So let’s do some math. Say you’re a bride with a wedding invitation and you want a wax seal. Your invitation, with the response card tucked inside perhaps, weighs 2 ounces. You’re at 75 cents of postage (this is the 2021 2 oz rate). Because you want your wax seal, you need to add on the non-machineable surcharge, so you’re now at 95 cents.
A Few Tips, FYIs, and Caveats
Using vintage postage does not equal a hand cancellation stamp.
If hand-cancellation is important to you, always stand in line and ask for it. Also, go at a time when the post office isn’t busy (as in, not Monday at opening, not Friday at closing and most lunchtimes) because this takes extra time.
Sometimes, even when you pay the non-machineable surcharge, your envelope will go through the scanner anyway. This is at the discretion of the Postal Employee who handles your mail. Like many things involving the USPS, once it leaves your hands it is out of your control. So let me say once more: The best way to get hand cancellation is to stand in line and ask for it and watch them do it.
Have questions? Please email me.
