Topical Stamp Collecting
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Cancellations are known in many forms: bulls-eyes, cartwheels, concentric circles, squared circles, and on and on.

For topicalists, fancy cancels present the most desirable opportunities. Obliterators normally are carved wood or cork and some are quite rare.

• Those from Waterbury, Connecticut, from 1865-1869 perhaps are the most sought after.
• 20 th century fancy cancels, many known in color,

Francis Wirth in 1867 invented the high-speed canceling machine, in Germany.

• First fully automatic canceling machine was introduced in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1886.
• Following introduction of canceling machines came
• Slogan cancels
• Pictorial cancels, and
• First Day of Issue cancels

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