Cancellation Stamps

Cancellation Stamp: Petra, Jordan

… about collecting cancellation stamps in my sketchbook... it IS a good idea! I got one of my first cancellation stamps at a post office in France and another in a tiny closet-sized post office in Jordan… and I have many others, even one from my neighborhood PO branch office. Whether I have to pantomime what I want or simply ask in plain English, invariably the person in charge of cancellation stamps grins and willingly complies by stamping in my book alongside my drawing using their cancellation stamp that shows the date of my visit.

I discovered that the US National Parks sell a “Passport” that’s similar to a real passport with spaces in the little book where you collect rubber stamp cancellations or affix pictorial stamps which you can buy in the park visitors center. You don’t buy the rubber stamp; you use the stamp and ink pad that’s available free of charge. Some state parks and local parks have similar stamps.

Cancellation Stamps on paper

Petrified Forest National Park

The Painted Dessert

Historic Route 66

I don’t have a park passport; I collect my stamp in my sketchbook or on a piece of paper that I’ll glue into my book later.

There are 58 national parks in the United States.