How to get a pictorial postmark
What are they?
When you send a letter with postage stamps, your country’s mail service will stamp over your postage stamps with a postmark, usually with a date on it. This does two things: the date tells you when the postal service collected your outgoing mailpiece, and it also slathers ink on your stamp so it can’t be reused (known as stamp canceling).
Pictorial postmarks are just fancy postmarks with pictures on them. Usually they commemorate some kind of event, like a county fair, but some are available permanently. Many countries’ postal services allow you to get a piece of mail stamped with one of them if you know how to send them in, even if you didn’t attend the event.
Just tell me how, internet man
Your national postal service will periodically post a bulletin with a catalog of postmarks that are available now and in the near future:
- Canada Post maintains a list of Pictorial Cancels
- UK Royal Mail calls them Handstamps, which can be found from the Postmark Bulletin linked from the Postmarks page
- American USPS customers who want one should google
pictorial postmark <current or previous month> <current year>because the USPS publishes a new webpage every month (ex. August 2024).
Each pictorial postmark will have a corresponding address where the postmaster will apply the postmark. You will need this address. For example, many UK postmarks are stamped at the London Special Handstamp Centre at London SHC, Royal Mail, Mount Pleasant, Farringdon Road, LONDON, EC1A 1BB.
In countries that allow you to get pictorial postmarks without personally going to a postmaster, the process usually involves two things:
- A piece of mail (e.g. postcard) that you want the pictorial postmark to be applied to. This should be addressed to the final recipient (this can even be your own address). It should also have enough postage stamps to be sent from the postmaster’s address to the final recipient.
- An outer envelope in which you should put mailpiece #1 inside. This envelope should have enough postage stamps to be sent from your location to the postmaster’s address.
Then, you send the outer envelope through the mail. Depending on country, there may be additional instructions you need to follow:
Special instructions depending on country
Canada (Canada Post)
Most Canadian pictorial cancels are permanently available. For these, there are no special instructions and you just have to send the outer envelope.
United Kingdom (Royal Mail)
Royal Mail must receive your outer envelope before the date that the handstamp becomes available. Since each Handstamp Centre applies many different handstamps, the outer envelope also needs to clearly show the words Special Handstamp and the serial number of the desired handstamp.
If you are not in the UK and you are sending something to the Royal Mail for a handstamp, you get an extra 28 days after the handstamp’s date for the Royal Mail to receive it.
For more precise details, see the Postmark Bulletin PDF linked from the Royal Mail Postmarks page, in the section labelled “FORTHCOMING SPECIAL HANDSTAMPS”.
United States (USPS)
Pictorial postmarks are made available starting on a certain date, and the USPS must receive your outer envelope within the 30 day period following the availability date. Each postmark will have its own address.
