Postage stamp
The postage stamp, also known as a stamp (postage) , stamp , stamp (postage) or stamp (postal), is proof of prior payment for shipments made by mail in the form of a label, generally gummed or directly printed. The seal is a small piece of paper whose most common shape is rectangular or square, which is stuck on an envelope, and which indicates that the person who made the shipment paid for the service.
Postal art often uses this medium and this format for its dissemination, creating false postage stamps of all kinds.
Variable value stamps or ATM are those printed and distributed through machines. These print the postage value desired by the user on a special paper, and the resulting stamp or stamp can be used for postage as a stamp 'traditional'.
History
The issuance of the first postage stamp is part of a profound reform of the British postal service undertaken by James Chalmers (1834) and Rowland Hill (1837). Until then, the shipment was paid by the recipient based on the kilometers traveled and not by its weight. Hill proposed that shipping be paid by the shipper at a flat rate based on weight rather than mileage.
According to legend, in the year 1835 the English professor Rowland Hill, who was traveling through Scotland, prepared to rest in an inn. While he was warming himself in the fireplace, he watched as the local postman entered the house and delivered a letter to the innkeeper. She took the letter in her hands, examined it attentively, and returned it to the postman claiming:
As we are poor enough we cannot pay the amount of the letter, so I beg you to return it to the sender.
Upon hearing that, an impulse of generosity arose in Hill's heart and moved by that impulse he offered the postman the amount of the letter, because he did not want the good woman to be left without knowing the news that he received for lack of money. could arrive in said letter. The postman collected the half crown that it cost, and delivered the letter to the innkeeper, then left to continue his journey.
The innkeeper picked up the letter and placed it on a table without caring at all about its contents. Then she turned to the generous guest and said kindly:
Sir, I really appreciate the detail you had to pay for the letter. I'm poor, but not so much so I can't afford that cost. If I didn't, it was because inside there's nothing written, just the address. My family lives a long distance and to know that we are well write letters, but beware that each line of the address is written by different hand. If everyone's handwriting appears, it means everyone's fine. Once we have examined the address of the letter we will return it to the mailman saying that we cannot pay it and so we have news of each other without a penny.
This anecdote, with various variants, has been narrated and written in different media, such as in the French magazine Lectures pour tous. It was also written in the Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIX Siècle, by Pierre Larousse, in the Parisian edition of 1874. In Spain the Espasa Encyclopedia also reproduces it, giving a version in the one in which the owner appears truly unable to pay the amount of the letter due to her extreme poverty. However, Eugène Vaillé in his Histoire du Timbre-Poste 1947 affirms that this anecdote has been denied by Hill himself in his Memoirs. It is illustrative, however, of one of the problems that the Post Office reform attempted to address with remarkable success.
Hill reportedly wrote a pamphlet proposing pre-postage for mail. Hill's pamphlet, entitled Post Office Reform, resulted in the appointment of a House of Commons committee (November 22, 1837) "charged with studying the types and systems of postage". This committee reported favorably on Rowland Hill's proposal and in 1839 an order was issued authorizing the Treasury to fix the rates of postage and to regulate the manner of receiving its advance amount. Stamped envelopes (the first with a value of 1 and 2 pence) and adhesive stamps would be issued by the Government. The engraving of the seals was commissioned by Perkins, Bacon and Petch, based on drawings by Hill. It was decreed that the stamps would be put into circulation on May 6, 1840.
This is how the world's first postage stamp was born: the famous Penny Black of Queen Victoria. Hill drew Queen Victoria's profile there, the word Postage at the top and One Penny at the bottom. He omitted the name of the country because he understood that the image of the queen was enough to identify it. On May 8 of the same year, the 2 pence was put up for sale, in blue. The new postal system had amazing results, so much so that the number of letters tripled in one week. On the first day of sale to the public alone, 60,000 copies of these stamps were sold. In view of all this, Rowland Hill was appointed Postmaster of the United Kingdom, and devoted the rest of his life to making extensions and improvements to the postal services. The new system found rapid acceptance in other countries and within a few years it was already generalized internationally.
The Universal Postal Union establishes that stamps that circulate internationally must appear the name of the issuing country in Latin alphabet. The United Kingdom is exempt from this obligation as it is the first country to issue stamps.
Collectors
Stamps are now collected all over the world by both adults and children. This hobby can be cheap and fun, but when done more formally it can be quite expensive, as serious collectors tend to look for rare and hard-to-find stamps. This hobby is known as philately.
Issuance process
The process for issuing a postage stamp is complex. The postal administration usually receives hundreds of suggestions from individuals and associations for design. Once the series to be broadcast has been decided, various artists are commissioned to produce the designs, usually four times larger than the final size. Once the design is chosen, the necessary modifications are made and it is photographically reduced to the correct size.
Print methods
- Huecograbado: The design is engraved on a printing plate, which then comes in, leaving the ink in the hollows of the plate. Then the paper is placed up and pressed to print the design on the paper. The design can present a slight relief to the touch.
- Type: The ink is applied to the relief parts of the printing plate and when the contact occurs, the design is transferred to the paper. Sometimes a slight relief appears on the back of the seal and others the ink overwhelms a little on the limits of the drawing.
- Lithography: The printing plate is completely smooth and to transfer the design to the printing surface a special fat ink is applied. The plate is then moistened and printed ink is applied that is glued to the surface fat parts. There is also the ophset variant with a slightly more complicated process and is being imposed on the philatelic printing.
- Photogravure: Modern version of the hole gravure in which a photo negative is used that breaks down into a plot of dots and is recorded to the acid on a copper cylinder, which is ink.
- Stamping or skeletoning: Combination of the gravure and typography. The paper is printed between two plates, one with the design in relief and another in hollow. Very expensive process that is only currently used to print stamps directly on envelopes, although it was more used in the nineteenth century.
Shape and materials
Although most stamps are rectangular, in 1847 Great Britain already issued the first with another shape, specifically octagonal. However, since it was not perforated, it was often cut in the shape of a square. In 1853 the British Cape Colony issued the first triangular stamp. Sierra Leone issued stamps in the shapes of animals, fruits, and maps.
Stamp characteristics
- Country: All seals bear the nationality printed; except those of Great Britain, which in its place appears the image of Queen Victoria's bust in its first stripes and later of the monarch that governs the United Kingdom.
- Dental: It is very important that the seal be perfect with all your teeth.
- Margins and centered: a stamp must have the well-centered and equidistant image of the edges.
- Imprint: They usually wear the designer's name and the year of issue.
- Image: It's the reason for the seal, the one that leads the amateur to collect it.
- Facial value: the value of the franking.
- Color, paper and filigree: there are a variety of colors, papers and filigrees that make a stamp that It seems Just like another, it's actually different.
- Format and dimensions: there are squares, rounds, elongated, triangular, etc.
- Overload and envelopes: greater value added generally for charitable reasons or in air mailbox.
Errors
During the printing process, errors and failures can occur despite the checks that are carried out in the issuance centers, to destroy the copies with failures.
Small defects, which do not increase the value of a stamp, allow collecting varieties of a stamp that are produced by erosions on the plate, blots in the ink, appearances of a line or white spot, etc.
Other types of errors are more valuable: missing or mistaken color or those with the center inverted. There are also errors in the perforation and in the toothing.
Design errors do not occur during printing. This is an error that occurs in a previous process and affects the entire stamp run: spelling mistakes, design error. Sometimes this results in the issue being withdrawn to correct the error, although sometimes some stamps do manage to reach the public and are very valuable.
Overprinting or overloading
An overprint is any inscription or design added to the original image of a stamp. There are multiple reasons for overburdening stamps: a country gaining postal independence overburdens the stamps of the former colonial power with the name of the new state; also when the form of government, name or currency changes. Another reason is to convert a stamp into a special issue, for security.
When the overprint is made because postage rates have changed, it is called a surcharge. In each issue it is common for a certain number of stamps to be invalidated for postal purposes and are used as a sample of the issue with the specimen overload or other similar. It is called 'enablement' when the overprint authorizes a use other than the original one, such as fiscal ones authorized for mail, regular ones for airmail and many more examples.
Large companies sometimes perforate the seals to prevent theft by their employees. These are known as perforated stamps.
Forgeries and stamps repaired
A stamp can be forged to be used as postage. This type of counterfeiting is known as fake postage, or to deceive collectors, in the case of valuable stamps, which in this case is called fake philatelic. Two of the best-known forgers were François Fournier and Jean de Sperati.
There are also other less common types of forgeries, such as those of a propaganda type. One such example is the forgery of British stamps by the Germans during World War II to include the Star of David on the king's crown.
A stamp can be repaired in many ways: erasure of the postmark is a very common type of fraud, either with the intention of reusing it in the mail or to sell it to a collector as if it were new. A stamp can also be re-gummed to make it look like new, alter colors, or add or remove teeth. The torn stamps are soaked and carefully flattened so that the paper fibers bond on the surface for some time.
To prevent counterfeiting and fraud, postal authorities establish security measures on stamps. It can be about the complication in the design, the inclusion of watermarks or the use of watermarks on the paper. To prevent erasure of the postmarks, non-permanent inks that run when the stamp is placed in water or varnish coatings were used.
A facsimile stamp, on the other hand, is an exact copy of a valuable stamp that is sold as a copy and not as a postage stamp. It usually carries a mark to verify that it is not a legitimate copy. Deleting that mark is also a fraud. Philatelic experts issue philatelic certificates of authenticity after examining the piece to prove that a stamp is authentic, which is convenient when a stamp is valuable.
Reverse
The back of the stamps is the part that is attached to the envelope for mailing. The common thing is that it goes without printing, but there are cases in which there is printing: a control number or some information about the reason for the stamp. Most of the stamps have gumming on the back, with a wide variety of colors and shapes, even attempts were made with invisible gum (which turned out to be ineffective) or gumming protected by a strip of paper.
To collect the stamps, a hinge or a seal holder can be attached to the back to fix them to the album pages (practice not recommended for new stamps and doubtful for used ones).
The back of the stamp is used by the philatelic expert to affix his signature when certifying the authenticity of a stamp. In that case they are called 'marquillados'.
Cinderellas
Stamps that were not issued by an official postal administration (those recognized by the Universal Postal Union) are called ashens and may be issued by private companies or local authorities that perform a postal service. Another variety of Cinderellas are ghost stamps: issued in non-existent places like micronations and patriotic labels (see non-existent states on postage stamps), Christmas stamps issued by charitable postal services, etc.
Policies or tax stamps are stamps issued by governments to collect savings, taxes and fees and are not postage stamps.
Some charities, such as the Red Cross, in some countries have issued stamp strips to collect donations.
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