In the Gutter
From the Great Britain Royal Silver Wedding set of 1972 until the 1979 Christmas set, the printer Harrison & Sons Ltd. placed what have become known as "traffic lights" in the gutter margin of stamp sheets, giving rise to the...
Printing
Sticky business
The Pacific Ocean island Kingdom of Tonga, Polynesia, went into the history books as the first country to issue self-adhesive stamps in 1963. The series, circular in shape, was printed on embossed gilt-foiled paper and commemorated the 1962 first issue...
Engraving Extraordinary
(See also article published on May 5th ‘First African Stamps’) William Humphrys was born in Dublin in 1794. At an early age he moved to the United States. There he studied engraving techniques under the tutelage of a Mr. George...
First African Stamps
The first postage stamps issued from the continent of Africa were released in September, 1853. The territory of ‘Cape of Good Hope’, then a British colony administered as the Cape Colony, was the issuer. It remained a British colony until...
