Handling errors

Errors in franking

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Home made stamp You need a stamp ? Cut a nice picture out of a newspaper and glue it onto your envelope. Sometimes it works fine ! (SWEDEN - 1990)


Home made stamp You ran out of stamps ? No problem if you are a little bit talented. Draw it yourself. (SWEDEN - 1990)


Wrong value Frama ATM stamp, with OO.OO as face value, which is absolutely not possible to order from the machine (what coin do you use for that ?) (DENMARK - 2001)


Mixed franking This commercial cover sent on November 25th 1937 from Barbados by registered mail to Dominica, was franked with 3 stamps of Barbados and one, almost identical, of Bermuda ! (BARBADOS - )


Cheap stamp If you think postage costs are too high, try this : take on old used 5F stamp of King Baudouin, with a pen write down the name of Prince Filip who will probably become the next King, change the 5F in 17F, and … ready for use. (BELGIUM - )


Needle franking A 20 öre stamp was missing to send this internal Money Order in Sweden. But the sender was resolute : from a regular postcard he simply cut out the printed stamp and attached it with a NEEDLE. The Post Office accepted and cancelled the stamp. (SWEDEN - )


Divided stamp Inventive postmasters all over the world have always known how to deal with a shortage or a lack of suitable stamps : simply divide those you have, officially or without asking. (YUGOSLAVIA - )


Divided stamp Inventive postmasters all over the world have always known how to deal with a shortage or a lack of suitable stamps : simply divide those you have, officially or without asking (only allowed between 20/1 and 25/3/1903) (DANISH WEST INDIES - )


Divided stamp Inventive postmasters all over the world have always known how to deal with a shortage or a lack of suitable stamps : simply divide those you have, officially or without asking. (SHANGAI - )


Divided stamp Inventive postmasters all over the world have always known how to deal with a shortage or a lack of suitable stamps : simply divide those you have, officially or without asking. (UNITED KINGDOM - )


Composed stamp A 2 öre stamp was glued right on the preprinted 10 öre stamp of a postcard : a new 12 öre stamp was born ! (SWEDEN - 1918)


Double stamp Why buy (and pay for) a pre-printed postcard, and then cover the pre-printed stamp by another one ? (BELGIUM - )


Double stamp The postage rates for postcards in 2000 were 17 BEF. So why put on another 17 BEF stamp ? Do not expect the postcard to be delivered twice as fast ! (BELGIUM - )


16-stamp cover Sending a registered letter can be expensive. If you do not have enough stamps, do not worry : first use all your common stamps, then add some charity stamps, railway stamps, military stamps, and last but not least … an airmailstamp. Nobody will complain. (BELGIUM - 1998)


Valueless reprint Sometimes the Post Office helps you to cheat with stamps : a reprint without value, made by the Swedish Post Museum can easily be used as a stamp. Nobody will see the difference (SWEDEN - )


Tax vignette Everything that resembles a stamp, even a tobacco tax vignette issued by a State, can have a postal life : nobody will see the difference. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - )


Foreign stamp You want to send your Christmas wishes, but have no postcard left ? Take an old Chinese card with preprinted stamp, and just to be sure, add your own stamp too. This should not have been necessary, as the Chinese stamp was cancelled too! (SWEDEN - 1985)


Fake stamp This could have been a nice idea : a stamp bearing all flags, currencies and languages of the countries belonging to the European Community, which could be used everywhere. Unfortunately it was never officially accepted ! (BELGIUM - )


Wrong date According to the date in the postmark, this railwaystamp was already in use in 1738 (BELGIUM - 1938)


Mixed franking Registered letter franked with stamps from West- and East Germany, and Berlin. (GERMANY - 1990)


Mixed franking This cover sent by registered mail from Barbados to Dominica, was franked with 3 stamps of Barbados and one (almost identical) of Bermuda. (BARBADOS - 1937)


Missing value No printed value on the Automat stamp in the middle of the cover. (GERMANY - 1998)


Wasting Why buy (and pay for) a preprinted postcard, and then cover the preprinted stamp with another valid stamp ? (BELGIUM - 2000)


Wrong date This cover has been cancelled two times with different dates, the first obviously was a mistake and was crossed by the post employee. (SWEDEN - 1856)