Effective March 20, 2014, the Postal Service™ will apply a cancellation mark to all pieces processed on the Advanced Facer Canceller System 200 (AFCS 200) and the legacy AFCS-Optical Character Reader (AFCS-OCR). Previously, pieces bearing a stamp or meter received a cancellation. All other pieces (those bearing Information Based Indicia (IBI), FIM C, FIM D, no indicia, etc.) were not cancelled, and no postmark indicating date of cancellation was applied. In response to mailers’ requests, the Postal Service will enable an Alternative Cancellation Mark on all mail processed on the AFCS 200 that is not otherwise cancelled. For the AFCS-OCR, the Postal Service will now cancel all mail using the traditional cancellation mark. The result is that all mail processed on the AFCS 200 and AFCS-OCR will now receive a legible date of mailing for a variety of uses, including identifying the date of absentee ballot mailing and tax filing submissions.
For mail processed on the AFCS 200, mail bearing stamps or meters will continue to be cancelled as they are today. All other mail will receive the Alternative Cancellation Mark, which will consist of left justified text designating the receipt facility and date in a dimensional space of 23 mm high by 44 mm wide. The text will begin printing 116 mm from the right edge of the mailpiece. Because the legacy AFCS-OCR does not have the ability to apply the Alternative Cancellation Mark, all mail will be cancelled using the traditional cancellation.
Mailers may continue to print in the Alternative Cancellation area (as shown) but may choose to avoid potential overprinting of text/images by limiting the contents within the mark area.
Sample Alternative Cancellation Mark (image not to scale)
— Operations Integration and Support,
Network Operations, 3-20-14
