Pictorial and Slogan Cancellations



The United States Postal Service makes a distinction between special cancellations which have a caption that publicizes an event (a type of slogan cancellation), and pictorial cancellations, which contain an image.



In the United States, official pictorial cancellations are almost always applied at what's called special "stations," - post offices that are created and exist for only a very short time, often one day, at a special event. A good example of this is a Pittsburgh Steelers cover that we own. It commemorates one of Steelers' victories in the Super Bowl. It was cancelled at a special station at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh (that USPS station did not normally exist and was only created for this event) and it also is a pictorial cancel, as the text of the cancel is all within the image of a football helmet (see the picture above).



The range of subjects that are allowed for slogan cancels and pictorial cancels is pretty wide. They may even include tie-ins for commercial or marketing purposes, such as the "Happy Who-Lidays" pictorial/slogan cancel that was so widely used by the USPS a few years back.