Comb perforation, line perforation, roller perforation, zigzag perforation, slit perforation. What types of perforations are there on postage stamps, what are the differences, and how are they measured? Measuring perforation An international unit of measurement has been agreed upon for measuring perforation. It does not matter...
Philatelic terminology explained. Cancelled (1) Means that a stamp has been cancelled, rendering it invalid for postage. The cancellation may have been applied by the postal service when the stamp was used for postage, but it may also...
Many collectors, including those at Op Hoop van Zegels, have set up a thematic collection alongside one or more country collections, and it quite often happens that they gradually derive more pleasure from the latter than from the country collections. That becomes...
Just like the Netherlands, the Dutch East Indies also had stamps cancelled with long cancellations. More information about this—and their value—can be obtained using the catalogues by Storm van Leeuwen* and Bulterman*. However, sometimes the place names are missing. This...
Every stamp collector encounters the perforation of stamps at some point. The collector knows that the perforation must be perfect. Not a single tooth may be missing, because otherwise the stamp has no collectible value. Or is that not entirely true? On...
Stamp collectors who look beyond the shortcomings in the pre-printed stamp album search for stamps with perforation variations, among other things. And sometimes they make surprising discoveries. For instance, a few years ago, in a stamp circulation from an association, I came across a stamp...
Collectors of postmark impressions sometimes forget that a completely different type of stamp was used between the so-called small circular and large circular stamps. As a test to replace the double cancellation that had been in effect until then, in the form of a dot stamp in combination...
Ten times a year I fill the newsletter with writing. And so it is again with the June issue, which contains lots of interesting things to read, such as advice on soaking off adhesive stamps. You sometimes ask the members whether they...
It has always surprised me a little why stamp impression collectors have given such strange names to some types of stamps or letters used in stamps. Take the 'long stamp', for instance. Where did that name come from? As a counterpart to a 'short stamp'? No,...
Stamps are mint if they are in the same condition as at the moment they were sold by the postal service. Also if the gum layer shows a thumbprint of the clerk who tore the stamp from the sheet after he had just...
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