Belgium Pre-Cancel Stamps

Greetings Ms. cyprusstamps
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Belgium is famous/infamous for these precancel stamps. They come in all different flavors (shapes/sizes/configurations).
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Respectfully,

Gordon Lee

Some of us love them!
Excuse my background scribble. I wasn't expecting to show these.

On cover:

rayb
I wonder, do those precancel dates indicate the date range for which they were valid? For example Jan 1 to June 30 of that year? Did people buy large blocks of stamps already precanceled and then have to use them up by the date range given?
Or did the local post office keep them in stock?
I think I need to find a precancel site and learn more about how they were used.

Woo hoo, Rayb!

Thanks everyone for your input and as usual, a wealth of information.
I think it's a lovely looking stamp but no doubt it will be bound for eBay soon enough. We have loads to get through and we're currently working our way through and listing Great Britain/British stamps.

Again, these are totally out of our expertise so there may be some nice surprises along the way. If you want to take a peep, my auction listings can be found here


This one seems to be gathering some momentum in the line of "watchers" not due to end until next Sunday.

Valid for one year - 1963/1966

Undated - posthorn with mouthpiece on the left:

Mouthpiece to the right: