Pen cancel

In philately, a pen cancel – symbol ⟨⟩[1] – is a cancellation of a postage or revenue stamp by the use of a pen, marker or crayon.

In the early days of stamps, cancellation with a pen was common.

[5] In particular, the additional information from the handstamp is lost and the pen cancel may indicate fiscal (revenue) rather than postal use.

Stamps marked valid for both postage and revenue use are usually worth less when fiscally used.

Some people have attempted to remove pen cancels from used stamps in order to make them appear as more valuable mint stamps.