Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here each week.

With the introduction of U.S. postage stamps in 1847 came the requirement that postmasters deface them in a way that would prevent further use. Through most of the rest of the century, regulations about how to accomplish this were rather lax and that led to a wide variety of cancellation styles. The simplest of these were strokes and characters applied by pen, but most local postal officials were more inventive. They carved number, letter, geometric and pictorial displays into the ends of cork bottle stoppers, dipped them into ink and applied "fancy cancels" to their stamps. Later in the period, commercially prepared devices made of wood, rubber and metal became available, but the tendency to use elaborate designs continued and that generated nearly fifty years worth of intriguing postal "art" work.

Clear, well-centered fancy cancel strikes are in constant demand by an active collector base and that gives many types solid investment potential. The "Kicking Mule" of C.A. Klinkner & Company experienced limited west coast use in the 1880s-90, but is highly sought after today. The example pictured is a particularly handsome specimen that cost $160 last year. Last month, it sold for $200. The stylized "Maple Leaf" of Waterbury, Connecticut postmaster John Hill is a relatively rare piece from the 1870s that fetched $50 recently. Last year, it was going for $35. Price points associated with individual pieces also depend on such issues as overall "eye appeal", but well-struck examples of scarcer cancels routinely improve in value by 10% and more per year.