Bullseye, in

philately Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is poss ...

, also called Socked on the nose (SON), refers to a cancellation of a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

in which the

postmark A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...

, typically a circle with the date and town name where mailed, has been applied centered on the stamp. The ideal bullseye has the entire postmark inside the margins, although this is not always possible, because the stamp may be too small or the postmark too large. The colloquial expression "Socked on the nose" does not seem to be used in Europe: the terms ''Oblitération centrale'' in French or ''luxus'' in German are in common usage. Austria introduced ca 1868 a set of cancellations of small diameter (< 20 mm), so that they could be seen entirely on all stamps. Some philatelists and collectors of cancellations have a special interest in bullseyes primarily because the date, time, and place the stamp was used, or postmarked, can be identified by the cancellation. This allows specialised collectors to collect, for example, all of the postmarks of a particular country, state, city, county, date range, etc., without collecting entire covers. There can be some confusion with the term "Bullseye" as it can mean both the type of cancel, such as the early American concentric ring cancel (as well as other countries that used them) and to have a cancel positioned right in the center of a stamp. So while an SON cancel is always near the centre of a stamp and can be an example of a Circular Date Stamp (CDS) or a "Bullseye" cancel or other shapes that were used as cancelling devices, (Square, Oval etc.) strictly speaking a "Bullseye Cancel" literally is a cancel that looks like a "bullseye". Because modern machine cancellations are normally arranged so that the wavy lines, slogans, or other killers are applied to the stamp, leaving the postmark clear, dealers and collectors desiring SONs will position the stamp on the cover so as to fall under the postmark.The Complete Guide to Stamp Collecting: ''Stamp Cancellations. Part 2''
(retrieved 2 July 2007)

References

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External links

Bullseye Cancel Collectors Club
official website

English phrases Philatelic terminology Postal markings