Defintive Varieties

Ok, I'm busy cranking through my 2002 stamp pages and I made a list of all the US definitives. There are 13 different major Scott numbers for the US Flag stamp.

Now, I understand that there is some difference between booklet vs. coil varieties, but why do there need to be 13 different varieties? When the USPS gives these stamps to various printers, why can't they all print the same thing?

Look at the 2012 Four Flags stamps. The 3 printers all created different sizes, different perfs, different color variations. What is the point to that? Why can't every printer print the exact same stamp?

Andy, I think the only solution here would be to have just one printer! As long as there is more then one printer us collectors are going to try to figure out what the difference is between the stamps.

Peter

'Cause no one but collectors care (or probably even notice) and collectors keep buying all the variations?

I think there's probably a legitimate postal reason for it.

Much like how the date is printed in a different corner of a stamp each year for accounting purposes, the USPS needs some way to identify the stamps that are produced by different printers. Seemingly minor changes that most of the public (except for stamp collectors) may not notice include use of different papers, different printing techniques, different microprinting, different ink colors and, in some cases, even different tagging. They all likely serve a purpose that is not necessarily published, but helps to identify distribution or thwart counterfeiting or theft.

Remember, too, that most commemoratives are limited in their quantities and are created by a single printing contractor; definitives, on the other hand, stay in use for much longer periods of time and are produced in quantities oftentimes reaching a billion or more stamps, making them prime candidates for counterfeiting.