CTO

CTO, or cancelled-to-order, refers to stamps that are cancelled and sold by post offices to jobbers and dealers, who then sell them on to collectors. This can include cancelled stamps sold at face value to ones sold at a small fraction of face value. See also: favor cancels. Many Eastern European countries including Russia, French Community countries and others have produced these over the years.

This allows collectors to obtain stamps quite cheaply and easily. However, in some cases, for East Germany most notably, there is/was a "blocked value" from a set that is not released as a CTO. Even mint copies were only sold for hard non-native currency and in complete sets only, so that collectors attempting to complete a set used are in for a tough time. Sometimes, stamps taken from first day covers can be found.

CTO cancels are generally recognizable by being printed or at least extremely clearly struck. Some cancels are composed of dots to imitate incomplete inking but are often too dark to be taken for postal cancels. The cancels are almost always neatly placed CDSs in the corner of a stamp. Of course, the obvious tipoff is that CTOs usually have full gum. 

 [[Category:C]]