My original intention of a Stamp of the Week post was to take a stamp in my collection, post an image of it and point out a few facts. A five minute philatelic escape, a moment to share my passion with other collectors. Simple enough. But as we know, each stamp has a deep and long history. The first self adhesive issue was no exception. Here is more information on the stamp that changed U S Postal Issues forever.
Avery Dennison, the giant, multi international label maker worked with the U.S. Postal Service to develop this stamps. Since Avery Dennison pioneered the shelf adhesive label in the 1930’s, who better to work on this project? Unfortunately, they encountered technical problems with the adhesive bleeding through the paper and discoloring the printed image.
The discoloration problem, and the lack of perforations, received complaints and printing more issues of self adhesives was stalled. It seems that the majority of complaints came from collectors, still a formidable share of the stamp purchasing public in the 1970’s.
It was not until 1989 that the next self adhesive was issue. American Bank Note Company printed this issue, without any adhesive problems to date.
In the same year Avery Dennison signed a multi-million dollar research and development contract with the U S Postal Service to develop self adhesive stamps and machines to dispense them. In 1995 they were back to printing self adhesive stamps for the U S Postal Service.
Adding old fashion perforations to self adhesives appeared to have been a part of this research contract as well. The Flag Over Porch issue below was the first.
Love them or not, all stamps issued by the U S Postal Service are self adhesives. (If I was twenty years old, I would consider starting an Occupy the Post Office movement to bring back the old stamps. No, we would not burn down the local post office; just stand in the lobby chanting engrave and perforate, engrave and perforate, until the post master general got tired of us and caved into our demands. Judging from the present political insanity, it may work!)
Evidently, a small group of companies print stamps for the U S Postal Service. As of this writing Avery Dennison appears to have the major share of that market.
That is an outstanding accomplishment for a company that lost big the first time out.
I also learned that the United States was not the first country to issue self adhesives. They were initially printed for countries located in tropical climates. Sierra Leone brought out an issue in 1964 and Tongo in 1969. It was a necessary change with the persistent humid conditions of those locations. With out the use of perforations, die cutting the stamps into unique shapes was much easier. This was exemplified in the Sierra Leone issue having the outline of the country.
On a related matter. The U S Postal Services Postage Stamp page gives facts about their stamps. It lists 1992 as the national roll out for self adhesive stamps. However, it does not mention the issues that came before this date.
Happy Collecting!
Prairie Beacon 