![National Telephone Company 1d stamp sheet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/National_Telephone_Company_1d_stamp_sheet.jpg)
Postage stamp paper is the foundation or
substrate of the postage stamp to which the ink for the stamp's design is applied to one side and the adhesive is applied to the other. The
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
is not only the foundation of the stamp but it has also been incorporated into the stamp's design, has provided security against fraud and has aided in the automation of the postal delivery system.
Stamp catalog
A stamp catalog (or stamp catalogue) is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.
The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting. Stamp catalogs are part of philatelic literature.
Similar catalog ...
s like
Scott's Standard Postage Stamp Catalog (SC) often document the paper the stamp is printed on to describe a stamp's classification. The same stamp design can appear on several kinds of paper.
Stamp collectors and
philatelist
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...
s understand that a stamp's paper not only defines a unique stamp but could also mean the difference between an inexpensive stamp from one that is rare and worth more than its common counterpart.
Making an accurate determination of the stamp's paper may require special tools such as a
micrometer Micrometer can mean:
* Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw
* American spelling of micrometre
The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...
to measure the thickness of a stamp, certain fluid chemicals to reveal hidden features,
magnifying glass
A magnifying glass is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle. A magnifying glass can be used to focus light, such as to concentrate the sun's radiation to crea ...
es or
loupe
A loupe ( ) is a simple, small magnification device used to see small details more closely. They generally have higher magnification than a magnifying glass, and are designed to be held or worn close to the eye. A loupe does not have an attached h ...
s to see fine details,
digital microscope
A digital microscope is a variation of a traditional optical microscope that uses optics and a digital camera to output an image to a video monitor, monitor, sometimes by means of software running on a computer. A digital microscope often has it ...
s to examine the minutest details of the paper or
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
light to illuminate the paper to reveal its ''glowing'' aspects. Certain paper types may require the services of an expert as the only sure way of knowing the true identity of the stamp's paper.
Paper characteristics
All paper is endowed with certain characteristics by its
maker. Depending on the purpose of the paper, the craftsman will choose specific materials and apply certain manufacturing processes to achieve the design objectives. Characteristics such as composition, weight, color, size, watermark, surface finish, opacity, hardness and strength all have to be established before the papermaker can begin his work.
The making of paper can be broken down into three phases; the preparing of the pulp into a suspension of fibers; the forming of the paper on a mould or an endless wire mesh; and lastly the finishing of the paper's surface and drying. From a philatelic interest, it is the second phase, the forming of the paper that yields the most interesting characteristics.
![US 1956 3c Nassau Hall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/US_1956_3c_Nassau_Hall.jpg)
In the first phase of papermaking the characteristics such as its composition, color and weight is determined. Paper has as its chief component, a mat of
cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall ...
fibers. Cellulose is the skeleton structure of plant cells and can be separated from the plant for use in paper. Cellulose has several characteristics that make it desirable for paper, the foremost being its strength when formed into a mat or web. When cellulose fibers come in contact with each other in water, a bond is formed. When water is removed from the adjoining fibers, the bond between the fibers strengthens.
Pulp
Pulp may refer to:
* Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit
Engineering
* Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture
* Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper
* Molded pulp, a packaging material
...
, the collection of individual fibers, may be bleached, especially if the paper is to be dyed a different color or the paper is expected to be white. Since most paper is either printed or written upon,
fillers are added to the pulp to fill the pores of the paper and
sizing
Sizing or size is a substance that is applied to, or incorporated into, other materials—especially papers and textiles—to act as a protective filler or glaze. Sizing is used in papermaking and textile manufacturing to change the absorption ...
is added to make the fibers water resistant, yet both act as fillers. Unsized paper is
blotting paper
Blotting paper, called bibulous paper, is a highly absorbent type of paper or other material. It is used to absorb an excess of liquid substances (such as ink or oil) from the surface of writing paper or objects. Blotting paper referred to as b ...
, making it unsuitable for printing. Fillers and sizing are added to the pulp to absorb the ink quickly, unlike pure cellulose. Fillers can be glues made from animal products, starches from rice or wheat, resins or gums, or minerals such as
calcium carbonate,
titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insolubl ...
or kaolin. Mineral fillers are the most common as they are very effective as a filler. When all of these ingredients are assembled, they are suspended in water, which may include a color dye, as the ''furnish'' to the second phase of papermaking.
The paper is formed in the second stage of papermaking. With handmade paper, the ''furnish'' is stored in a vat and the craftsman uses a mould to strain out enough material to form a sheet of paper. The mould determines the dimensions of the finished sheet and its weight, which ultimately establishes the paper's thickness. The mould is usually a wire mesh that acts as a
strainer
A sieve, fine mesh strainer, or sift, is a device for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet material. T ...
such that the ''furnish'' is separated out of the water. The water drains off, leaving layers upon layers of fibers or a web of paper on the mould. The texture of the paper is determined by the nature of the mould. Wove paper has a uniform texture while laid paper has a fine-lined texture created by wires that are attached to the wire mesh. If a watermark is part of the paper's design, it is the mould that creates the watermark, in the same way that the fine lines of laid paper are created. A watermark is a deliberate thinning of the paper by the placing of either wires or metal shapes, called ''bits'', onto the wire mesh of the mould. When the mould is removed from the vat, the water drains causing the pulp to be deposited more between the wires or ''bits'' relative to the top of the ''bits'' or wires. When the dried paper is held up to a light, the thinner paper will appear lighter in contrast to the thicker paper, thus creating a watermark. Numerous countries have used a variety of designs for their watermarks as a means to prevent forgery of stamps, making the watermark of particular philatelic interest.
In comparison, machine-made paper is made on the
Fourdrinier machine
A paper machine (or paper-making machine) is an industrial machine which is used in the pulp and paper industry
to create paper in large quantities at high speed. Modern paper-making machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machin ...
by drawing the ''furnish'' out of a vat onto an endless wire mesh. The paper, shortly after being drawn from the vat, is usually pressed with a
Dandy roll
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle des ...
as the mechanism to imprint a watermark onto the paper. Machine-made paper can produce single sheets of paper or one large continuous web of paper that is collected to form large rolls.
One characteristic of machine-made paper is that it creates a direction or an alignment of the fibers, which directly impacts its strength. This is of particular importance when tearing the paper, as one would do to separate a stamp for use. When the tear is aligned with the direction of the fibers, the paper will tear evenly. When the tear is opposed to the direction of the fibers, the paper will tear unevenly, in a jagged line. Handmade paper disperses the fibers in unpredictable directions and therefore yields a paper with the most overall strength. A paper's strength had an influence on the separation methods used for a stamp. For example, a stronger paper may have needed a higher number of perforations per inch to best facilitate the separation of the stamps. Similarly, many stamps have two different standards of perforation for its length and width to optimize the ease of separation while minimizing the cost of manufacturing.
In the last stage of papermaking, the paper is finished and dried. The finishing of the paper can include the application of a coating that will produce the best effects when printed upon. The coating is a fine layer of special sizing applied to one or both sides of the paper to fill in all of the pores and to smooth out the surface of the paper. A glossy appearance often is a characteristic of
coated paper
Coated paper (also known as enamel paper, gloss paper, and thin paper) is paper that has been coated by a mixture of materials or a polymer to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness, or reduced ink absor ...
. Once the coating is applied, the paper making process is complete.
Certain postage stamps have been printed on security paper, which is paper that has additional characteristics coated or printed onto the paper to prevent the reuse of the postage stamp and as a means to prevent forgery.
Shrinkage
Shrinkage is a characteristic of paper because of the nature of cellulose fibers. The cellulose fiber is
hygroscopic
Hygroscopy is the phenomenon of attracting and holding water molecules via either absorption or adsorption from the surrounding environment, which is usually at normal or room temperature. If water molecules become suspended among the substance ...
and acts like a sponge when immersed in water. The fibers expand in their width and not in their length. With handmade paper, because there is no direction associated with the fibers, the paper expands and shrinks unevenly in both the length and width of the finished sheet. With machine-made paper, because there is a direction to the fibers, the paper shrinks unevenly, that is, less in its length (in the direction of the fibers) and more in its width (in the direction opposite of the fibers). This characteristic is important to the printer because certain printing techniques required the paper to be dampened prior to printing. As such, when the paper dried, the uneven shrinkage of machine-made paper would produce an image of different proportions than the die that created it. The differences in appearance between wet and dry printed stamps can sometimes be quite noticeable, with dry printed stamps generally having sharper images on stiffer and thicker paper.
Watermarks
Watermark
A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...
s are created in the paper by special pieces of bent wire or ''bits'', either attached to the mould or attached to the Dandy roll of machine-made paper. The watermark is inherently created differently by these two methods. In the case of the mould, the watermark is created by the settling of the fibers on the mould, thus creating the intentional thinning of the paper. In the case of the Dandy Roll, the watermark is pressed into the wet pulp. The papermaker closely adjusts the pressure the Dandy Roll exerts on the paper to ensure a proper impression of the watermark design into the paper. Too little pressure and the watermark may not be detectable.
Philatelically, there are several descriptive terms used to categorize watermarks.
![Watermark crown script CA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Watermark_crown_script_CA.jpg)
:* ''Simple'' – When the entire watermark design can be seen on each individual stamp.
:* ''Multiple'' – When the watermark design can be seen several times on a single stamp or portions of several instances of the design are visible on a single stamp. For example, the watermarked stamps of Great Britain and her colonies.
:* ''Sheet'' – When the watermark design is so large that it covers multiple stamps such that only a portion of the watermark design is on a single stamp. For example, on India's Coat of Arms watermark of 1854
:* ''Paper-makers'' – When the watermark documents the papermaker's name, the trade name of the paper or in some instances the stamp contractor or printer. These are similar to ''sheet'' watermarks. For example, the "Harrison & Sons, London" watermark used for Maldive Islands 1933 issue.
:* ''Stitch'' – The unintentional watermark that is created by the joining of the endless wire mesh belt used in machine-made papermaking.
:* ''Marginal'' – When the watermark design appears in the sheet margins. Examples can be found in the many British Commonwealth issues.
:* ''Pattern'' – When wavy lines, lozenges, diamond mesh and others such that the pattern is repeated evenly over the whole stamp. For example, the lozenges pattern on Germany Empire's 1905-19 issue or circles pattern on the 1920 issue.
:* ''False'' – When the appearance of a watermark is created by lightly printing on the stamp. For example, the quadrille pattern printed on France's 1892 15c issue.
![Watermark Crown CA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Watermark_Crown_CA.jpg)
:Lastly, by way of ''orientation''. These designations describe the orientation of the watermark with respect to the stamp's design.
:::::::* ''Normal'' – When the watermark coincides with the design of the stamp when viewed from the front of the stamp. The watermark will be mirrored when viewed from the back of the stamp.
:::::::* ''Inverted'' – When the watermark is upside down when viewed from the front of the stamp. That is, when the stamp's printed design is right side up and the watermark design is upside down.
:::::::* ''Reversed'' – When the watermark is reversed when viewed from the front of the stamp. The watermark will be un-mirrored when viewed from the back. For example, letter watermarks would not be reversed when viewed from the back of the stamp.
:::::::* ''Inverted and reversed'' – When the watermark is both upside down and reversed when viewed from the front of the stamp.
:::::::* ''Sideways'' – When the watermark is rotated 90° with respect to the stamp's design.
Watermark detection
Watermark detection can be as simple as holding the stamp up to a light or by placing it face down on a black surface. If this does not reveal the watermark there are fluids, electrical devices and ink pads that may reveal the thinning of the paper;
:* A special stamp watermark detecting fluid may be applied to a stamp lying face down in a black plastic tray. As the fluid evaporates the watermark becomes visible and as it does not contain water the fluid may be used on mint stamps without damaging the gum. A drop of
benzine
Petroleum benzine is a hydrocarbon-based solvent mixture that is classified by its physical properties (e.g. boiling point, vapor pressure) rather than a specific chemical composition. This complicates distinction within the long list of petroleu ...
can also be used to coax the watermark out of the paper but care should be observed as the inks of photogravure stamps are soluble in benzine and will ruin the stamp.
:* There are various mains or battery powered devices available in which the stamp is placed on a metal plate and a clear plastic block is pressed down onto it. A light is then switched on to reveal the watermark.
:* With the 'Morley Bright' detector the stamp is placed face down in a unit that contains ink in a sealed sachet that flows into the watermarked area of the stamp under thumb pressure.
:* There are color-filtering techniques that neutralize the color of the stamp's design, thus making it easier to see the watermark. There is a device known as the ''Philatector'' that electronically employs a set of color filters as a means to detect the watermark.
:* If the reverse of a stamp is placed on a black background on a computer scanner and graphics software is used to adjust the color saturation and contrast this may in some cases increase visibility of a watermark.
Flaws and Errors
While the words ''flaws'' and ''errors'' as synonymous, they are used to distinctly describe either a defect in the stamp's paper or when an incorrect paper was used in the printing of the stamp. Flaws describe faults or defects in the paper of the stamp, typical of handling after manufacturing or less frequently during the manufacturing of the paper. Errors describe an incorrect type of paper used to print a stamp, typically the use of watermarked paper when it was not specified for the issue. While a paper fault represents a damaged or defective stamp that devalues its worth, paper errors have the opposite effect and are sought after by collectors.
Flaws
During the manufacturing of paper, flaws can occur in the web. One such flaw is the ''pinhole''. The term is used to designate a small blemish typically characterized by a small hole in the substance of the paper. Pinholes are typical of very thin paper and can be found by holding the stamp up to light.
![Pinholes annotated](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Pinholes_annotated.jpg)
A rare flaw in paper is when the watermark bit has been improperly repaired on the Dandy roll. Great Britain's ''Emblems'' watermark is composed of two roses, one shamrock and one thistle. A defect was created when the Dandy roll was repaired and instead of a thistle bit, a rose bit was added creating the ''three roses and a shamrock'' flaw. This flaw is found on Great Britain's 1862 3d (plate 2), 1865-67 3 d (plate 4), 6 d (plates 5 and 6), 9d (plate 4) and 1s (plate 4).
Another paper flaw is a ''crease''. A crease is when the paper becomes an overlapped fold, which subsequently is printed upon. This kind of crease is more of a printing error as it is a paper flaw. Creased stamps can also occur as a result of handling, where it's clear that the stamp has been folded.
![Mexico 1897-98 4c used paper fold Sc271b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Mexico_1897-98_4c_used_paper_fold_Sc271b.jpg)
Another common handling flaw is a ''tear''. The torn stamp is usually complete but the paper is partially ripped. Tearing a piece off of the stamp, however, is how the Afghan postal clerk cancelled a stamp and so this is not a flaw but evidence that the stamp was probably postally used, especially if the stamp is still on the postal matter.
A stamp can be damaged if it is soaked off of a water-soluble colored paper. For numerous occasions, people send greeting cards in envelopes that are on colored paper. The worst offender is the red envelope. If warm water is used in soaking the stamp from the paper of the envelope, the red dye can and does bleed into the stamp's paper, leaving it tinted red. This is not a stamp variety but simply a damaged stamp. Yellow and blue dyes in colored paper bleed into a stamps too.
A ''thin'' is created when a stamp is improperly removed from the paper it was attached. Since paper is created by depositing layers of fibers onto each other to form a web, they can be separated by the layers too. When the paper is finished, the outside layers become the strongest layers. Soaking a stamp in water is the usual way of removing it from the postal matter. Water will dissolve the glue used as the adhesive but it also weakens the bonds of the paper's fibers. Just as the removal of water strengthens the bonding between fibers, adding water weakens them. A failed attempt at removing the stamp from other paper typically results in portion of the stamp's paper being left attached to the postal matter. ''Thins'' can be created in a variety of ways and all result in a damaged stamp.
Errors
Errors of paper are created when the incorrect paper is used for the stamp's design rather than a papermaking defect. One example of this is when the watermarked paper intended for use with U.S. revenue stamps was used for the $1 Woodrow Wilson stamp (SC#832). The mistake was made sometime between 1950 and 1951 and some 160,000 to 400,000 copies are estimated to have been printed.
[Roland E. Rustad, ''The Prexies'' 1994 page 316 ]
Comparative paper terms
When the paper of the stamp is described, stamp catalogs often use words that are relative, such as ''thick'' and ''thin''. This is done to describe the variations of the stamp's paper in a particular issue. Thick may be as much as 0.005 inches and thin as little as 0.001 inches, with medium somewhere in between.
Paper can described as being ''opaque'', ''semi-translucent'' and ''semi-transparent''. The
opacity of the stamp describes the ability of light to shine through the paper. If no light shines through the paper, then it is opaque. If some light passes through, in any amount, the paper is semi-translucent.
Transparency describes the ability to see an object through the paper or when the paper is placed over printed letters the ability to see the printing through the paper. If the stamp's design can be seen through the back of the stamp, then it is semi-transparent.
Another comparative set of terms refers to the paper's hardness. ''Hard'', ''stout hard'', and ''soft'' have been used to describe the paper. Experts have described the ''snap'' of the stamp when ''flicked'' as a means to determine if the stamp was printed on hard or soft paper. A sharper snap implied hard paper because the hardness is a characteristic of the amount or kind of
sizing
Sizing or size is a substance that is applied to, or incorporated into, other materials—especially papers and textiles—to act as a protective filler or glaze. Sizing is used in papermaking and textile manufacturing to change the absorption ...
used when making the paper.
''Porous'' paper is used to describe paper as absorbent, usually in contrast to less absorbent paper used in the stamps of the same country.
Porosity
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...
is a characteristic of paper. Wood fibers are
hydrophilic
A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.
In contrast, hydrophobes are no ...
or water loving. Sizing is added to paper to create a resistance to water as well as to fill in the gaps between the fibers. Porosity is a measure of how the paper responds to a liquid.
There are several popular stamp collecting terms. ''On-paper'' refers to any stamp that is still adhering to another piece of paper. Similarly, ''off-paper'' is used to describe a postally used stamp that is no longer adhering to any other kind of paper. ''Wallpaper'' is the slang name given to the sheets of stamps that have little or no philatelic or monetary value.
Stamp paper varieties
Philatelically, stamp paper can be partitioned into a few large groups. The first that is typically encountered in the stamp catalogs describes the
texture
Texture may refer to:
Science and technology
* Surface texture, the texture means smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object
* Texture (roads), road surface characteristics with waves shorter than road roughness
* Texture (c ...
of the paper, such as wove or laid. Many stamps have been printed with these different paper textures. Other groups can be formed as: Colored paper, safety or
security paper
Security paper is a paper used in security printing that incorporates features that can be used to identify or authenticate a document as original, e.g., watermarks or invisible fibres in paper, or features that demonstrate tamper evidence when f ...
and coated paper.
In a stamp catalog, a stamp's paper is usually identified at the beginning of the issue. It will also be identified when the paper changes either within the issue or with the next issue. When colored paper is used for the stamp, the ink colors are listed first and then the paper's color is listed next in ''italics''. Sometimes the paper is described as ''ordinary'', which simply means that the common paper of the period was used. Coated paper is usually not listed but may be surmised by the printing process used to print the stamp. For example,
photogravure
Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...
printing yields the best clarity when printed on coated papers.
Security paper gallery
Examples of different security paper used on postage stamps.
Notes and references
Citations
Books
* ''Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps'', 2003, 6th Edition Krause - Minkus
* Stephen R Datz, ''Official Stamp Collector's Bible'' 2003
* Rodney A Juell and Steven J Rod, ''Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting'' 2006
* Josep Asunción, ''The Complete Book of Papermaking'' (Lark Books, 2001)
* Arnold Grummer, ''Complete Guide to Easy Papermaking'' (Krause Publications, 1999)
Websites
''How a Postage Stamp is Made''Calvet M Hahn, ''The Topic is Paper'' 2002
Further reading
* Earland, Christopher. ''Studies of Stamp Printing Papers: Incorporating coloured threads or fibres''. London: The Author, 1990
* Huska, Andrew. ''The Stamp Collectors' Guide to Paper Used for Postage Stamps: illustrated with actual stamps or paper''. Philadelphia: Andrew Huska, 1938 32p.
* Repeta, Louis E. ''Watermarks In Postage Stamp Paper: a comprehensive look at a key stamp element''. Reprinted in 1999 from ''
The American Philatelist
''The American Philatelist'', published by the American Philatelic Society, is one of the world's oldest philatelic magazines still in operation; its first issue having appeared in January 1887.
The magazine is published monthly for members of t ...
'' (February 1987). 27p.
{{Paper
Paper
Watermarking
Stamp collecting
Postage stamps