What the Heck is Hand Cancelling?

Image via Soulful Engagements

Hello blogging buddies! It occured to me after my stamp snafu post that it might not be abundantly clear to everyone what hand cancelling is. So, here's a quick snippet on hand cancelling.

After you drop your envelopes in the mail, the post office runs them through their machine which quickly sorts and cancels out the postage so it can't be used again. Since it's a machine, your envelope runs the risk of getting snagged or damaged. When an envelope is hand cancelled, the postage stamp is hand stamped to cancel out the postage. In the image above, the photo on the left has gone through the regular machine. The image on the right was hand cancelled. Some people choose to hand cancel their invitations to preserve the look of their envelopes and stamps. Boom!