Reprints - stamps printed from the plates after official issues have ceased, for official files, as philatelic curiosities, as official souvenirs, or for sale to meet collector demand.
Official reprints are produced when the postal authorities print more stamps from the original plates or from new plates made from the original dies.
Official reprints of stamps that are no longer valid for postage are usually produced by governments to meet a philatelic demand. Scott numbers 3 and 4 of the United States were produced in this way.
These labels are reprints of the first Austrian newspaper stamps, issued in 1851. The original dies were used to create new dies with "WIPA 1933" in place of "K.K. Zeitungs Post Stampel", from which plates of 16 entries were produced.
1890-98: signed agreement with Seebeck for free stamps in exchange for the right of Seebeck to make and sell reprints to collectors, 1895: first postage due, parcel post stamp, 1896: first official stamp, 1897: first Acknowledgment of Receipt stamp, ...
Call them reference copies or reprints or facsimiles, they're still fakes. The collector likes to have examples of everything in his field, so if he can't have a copy of a rarity, he might settle for a knock-off.
Official reprints are sometimes made for presentation purposes or official collections. They are often distinguishable in some way from the originals: different colors, perforations, paper or gum.
Government Imitations. Reprints or imitations of genuine stamps officially made some time after the original dies or plates had been destroyed or lost.
Grill. A design impressed into a stamp as a protection against cleaning.
As reprints are sent to post offices on an as needed basis, and are not officially released, it is impossible to give an exact date, hence only the month is given.
In Australia, the number of times stamp reprints are done is tracked by the ‘koala count’—the number of koalas printed in the selvedge adjacent to stamps down either side of a sheet.
Imitation - a stamp produced by the postal administration deliberately imitating a design when the original plates are no longer available for reprints. An imitation might differ from the originals in paper, gum, size, color, and design detail.
The Index of Literature in the English Language that Describes Postage Stamp Forgeries, Fakes, Reprints, Fraudulent Postal Markings and Other Obliterations, compiled in 2004 by Theodore M. Tedesco, includes both book and periodical references.
When it comes to the most unique and most exceptional of stamps, consider The New Brunswick stamp "Connell's Folly' stamps (1859), The Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador "Seebeck Reprints" stamps (1889-1899).
 See also: Reprint, Stamp, Used, Philatelic, Catalog
  
|
RSS
