Variety of Stamps
11 September 2008•Airmail – for payment of airmail service. While the word or words “airmail” or equivalent is usually printed on the stamp, Scott (the dominant U.S. cataloguing firm) has recognized as airmail stamps some U.S. stamps issued in denominations good for then-current international airmail rates, and showing the silhouette of an aircraft. The other three major catalogs do not give any special status to airmail stamps.
•ATM, stamps dispensed by automatic teller machines (ATMs) whose sheets are paper currency sized and of similar thickness.
•Carrier’s stamp
•Certified mail stamp
•Coil stamps – tear-off stamps issued individually in a vending machine, or purchased in a roll that often comprise 100 stamps
•Commemorative stamp – a limited run of stamp designed to commemorate a particular event
•Computer vended postage – advanced secure postage that uses Information-Based Indicia (IBI) technology. IBI uses a 2-dimensional bar code (either Datamatrix or PDF417) to encode the Originating Address, Date of Mailing, Postage Amount, and a Digital signature to verify the stamp’s authenticity.
•Customized stamp – a stamp the picture or image in which can in some way be chosen by the purchaser, either by sending in a photograph or by use of the computer. Some of these are not truly stamps but are technically meter labels.
•Definitive – stamps issued mainly for the everyday payment of postage. They often have less appealing designs than commemoratives. The same design may be used for many years. Definitive stamps are often the same basic size. The use of the same design over an extended period of time often leads to many unintended varieties. This makes them far more interesting to philatelists than commemoratives.
•Express mail stamp / special delivery stamp
•Late fee stamp – issued to show payment of a fee to allow inclusion of a letter or package in the outgoing dispatch although it has been turned in after the cut-off time
•Local post stamps – used on mail in a local post; a postal service that operates only within a limited geographical area, typically a city or a single transportation route. Some local posts have been operated by governments, while others, known as private local posts, have been for-profit companies.
•Military stamp – stamps issued specifically for the use of members of a country’s armed forces, usually using a special postal system
•Official mail stamp – issued for use solely by the government or a government agency or bureau
•Occupation stamp – a stamp issued for use by either an occupying army or by the occupying army or authorities for use by the civilian population
•Non-denominated postage – postage intended to meet a certain postage rate that retains full validity for that intended postage rate even after the rate is increased. Also known as a “Permanent stamp” or “Forever stamp”.
•Perforated stamps – while this term can be used to refer to the perforations around the edge of a stamp (used to divide the sheet into individual stamps) it is also a technical term for stamps that have additionally been perforated across the middle with letters or a distinctive pattern or monogram known as perfins. These modified stamps are usually purchased by large corporations to guard against theft by their employees.
•Personalized – allow user to add his own personalized picture or photograph
•Postage due – a stamp applied showing that the full amount of required postage has not been paid, and indicating the amount of shortage and penalties the recipient will have to pay. (Collectors and philatelists debate whether these should be called stamps, some saying that as they do not pre-pay postage they should be called “labels”) The United States Post Office Department issued “parcel post postage due” stamps.
•Postal tax – a stamp indicating that a tax (above the regular postage rate) required for sending letters has been paid. This stamp is often mandatory on all mail issued on a particular day or for a few days only.
•Self-adhesive stamp – stamps not requiring licking or moisture to be applied to the back to stick. Self-sticking.
•Semi-postal / charity stamp – a stamp issued with an additional charge above the amount needed to pay postage, where the extra charge is used for charitable purposes such as the Red Cross. The usage of semi-postal stamps is entirely at the option of the purchaser. Countries (such as Belgium and Switzerland) that make extensive use of this form of charitable fund-raising design such stamps in a way that makes them more desirable for collectors.
•Test stamp – a label not valid for postage, used by postal authorities on sample mail to test various sorting and canceling machines or machines that can detect the absence or presence of a stamp on an envelope. May also be known as “dummy” or “training” stamps.
•War tax stamp – A variation on the postal tax stamp intended to defray the costs of war.
•Water-activated stamp – for many years “water-activated” stamps were the only kind so this term only entered into use with the advent of self-adhesive stamps. The adhesive or gum on the back of the stamp must be moistened (usually it is done by licking, thus the stamps are also known as “lick and stick”) to affix it to the envelope or package.
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