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A sheet of stamps or press sheet is a unit of stamps as printed, usually on large sheets of paper based on the size of the printing plate, that are separated into panes that are sold at post offices. Where more than one pane is on a printed sheet they are arranged in a table-like arrangement. [1] The spaces between the single stamps are all of the same size and provide space for a cut or perforation.
Today, a sheet of stamps is the most common way of arranging stamps on the impressed paper. The number of stamps on a sheet and the format of the sheet depend on the size and format of the individual stamps. Small stamps are usually printed on sheets of a hundred stamps, although the Penny Black, as with other pre-decimal sterling currency stamps, were printed in sheets of 240; larger stamps are printed on sheets of fifty, twenty-five or twenty, as is done by the USPS.
On November 13, 1994, the Deutsche Post changed the format of its emissions to sheets of ten stamps each, due to reasons of efficiency. The edges of these sheets are specially designed, making them a novel field of collecting.
In fact, the term printing sheet refers only to a part of the actual printing sheet. This is because stamps are mostly printed in four connected sheets, to make best use of the stamp paper. At the post office counter, only the four separated printing sheets are sold. Therefore, the sheet of stamps is also called a counter sheet or pane, though improperly called a sheet of stamps. [2]
The empty fields connecting the single counter sheets are called gutters. Normally they are separated in the middle after printing in order to obtain four counter sheets. The half empty fields or gutters then form the edge of the sheet. However, from many issues, unseparated gutters with connected stamps of the neighbouring sheets come on the market (stamp - empty field - stamp). These gutters may be either empty or printed, if printed edges were intended.
The philatelist makes a distinction between horizontal and vertical gutters. A specific characteristic of the gutters is the heart of the printing sheet, where all four panes are connected. Gutters and hearts are very popular with collectors and reach high catalog prices, especially for classic issues.
Single counter sheets do not always have to be separated by empty fields. Issues which were not intended to have edges were naturally manufactured without empty fields. To be able to distinguish between the single sheets better, the stamps were printed rotated 180° to each other along the separation line. Philatelists describe the two stamps which are upside down in relationship to each other as tête-bêche . Some issues have tête-bêches as well as gutters.
Like gutters, tête-bêches are very popular with collectors due to their scarcity and decorativeness.
The stamps are arranged on the sheet in a table with rows and columns. Due to this arrangement, the location of each stamp can be precisely determined. The philatelist counts the single stamps horizontally from left to right, but the post counts them vertically from top to bottom. Accordingly, the third stamp in the sixth row of a sheet of 10 x 10 would be the 53rd stamp of the sheet for the collector, but the 26th stamp for the post.
The first postage stamps of the UK, the Penny Black, were printed in sheets of 20 rows and 12 columns, but the location on the sheet was indicated by different letters in the bottom corners of each stamp. An "A" in the lower left corner indicated the first row, a "B" the second one, the "C" the third one, etc. The columns were indicated according to the same scheme in the lower right corner. Thus the top left stamp had the letter combination "A" - "A", the bottom right stamp had "T" - "L". As a result, 240 different stamps were made for each plate used. This was intended to prevent forgery.
The term "sheet edge" refers to the empty fields connected to the stamps and arranged around the sheet. These fields are often unprinted. However, in many cases, quite a bit of interesting information can be found on them, e.g. printing dates or the like. The most important inscriptions printed on the edges of the sheet are:
There are several specialities of the printing of sheets. The most important are:
For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other.
The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in the United Kingdom, on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. The stamp features a profile of Queen Victoria.
The Inverted Jenny is a 24 cent United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918, in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design is printed upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in philately.
This is a list of philatelic topics.
In philately, a block is a group of four or more un-separated stamps. Blocks are of interest not only because they are rarer than individual stamps, but they also preserve relative positions of stamps as they were originally printed, information that is crucial to understanding how the stamps were produced.
A postage stamp booklet is a booklet made up of one or more small panes of postage stamps in a cardboard cover. Booklets are often made from sheets especially printed for this purpose, with a narrow selvage at one side of the booklet pane for binding. From the cutting, the panes are usually imperforate on the edges of the booklet. Smaller and easier to handle than a whole sheet of stamps, in many countries booklets have become a favored way to purchase stamps.
A plate block is a block of stamps from the edge of the sheet which shows the plate or cylinder from which the stamps were printed.
The postage stamps of Ireland are issued by the postal operator of the independent Irish state. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland when the world's first postage stamps were issued in 1840. These stamps, and all subsequent British issues, were used in Ireland until the new Irish Government assumed power in 1922. Beginning on 17 February 1922, existing British stamps were overprinted with Irish text to provide some definitives until separate Irish issues became available. Following the overprints, a regular series of definitive stamps was produced by the new Department of Posts and Telegraphs, using domestic designs. These definitives were issued on 6 December 1922; the first was a 2d stamp, depicting a map of Ireland. Since then new images, and additional values as needed, have produced nine definitive series of different designs.
In philately, tête-bêche is a joined pair of stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other, produced intentionally or accidentally. Like any pair of stamps, a pair of tête-bêches can be a vertical or a horizontal pair. In the case of a pair of triangular stamps, they cannot help but be linked "head-to-tail".
Definitive postage stamps of Ireland are the regular series of definitive postage stamps issued by the Irish Free State between 1922 and 1937 and by Republic of Ireland since 1937. Nine distinctly different series of designs have been released; additionally the watermark was changed for two issues and the currency was changed on three occasions while the designs remained the same.
The postage stamps and postal history of Israel is a survey of the postage stamps issued by the state of Israel, and its postal history, since independence was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. The first postage stamps were issued two days later on May 16, 1948. Pre-1948 postal history is discussed in postage stamps and postal history of Palestine.
Plating refers to the reconstruction of a pane or "sheet" of postage stamps printed from a single plate by using individual stamps and overlapping strips and blocks of stamps. Likewise, if a sheet 10 or 20 postal cards is typeset, the variations of the letters or design elements may allow reconstruction or plating of the sheets based on these differences.
In philately, a St. Andrew's cross is a saltire or crossed x design that occurs on some philatelic items; on a few sheets of stamps, censor labels and a few British Forces air letter sheets issued during World War II.
A plate number is a number printed in the margin of a sheet or roll of postage stamps, or on the stamp itself, which shows the printing plate used to print the stamps.
A plate number is the serial number of a printing plate. It is printed in the selvage or border of a pane of postage stamps.
Centro de hoja or Center of the sheet is a kind of Cuban postage stamps where there are intersecting gutters between four panes of stamps. The horizontal and vertical blank gutters divide the sheet into quadrants of 25 stamps each. The center four or sixteen stamps on a sheet of 100 stamps are collected similar to how plate blocks of four stamps are collected in the United States. The first centro de hoja were the imperforate Cuban patriots issues of 1926. These had the unique distinctions of being from sheets of 400 rather than 100 and the "gutters" consisted of nothing more than two intersecting lines drawn through the center of the sheet. The last was produced with the three bicentennial of coffee issues of 1952. Some people classify the Christmas issues of 1960 as centros de hoja, but since they have no gutters others call them special format stamps.
Se-tenant stamps or labels are printed from the same plate and sheet and adjoin one another, unsevered in a strip or block. They differ from each other by design, color, denomination or overprint. They may have a continuous design. The word "se-tenant" translates from French as meaning "joined together" or "holding together".
The Washington–Franklin Issues are a series of definitive U.S. Postage stamps depicting George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, issued by the U.S. Post Office between 1908 and 1922. The distinctive feature of this issue is that it employs only two engraved heads set in ovals—Washington and Franklin in full profile—and replicates one or another of these portraits on every stamp denomination in the series. This is a significant departure from previous definitive issues, which had featured pantheons of famous Americans, with each portrait-image confined to a single denomination. At the same time, this break with the recent past represented a return to origins. Washington and Franklin, after all, had appeared on the first two American stamps, issued in 1847, and during the next fifteen years, each of the eight stamp denominations available featured either Washington or Franklin.
The Greek god Hermes, messenger of the Gods in the Greek mythology, is the representation chosen, in 1860, by the Kingdom of Greece to illustrate its first postal stamps.
The Melita issue is a series of dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps issued by the Crown Colony of Malta between 1922 and 1926, depicting the national personification Melita. They were commemorative stamps since they celebrated the islands' new status as a self-governing colony following a new constitution in 1921, but also a definitive issue intended for regular use over an extended period of time.