Stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are printed on special custom-made paper, show a national designation and a denomination (value) on the front, and have a gum adhesive on the back. Postage stamps are purchased from a postal administration or other authorized vendor, and are used to pay for the costs involved in moving mail, as well as other business necessities such as insurance and registration. They are sometimes a source of net profit to the issuing agency, especially when sold to collectors who will not actually use them for postage. (from Wikipedia)

Browsing the Catalog

The Colnect Stamp Catalog can be filtered by these properties:

• Countries: The country the stamp was issued for.
• Emissions: The usage type of the stamp. Options are:

• Air Mail: These stamps are intended for mail that should be transported by air. Some either include or are solely for the payment of the additional air mail fee and are required for air mail transportation, other just have the correct value for air mail, but can also be used otherwise.
• ATM labels: These stamps are dispensed by automates and get their value imprinted only at the time of purchase. Therefore the same ATM label stamp exists with a variety of imprinted values. In some countries ATM labels are difficult to distinguish from postal meter labels, the underlying difference being that A-tm labels can by used at any time by any person during the time of validity, while the usage of postal meter labels is always restricted, usually by the imprinted date, but there are postal meter labels without a date that are restricted for use by the meter license holder. The abbreviation ATM comes from the German word Automatenmarke (automate stamp) - collection of ATM labels was popular from its beginning in Germany and Switzerland.
• Cinderella: Cinderellas are issues that look like a stamp, but cannot be used to pay for mail or parcel services anywhere. Sometimes they are also called vignettes (not to e confused with payment for highway usage). Cinderellas are issued by private companies, fake countries and sometimes even by real postal authorities who sell them as stamps to collectors, but these stamps would be rejected if anyone would try to use them in the country.
• Commemorative: Initially commemorative stamps always were issued for a specific event. Nowadays the term is used for all non-definitive regular stamps, and they may or may not commemorate anything. Commemorative stamps are available only for a limited time, usually until stocks last. In some countries commemorative stamps can only be bought at larger post offices or at special collector's booths. Commemorative stamps are now the majority of all stamps.
• Definitive: These stamps are purely issued to be used as payment for postage. Definitive stamps are usually available over a long period of years and can be bought at any post office, even those where commemorative stamps are not available.
• Express: These stamps are issued to cover the special fee for extremely urgent mail that is transported and delivered by a special express service.
• Military: Stamps issued to active-duty serving military for their private mail.
• Newspaper: Stamps issued specifically for the mailing of newspapers. Many of these were destroyed because the stamp often was used to glue the banderole with the recipient's address to the newspaper, and just torn off by the recipient.
• Official: These stamps are only to be used by official government agencies, their private use is usually forbidden and fined.
• Parcel Post: These stamps are specific for the transportation of parcels, i.e. larger items than letters.
• Postage Due: These stamps are affixed by the postal authority to pieces with no or insufficient postage to alert the postman that he has to collect the postage due (plus a premium) from the recipient.
• Postal Fiscal: These are revenue or fiscal stamps used postally.
• Postal Tax: These tax stamps are affixed to postal items in addition to the regular postage to pay for a tax required for each mailed item. They cannot be used to pay for postage.
• Precancelled: These stamps are intended for use by mass mailing senders. They are considered precancelled, so cannot be used by regular postal customers as they are only valid with a mass mailing contract.
• Private:
• Regional: These stamps were issued only for a region within a country. It depends on local regulations if these stamps can only be used in that region or across the whole country.
• Semi-postals:
• Telegraph: Stamps issued to pay for telegraph services.
• War:
• Unknown: Here the Emission field has not been entered. If you know the correct emission type of such a stamp, please submit a comment so it can be entered. Some of the stamps here do not fit into any of the above emission types.

• Formats: Besides being collected as single stamps, depending on the way they were issued stamps can also be collected in other formats. Please note that due to the database format of the Colnect Stamp Catalog most of the other formats have a related single stamp catalog entry. Available options are:

• Booklet: A small booklet with stamps inside. Some booklets are sold through automates, the booklet cardboard then protects the stamps from mechanical damage. Booklets can be quite simple in design or be a piece of art that integrates the stamps or gives additional information about them.
• Booklet Pane: Some booklets contain panes (or minisheets) of stamps that are specifically produced for booklets.
• Federal Duck Stamp: These are not postage stamps but to pay for hunting fees in the USA (and one stamp from New Zealand).
• Mini Sheet: As opposed to regular sheets of stamps, that usually contain 50 or 100, in a few cases 25 stamps of the same type, mini sheets only contain a few stamps. The exact definition varies, but in most cases mini sheets have 20 or less stamps. The difference from souvenir sheets is that you can buy single stamps out of a mini sheet at the post office.
• Revenue Stamp: These are not postage stamps, but used to pay for certain taxes or government fees.
• Se-tenant: Stamps with different denominations, colours, design, etc., joined together side by side, printed on the same sheet, in a strip or block. The stamps can be directly printed next to each other or be separated by one or more non-stamp fields (blank or with printing). For the Colnect Stamp Catalog also stamp pairs with non-stamp fields in between that are not upside-down to each other are categorized as se-tenant.
• Souvenir Sheet: Usually a small sheet with one or more stamps, though quite large souvenir sheets exist. Stamps in a souvenir sheet can be all the same or different, even with different face values. The difference to mini sheets is that souvenir sheets are only sold as whole by the post offices. Of course the stamps are also valid if used as singles.
• Stamp: A regular, single postage stamp. The same stamp may also exist in the catalog as part of items in one or more of the other formats.

The following formats have been removed from the stamps category and moved elsewhere:

• Moved to Postcard in 2016: Maxi Cards: Maximum cards are postcards showing the motif of a stamp. It can be a direct reproduction of the stamp motif or a similar thing, like a photo of the item pictured on the stamp. To be a real maximum card, the stamp needs to be affixed to the picture side of the card and cancelled, usually on the first day of issue of the stamp. Maximum cards can be official (issued by the postal authority) or private.
• Partially included in Postcard in 2016, the remainder moved to Philatelic Product on 19-Jan-2017: Postal Stationery: This is stationery (e.g. postcards or envelopes) where the postage for mailing it is already included. In most cases this is done by imprinting a stamp (which may or may not also exist as a normal stamp), but other forms also exist. The first postal stationery, the British Mulready stationery, became valid on 06-May-1840, the same day as the first stamp, the British One Penny Black.
• Moved to Philatelic Product on 19-Jan-2017: First Day Cover: A cover (envelope) with one or more stamps cancelled on their first day of issue. Often the cover is illustrated and a special first day cancellation is used. Cataloged here are only official first day covers issued by the respective postal authority.

• Printings: The type(s) of printing used to print the stamp.
• Perforations: To easily separate single stamps from the sheets, they are perforated. The perforation size is measured in the number of holes per 2 centimeters. A perforation of 13¾ means that over a length of 2 centimeters there are 13 and one quarter of a hole.
• Colors: The color(s) used on the stamp. While most modern stamps are multicolored, there are stamps with only one or a few colors. For these, color differences may be important variants.
• Years: The year of issue of the stamp.
• Face Values: The numeric face value, not taking into account the currency. The value is used as written on the stamp, so a 1 cent and a 1 Euro stamp will both be listed under 1.
• Currencies: The face currency of the stamp. The currency is used as the face value is written, so currencies with divisions will have two currencies listed, e.g. there are both Euro and Euro cent in the list.
• Themes: The theme(s) represented on the stamp. A stamp can have more than one theme and will then be listed under each of them.
• Catalogs: There are many (printed and/or online) stamp catalogs, using different numbering systems. Some catalogs cover only one country or region, others all countries. To aid users of different catalogs, a stamp can have several catalogs with their respective number assigned.
• Newly Added: This meta-property allows to search for stamps that were added to the Colnect Stamp Catalog in the past 1, 3, 7, 14, or 30 days. Regularly used this feature helps you keep track of catalog additions.

In addition the items have some properties they cannot be filtered on:

• Name: The name of the stamp in English language. This should be a unique name (i.e. no two stamps should have the same name). Do not use non-English characters, even if you use text printed on the stamp. This field can contain a maximum of 60 characters.
• Series: Many stamps belong to a series. By clicking on the series name you get a list of all stamps in the series.
• Variants: If a stamp is marked as a variant, you can get a list of all variants of this stamp by clicking on Click to see variants.
• Print Run: The number of stamps printed.
• Width: Width (horizontal length) in millimeter. For non-rectangular stamps this is the maximum width of the stamp.
• Height: Height (vertical length) in millimeter. For non-rectangular stamps this is the maximum height of the stamp.
• Description: A detailed description of the stamp. This may include information on how to distinguish variants.
• Front Picture and Back Picture: In most cases only the front of the stamp should be pictured, unless the back has sspecial features (e.g. text, counting number). Please follow the Picture Guidelines.

See also

• Stamp Catalog
• Stamp Collector
• Stamp Collecting
• Stamp Countries List