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I went to the corner store the other day and bought some packets of 'p' stamps for general postage use. A 'p' stamp by the way is our (Canada's) permanent rate postage stamps. Anyway I got the book of stamps and 4 spares for my collection as I did not have them yet.

Today I went to the post office to pick up a copy of the $2 Queen's Jubilee souvenir sheet and noticed that the stamps I got from the corner store are not to be released by CanPost till the 27th of June

I have them in my possession right now! This ever happened to anyone out there in the past?

Right now thinking of creating some envelopes and mail them out to a few friends and get them hand cancelled

Oh the stamp in question is the following

Make sure you get them Registered to confirm the datestamp is not just a date error.

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My local Post Office sold me some stamps a week before the official release date so I could prepare some First Day Covers.

Apparently I only got them because the clerk was new and didn't know any different.

I tried again with the next issue, but the regulars were back at the counter, and there was no way I could bully them into selling me a few, even though they were in stock.

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While it shouldn't happen, it does occur every so often.

Sometimes staff don't know what the issue date is, so put the stamps on sale without knowing. This especially happens with sheet stamps. If an item has a barcode, the point of sale computer might advise the staff not to sell the item. Early selling of stamps was not uncommon in the UK, forcing Royal Mail to put 'on sale' dates in the sheet selvedge. I think the Netherlands and Finland do the same.

A post office might also 'deliberately' put an item on sale before the issue as they have run out of stock of a particular value. I had this happen once at my local post office - they were selling one particular value from a set a week early as they no more stamps of that value to sell customers!

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Chris de Haer
Author of 'A Closer Look at Modern Australian Stamps' in Stamp News Australia.
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I pointed out to my PO that the stamps they put out for sale on the Red River Settlement release day were the wrong stamps. They had already used some Jubilee $2.00 stamps on packages that morning. They removed them once I pointed it out.

I think what threw them off was the blotter on the countertop. Looking at the next picture after the next release was the $2.00. They aren't in order of release on the blotter like they usually are.

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Hi,
I can only say that in Austria and Germany big clients of the Post receive their stamps about a week before the official release - this with the mutual consent that the stamps are not to be used before the day of release.
And errors occur. Isn't there a thread about stamps cancelled with a date before their release? I think I saw one.

Here's one I have from Alice Springs .I know this is correct As I used to get all the mail that came into our office .
I have two covers this one dated 30 Mar 1995 and the other is early April .The release date for these stamps was April 20th 1995.



Brian

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It seems to happen for every issue in the USA.

A regular feature in Linn's is a listing of stamps used before FDI. Its no longer a matter of "wow, look a stamp used too early", its become "show us how far in advance it was used", and they'll write articles with lines like "we've seen examples for issue X used only 3 days before FDI".

For some early issues of many countries, there's no such thing as a 'first day cancel' as its not known what day the stamps went on sale, or a FDI cancel doesn't still exist, so collectors go for EKU -- Earliest Known Use. Then the FDC phenomenon developed, now we're in phase 3, seeing how far before issue date you can get a postmark.

Good point about registering the covers. It would be easy enough for an 'insider' to back date the canceller on regular mail. Machine-cancelled would be less likely to be a mistake, but registered will prove it. There was a stamp issue in Oz last year (the flood relief stamps?) that had no official FDC, so a collector made up some registered letters, printed off the tracking info from online, and sold the covers for big bucks.

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Stamps are usally shipped to the local outlerts before their release date.

Now and then a postal clerk may start selling stamps before due date.

Actually, I'd be a bit worried about "insiders" on mail registered from a small office.

And get a scan of it posted on this thread to give it extra provenence

My mother is going to wonder why she is getting her Mother's day card via registered mail

Ross, I think she will be confused even more when you go over there and ask her to give the cover back to you

p.s. tell her how to open the cover because she might rip it apart and your experiment will go down the drain.

Believe me, I will be getting her to open it with a letter opener or knife along the top edge.

Perhaps you could tell her not to open it? The excitement of seeing a still-sealed cover in a box lot at the dealer's is quite something, and it makes you wonder what's inside it!

Hopefully none of the ones I have are Anthrax covers

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
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