Sheet of stamps
A sheet of postage stamps, or sheet for short, is the combination of several stamps with the same motif in a table-like system (in the Netherlands the motif can sometimes be different, e.g. for the December stamps ). The spaces between the individual stamps are the same size and leave space for a cut or for perforation .
Size and format
The stamp sheet is the most common type of stamp arrangement today. The number of stamps in a sheet and its format depends on the size and format of the individual stamps. Small-format stamps are usually printed in sheets of 100 stamps, larger-format stamps in sheets of 50 or 25 stamps.
The German Post AG has passed from rationalization to sheetlet on 13 November 1994th The edge of these is specially designed, which also creates a new collection area.
The print sheet
A sheet of postage stamps is actually only a part of the actual print sheet . Postage stamps are usually printed in four connected sheets in order to achieve the best possible use of the printing paper . However, only the printed sheets divided into four parts are sold at the post office counter. This sheet of postage stamps is therefore also known as the counter sheet. On the other hand, the sheets produced for the assembly of stamps are referred to as stamps.
Intermediate webs
The empty fields that connect the individual counter arcs are called intermediate webs. Usually these are cut in half after printing to make four switch sheets . The half empty fields or dividers then form the edge of the sheet. However, of some versions and booklets arches undivided intermediate webs come with attached stamps of the neighboring switch arches / Bookletpanesheets half in the trade (stamp - blank field - stamp). These dividers can either be empty or printed with lines (the edge strips in the stamp booklet ).
The philatelist differentiates between horizontal and vertical dividers . A special feature of the dividers is the heart of the printed sheet, where all four switch sheets are connected. Dividers and frogs are very popular with collectors and achieve high catalog prices , especially for classic issues .
Sweeping prints
Individual switch sheets and stamp booklet sheet sections are printed rotated by 180 ° to one another for better differentiation, whereby these can be located directly next to one another or there is also an intermediate web between the stamps. The philatelist describes the two upside-down stamps as reversing print or as reversing print with a separator.
Postage stamp arrangement and sheet space
The stamps are arranged in the sheets in tabular form in rows and columns. This arrangement allows the sheet space (or sheet field) of a postage to be specified precisely. The philatelist counts the individual stamps in a horizontal direction from left to right, but the mail counts in a vertical direction from top to bottom. The third stamp in the sixth line in a 10 × 10 sheet of stamps would therefore be the 53rd stamp for collectors but the 26th stamp in the sheet for the post office.
The first UK postage stamps are a special feature of the stamp arrangement . These postage stamps, which were printed in 20 lines and 12 columns according to the normal system, had the sheet space indicated on each individual stamp. This resulted in a total of 240 different postage stamps. This should protect against counterfeiting . In the lower corners, and later in all four corners, there were letters for the individual rows and columns. An A in the lower left corner stood for the first row, a B for the second, the C for the third ... the columns were indicated in the lower right corner according to the same principle. The first stamp therefore had the letter combination A - A, the last T - L.
In the post-war period in Germany, stamps were also produced by private printing companies. One example is the 1948 series of components. The Westerman company used the following printing plate structure for the production of printed sheets:
1. A master image was photomechanically copied 10 times and mounted next to each other, thereby creating the primary features (PM).
2. Then the horizontal strip of 10 was copied 10 times and mounted one below the other, so that a 100 film was created. This resulted in the secondary characteristics (SM) in each individual field. The primary features were therefore present on every vertical column (i.e. 10 times).
3. Now the 100 film has been copied at least 5 times. Four of them were assembled like a chessboard to form a 400 sheet in order to get the size of a printed sheet and the fifth was put back as a replacement sheet to replace any faulty individual fields of the 400 sheet. (Foil exchange) Now there were logically 40 identical PMs, four identical SMs and one tertiary characteristic (TM) per field on the 400 foil.
4. Now several printing plates were produced by etching with the 400 film. This created the quaternary characteristics (QM). Any retouching on the 400 film or on the printing plate are also considered QMs.
Sheet edge
The blank spaces attached to the stamps, which are arranged around the sheet of stamps, are referred to as the edge of the sheet. These are often unprinted. In some cases, however, there is a lot of additional information printed on the sheet margins. This includes:
- Edition numbers
- Sheet edge lettering (advertising, information on stamp issue, ...)
- Print data
- House order numbers - HAN
- Register crosses
- Plate numbers
- Edge ridges
- Row value counter
- Totalizer
particularities
Numerous peculiarities occur in sheet-fed printing. The most important are:
