Stamp design and printing
郵票的設計與印製
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper stuck on mail to show the postage is paid; its picture, value, and printing are all designed within a few square centimetres.
01About
The world's first adhesive postage stamp was Britain's Penny Black, on sale from 1 May 1840 and showing the young Queen Victoria in profile. The earliest stamps had no perforations and were cut from the sheet with scissors; Britain issued its first officially perforated stamps in February 1854, and since then most stamps have perforated edges and gum on the back. Stamps usually come in sets of several, each with a different value. A souvenir sheet (in Chinese, xiao quan zhang) prints a whole set on a single sheet, with the same designs and values as the stamps issued alongside it. Printing is part of the design: for engraved intaglio, an engraver works with a magnifying glass to cut the picture and lettering by hand into a steel plate at the stamp's actual size; other stamps use photogravure, offset, or two methods combined. The Chinese word for stamp, youpiao, first appears in the Taiwan postal regulations issued in 1888 by the Taiwan Postal Administration that Liu Mingchuan set up in Taipei.
02In the gallery
Look closely at the perforations around each stamp and the fine lines of the picture, then look for a souvenir sheet that prints a whole set on one sheet.
Wall label terms in Chinese
- 郵票
- Postage stamp
- 齒孔
- Perforation
- 面值
- Face value
- 小全張
- Souvenir sheet
- 雕刻凹版
- Engraved intaglio
03Notes
How does this set divide its pictures and values? Placed side by side, do they make one complete picture?