This glossary defines those terms most frequently encountered by stamp collectors and cover collectors. Precise definitions for many philatelic terms do not exist. One collector, dealer or society may define a term in one way, while others will use the term in a slightly different way.
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Ghost Tagging -- The appearance of a light impression in addition to the normal inked stamp impression. This is caused by misregistration of the phosphor tagging in relation to the ink. Sometimes, a plate number impression will have an entirely different number from the ink plate, giving the impression of an error:one dark(normal) number and one light(ghost) number.
Goldbeater's Skin -- A thin, tough, translucent paper. The 1886 issue of Prussia was printed in reverse on Goldbeater's Skin, with the gum applied over the printing. These stamps were brittle and were virtually impossible to remove from the paper to which they were affixed.
Granite Paper -- A paper with small colored fibers added when the paper is made. This paper is used as a deterrent against forgery.
Gravure -- The process of creating an intaglio printing plate by photographic and chemical means, rather than by hand engraving. See also Intaglio. Grill -- A pattern of parallel lines (or dots at the points where lines would cross) forming a grid. A grill is usually: 1) the impressed breaks added to stamps as a security measure (United States issues of 1867-71 and Peru issues of 1874-79); or 2) a grill-like canceling device used on various 19th-century issues.
Gum -- The mucilage applied to the backs of adhesive postage stamps, revenue stamps or envelope flaps. Gum is a concern of stamp collectors. It may crack and harm the paper of the stamp itself. It may stain or adhere to other stamps or album pages under certain climatic conditions. Many collectors are willing to pay extra for 19th- and some 20th-century stamps with intact, undisturbed original gum.
Gutter -- The selvage, either unprinted or with plate numbers, advertising or accounting or control numbers, between the panes of a sheet of stamps.
Gutter Snipe -- One or more stamps to which is attached the full gutter from between panes, plus any amount of an adjoining stamp or stamps. This term is typically used in reference to U.S. stamps. Gutter snipes are freaks caused by misregistration of the cutting device and paper foldover.
Handstamp -- Cancellation or overprint applied by hand to a cover or to an adhesive.
Highway Post Office (HPO) -- Portable mail-handling equipment for sorting mail in transit on highways (normally by truck). The last official U.S. HPO ran June 30, 1974.
Hinge -- Stamp hinges are small, rectangular-shaped pieces of paper, usually gummed on one side, used in the mounting of stamps. Most modern hinges are peelable. Once dry, they may be easily removed from the stamp, leaving little trace of having been applied.
Imperforate -- Refers to stamps without perforations or rouletting between the individual stamps in a pane. The earliest stamps were imperforate, but after about 1860, most stamps were perforated. Modern imperforates are usually errors or are produced specifically for sale to stamp collectors.
Impression -- Any stamped or embossed printing.
Imprimatur -- Latin for "let it be printed." The first sheets of stamps from an approved plate, normally checked and retained in a file, prior to a final directive to begin stamp production from a plate.
India Paper -- A thin, tough opaque printing paper of high quality, used primarily for striking die proofs.
Indicium-- The imprint on postal stationery, as opposed to an adhesive stamp, indicating prepayment and postal validity. Plural: indicia.
Intaglio -- Italian for "in recess." A form of printing in which the inked image is produced by that portion of the plate sunk below the surface. Line engraving and gravure are forms of intaglio printing.
International Reply Coupon (IRC) -- Coupons issued by members of the Universal Postal Union to provide for return postage from recipients in foreign countries. IRCs are exchangeable for postage at a post office.
Invert -- The term generally used to describe any error where one portion of the design is inverted in relation to the other portion(s).
Keytype -- A basic design utilized for the issues of two or more postal entities, usually differing in the country name and inscription of value. Many of the earlier colonial issues of Britain, France, Spain, Germany and Portugal are keytypes.
Kiloware -- A stamp mixture, consisting of miscellaneous stamps on envelope corner paper from various sources. Kiloware is often sold by the kilogram (about 2.2 pounds).
Label -- Any stamp-like adhesive that is not a postage stamp or revenue stamp.
Laid Paper -- One of the two basic types of paper used in stamp printing. Laid paper is distinguished from the other type -- wove paper -- by the presence of thin, parallel lines visible when the paper is held to light. The lines are usually a few millimeters apart. See also Batonne.
Letterpress -- Printing done directly from the inked, raised surface of the printing plate.
Line Engraving -- Printing done from an intaglio plate produced from a hand-engraved die and transfer roller rather than by photographic or chemical means. See also Gravure.
Line Pair -- A line between a pair of coil stamps. Stamps produced on a flatbed press have a line -- from the guideline between panes. Stamps produced on a rotary press have a joint line -- from the space where ink collects between the sections of curved rotary plates.
Lithography -- Printing from a flat surface with a design area that is ink-receptive. The area that is not to print is ink-repellant. The process is based on the principle that an oil-based design surface will attract oily ink.
Locals -- Stamps valid within a limited area or within a limited postal system. Local post mail requires the addition of nationally or internationally valid stamps for further service. Locals have been produced both privately and officially.
Mail Early Block (ME block) -- U.S. marginal marking block with the marginal selvage bearing the inscription "Mail Early (in the Day)." This first appeared on U.S. marginal selvage in 1968. It was subsequently replaced by the Copyright notice. Typically a block of four or six stamps.
Marcophily -- Postmark collecting.
Margin -- 1) the selvage surrounding the stamps in a sheet, often carrying inscriptions of various kinds; or 2) the unprinted area between stamps in a sheet or what is left after stamps are separated. The collectible grades of stamps are determined by the position of the design in relation to the edge of the stamp as perforated or, in the case of imperforate stamps, as cut from the sheet.
Maximaphily -- Maximum card collecting.
Maximum Card -- A picture postcard, a cancel, and a stamp presenting maximum concordance. The stamp is usually affixed to the picture side of the card and is tied by the cancel. Collectors of maximum cards seek to find or seek to create cards with stamp, cancel and picture in maximum agreement, or concordance. The statutes of the International Federation of Philately (FIP) give specific explanatory notes for the postage stamp, the picture postcard, the cancel, concordance of subject, concordance of place and concordance of time. (See Exhibiting chapter.)
Meter -- Government permit of specified face value applied as a prepaid postmark in lieu of stamps.
Metered Mail -- Mail franked by a postage meter, a device that automatically imprints the proper postal rate with a distinctive imprint in the upper right-hand area of the envelope. Meters were authorized by the UPU in 1920. They are used today by volume mailers to cut the cost of franking mail.
Miniature Sheet -- A smaller-than-normal pane of stamps issued only in that form or in addition to full panes. A miniature sheet is usually without marginal markings or text saying that the sheet was issued in conjuction with or to commemorate some event. See also Souvenir Sheet.
Mint -- A stamp in the same state as issued by a post office: unused, undamaged and with full original gum (if so issued with gum). Over time, handling, light and atmospheric conditions affect the mint state of stamps.
Mirror Image -- Negative or reverse impression. An offset.
Mission Mixture -- The lowest grade of stamp mixture, containing unsorted but primarily common, stamps on paper, as purchased from missions or other institutions. See also Bank Mixture.
Missionaries -- The first stamps of Hawaii, issued in 1851-52. They are among the great classics of philately.
Mixed Perforation -- See Compound Perforation and Syncopated Perforation.
Mixed Postage -- Refers to a cover bearing the stamps of two or more stamp-issuing entities, properly used.
Mixture -- A large group of stamps, understood to contain duplication. A mixture is said to be unpicked or picked. A picked mixture may have been previously gone through by a collector or dealer.
Mobile Post Office (MPO) -- Portable mail-handling equipment and personnel, generally in railroad cars, trucks, streetcars or buses.
Money, Stamps As -- During periods of coin shortage, stamps have circulated officially as small change. Often, stamps used in this way are printed on thin card stock, enclosed in cases of various kinds or affixed to cards. See Encased Postage Stamps.
Mounts (Stamp) -- Acetate holders, clear on the front and with some sort of adhesive on the back. Mounts hold stamps with pressure and are affixed to an album page. Collectors use mounts to mount stamps or covers.
Multicolor -- More than two colors.
Multiple -- An unseparated unit of stamps including at least two stamps, but fewer than the number included in a full pane.
Native Paper -- Crude, handmade paper produced locally, as opposed to finer, machine-made paper.
Never Hinged (NH) -- A stamp without hinge marks. Usually a never-hinged stamp has original gum, but this is not always the case.
New Issue Service -- A dealer service that automatically supplies subscribers with new issues of a given country, area or topic. Issues provided are determined by a pre-arranged standing order defining the quantity and types of issues.
Newspaper Stamps -- Stamps issued specifically for prepayment of mailing rates for newspapers, periodicals and printed matter.
Obliteration -- 1) A cancellation intended solely to deface a stamp. Also called a killer; 2) An overprint intended to deface a portion of the design of a stamp, like the face of a deposed ruler.
Obsolete -- A stamp no longer available from post offices, although possibly still postally valid.
Occupation Issue -- An issue released for use in territory occupied by a foreign power.
Off-Center -- A stamp design is not centered in relation to the edges of the stamp. Generally, off-center stamps are less desirable than stamps more nearly centered in relation to the edges. Some collectors specialize in collecting stamps that are extremely off-center.
Offices Abroad -- At various times, many nations have maintained post offices in other countries, usually because of the unreliability of the local postal system. In China and the Turkish Empire, especially, many foreign nations maintained their own postal systems as part of their extraterritorial powers. Usually, special stationery and stamps were used for these offices. Most often they were overprints on the regular issues of the nations maintaining the offices.
Official -- Stamp or stationery issued solely for the use of government departments and officials. Such items may or may not be available to collectors in unused condition from a post office.
Offset -- 1) A printing process that transfers an inked image from a plate to a roller. The roller than applies the ink to paper; 2) The transfer of part of a stamp design or an overprint from one sheet to the back of another, before the ink has dried (also called set off). Such impressions are in reverse. They are different than stamps printed on both sides.
OHMS -- Abbreviation for On His (Her) Majesty's Service. Used in perfins, overprints or franks to indicate official use in the British Commonwealth.
Omnibus Issue -- An issue released by several postal entities celebrating a common theme. Omnibus issues may or may not share a keytype design.
On Paper -- Stamps on paper, usually used stamps, that still bear portions of the original envelope or wrapper upon which they were used.
On Piece -- A stamp on a portion of the original envelope or wrapper showing all or most of the cancel.
Original Gum (OG) -- The adhesive coating on a mint or unused stamp or envelope flap applied by a postal authority or security printer, usually before the item was issued. Upon request of stamp collectors, postal authorities have at some times offered to add gum to items first issued ungummed.
Overprint -- Any printing over the original design of a stamp. An overprint that changes the value of a stamp is also called a surcharge.
Oxidation -- Darkening of the ink on certain stamps caused by contact with air or light. Some inks used in printing stamps, especially oranges, may in time turn brown or black.
Packet -- 1) A pre-sorted unit of all different stamps, a common and economical way to begin a general collection; 2) a ship operating on a regular schedule and contracted by a government or post office to carry mail.
Packet Letter -- A letter carried by a ship operating on a regular schedule and carrying mail by contract with a government or a post office.
Pair -- Two unseparated stamps.
Pane -- The unit into which a full sheet is divided before sale at post offices. The "sheets" that one normally sees at post offices are panes. Most United States full sheets are divided into four regular panes or many more booklet panes before they are shipped to post offices.
Paquebot -- Cancellation indicating an item was mailed aboard a ship.
Par Avion -- French for "By Air."
Parcel Post Stamps -- Special stamps for payment of parcel post fees.
Part-Perforate -- A stamp imperforate on one or more sides, but with at least one side perforated.
Paste-Up -- The area where the ends of rolls of coiled stamps are joined with glue or tape.
Pelure Paper -- A strong, thin paper occasionally used in stamp printing. Pelure paper is translucent and resembles a slightly dark, thin onion-skin paper.
Pen-Canceled -- Stamps canceled with a pen rather than a handstamp or machine cancel. Many early stamps were routinely canceled by pen. A pen cancel may also indicate that a stamp was used as a fiscal.
Penny Black -- The black 1-penny British stamp issued May 6, 1840, bearing the portrait of Queen Victoria. It is the world's first adhesive postage stamp issued for the prepayment of postage.
Perfins -- Stamps punched with "perforated initials" or designs of holes that stand for letters, numbers or symbols. Perfins are normally used by a business or government office to discourage pilferage or misuse of stamps by employees. Perfins may be either privately or officially produced.
Perforation -- The punching out of holes between stamps to make separation easy. 1) Comb perforation -- Three sides of a stamp are perfed at once, with the process repeated in rows; 2) Harrow perforation -- The entire sheet or unit of stamps is perforated in one operation; 3) Line perforation -- Holes are punched one row at a time. Line perforations are distinguished by the uneven crossing of perforation lines and irregular corners. Comb and harrow perforations usually show alignment of holes at the corners. Some forms of perforation may be difficult to distinguish.
Perforation Gauge -- A scale printed or designed on metal, plastic or cardboard to measure the number of perf holes or teeth within two centimeters.
Permit -- Procedure used by businesses or post offices that imprints mailer's assigned permit number and an indication of the prepaid postage on each piece of mail. This eliminates the need to affix and cancel stamps on large mailings. The machine counts the postage used and is read periodically for accounting.
Phantasy -- A bogus stamp.
Phantom Philately -- The collection of bogus stamps. The name is derived from Frederick Melville's book Phantom Philately, one of the pioneer works on bogus issues.
Philatelic Cover -- An envelope or postal card franked and mailed by a stamp collector to create a collectible object. It may or may not have carried a personal or business message. A non-philatelic cover is usually one that has carried business or personal correspondence or messages and has had its stamps applied by a non-collector. Some stamps are known only on collector-created covers. It is impossible to say whether some covers are philatelically inspired or not. See also Used and Postally Used.
Philately -- The collection and study of postage stamps and postal stationery.
Phosphor -- A chemical substance used in stamp production to activate machines that automatically cancel mail. The machines react to the phosphor under ultraviolet light. In 1959, Great Britain began to print phosphor lines on some of its stamps. See also Tagging.
Photogravure -- A modern stamp-printing process. Plates are made photographically and chemically, rather than by hand engraving a die and transferring it to a plate. Photogravure is a form of intaglio printing. The ink in this process rests in the design depressions. The actual surface of the printing plate is wiped clean. The paper is forced into the depressions and picks up the ink, in a manner much like the line-engraved process.
Pictorial -- Stamp bearing a picture of some sort, other than a portrait or coat of arms.
Plate -- The basic printing unit placed on a press and used to produce stamps. Early stamps were printed from flat plates. Later curved or cylindrical plates were used. See also Cylinder and Sleeve.
Plate Block, Plate Number Block -- A block of stamps from the corner or side of a pane including the selvage bearing the number(s) of the plate(s) used to print the sheet from which the pane was separated. Some stamp production methods, like booklet production, normally cut off plate numbers. In the United States, plate number blocks are collected normally as blocks of four to 20 stamps, depending on the press used to print the stamps. When each stamp in a pane is a different design, the plate block is usually collected as an entire pane.
Plating -- The reconstruction of a stamp pane by collecting blocks and individual stamps representing various positions. This is possible for many older issues, but most modern issues are too uniform to make the identification of individual positions possible.
Plebiscite Issue -- A stamp issue promoting a popular vote. After World War I, a number of disputed areas were placed under temporary League of Nations administration, pending plebiscites to determine which nation the populace wished to join. Special issues note the upcoming vote in several of these areas, among them Allenstein, Carinthia, Eastern Silesia, Marienwerder, Schleswig and Upper Silesia.
PNC -- 1) A plate number coil stamp; 2) A philatelic-numismatic combination: a cover bearing a stamp and containing a coin, medal or token. In the latter, the coin and stamp are usually related. Often the cover is canceled on the first day of use of the coin.
Pneumatic Post -- Letter distribution through pressurized air tubes. Pneumatic posts existed in many large cities in Europe, and special stamps and stationery were produced for the services.
Postage Dues -- Stamps or markings indicating that insufficient postage has been affixed to the mailing piece. Postage dues are usually affixed at the office of delivery. The additional postage is collected from the addressee.
Postcard -- A small card, usually with a picture on one side and a space for a written message on the other. Postcards have no imprinted stamp. See also Postal Card.
Postal Card -- A government-produced postcard bearing an imprint in the upper right corner representing prepayment of postage.
Postal Fiscal -- Revenue or fiscal stamps used postally.
Postal History -- 1) The study of postal markings, rates and routes; 2) Anything to do with the history of the posts.
Postal Stationery -- Stationery bearing imprinted stamps, as opposed to adhesive stamps. Postal stationery includes postal cards, lettercards, imprinted envelopes, wrappers, aerogrammes, telegraph cards, postal savings forms and similar government-produced items. Some early postcards had no imprinted stamp. These formular cards were sold with or without an added adhesive stamp.
Postally Used -- A stamp or cover that has seen legitimate postal use, as opposed to one that has been canceled to order or favor-canceled. Postally used suggests that an item exists because it was used to carry a personal or business communication, without the sender thinking of creating an item to be collected.
Postmark -- Any official postal marking. The term is usually used specifically in reference to cancellations bearing the name of a post office of origin and a mailing date.
Precancel -- Stamp with a special cancellation, overprint or text allowing it to bypass normal canceling. The indication of stamps being precancels is applied by a post office before the stamps are sold. Precanceled stamps are used by volume mailers who hold a permit to use them. U.S. precancels fall into two categories: 1) Locals have the mark or text applied by a town or city post office; and 2) Bureaus have the mark or text applied by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Pre-stamp Covers -- Folded letters or their outer enclosures used before the introduction of adhesive postage stamps or postal stationery.
Prexies -- The nickname for the U.S. 1938-54 Presidential definitive series, Scott 803-34, 839-51.
Printer's Waste -- Misprinted, misperforated or misgummed stamps designated as waste. The stampsnormally are destroyed. Such material enters the philatelic market through carelessness and theft. Security printing operations often were lax near the end of a war or just after a war had ended.
Printing -- The process of imprinting designs on paper from an inked surface.
Pro Juventute -- Latin, meaning for the benefit of youth. Switzerland has issued Pro Juventute semipostals nearly every year since 1913.
Proofs -- Trial impressions from a die or printing plate before actual stamp production. Proofs are made to examine a die or plate for defects and to compare the results of different inks.
Provisional -- A temporary postage stamp, issued to meet postal demands until new or regular stocks of stamps can be obtained.