"Back Numbers" On Used US Stamps (Coil)

Hi khj,

yep. The only thing I don't understand yet: when did the numbers ON THE STAMP ITSELF cease to be released, since-as I understand it- today the back numbers are ON THE LINER and not on the stamp. Or do I get something wrong there?

Regards,

George

George,

I stopped actively collecting modern US a few years after they started the back numbers. So I don't know when they stopped printing it directly on the back of the coil stamps. I only know that they did stop, but don't know why. In fact, I didn't realize that they had still printed them on the back of the liners until you stated that. Sorry, I cannot help you there.

George,
I'm assume USPS quit printing on the stamps after about 10 years since I don't recall seeing any coils issued after 2003, but like khj, I don't really know.

I read that they were only printed on large quantity rolls of coils for bulk mailers. The purpose was to make it easy for bulk mailers to determine how many stamps remained on a coil roll during application of the stamps. Most of them, appear to be on the popular Transportation coils but there are some on other issues as khj mentioned. My photo of the back number is on a 1995 reprint of the 5 cent Circus Wagon.

I hope someone else on the forum may have better information.

Marty

Opps, I meant to say: I don't recall seeing any coils issued with back numbers printed on them after 2003. BTW, I'm not up to date on the actual issue dates for modern US, so the USPS may have actually stopped the practice prior to 2003.

Thanks again, everyone.

BTW, I just checked the different solutions (UHU stamp remover, about 1/20 dish washing liquid/water) on self-adhesive stamps which I thought might have back numbers on them.

The result was mixed. Both liquids got the self-adhesive stamps off within a short period of time, approx. 1-2 Min. (next time, I'll wait a little longer). Both of them left the numbers intact. However, the gum did look a little worse than in Marty's example. Now - these were self-adhesives, the fluids work a lot better with the lick-type.

Anyway, the back side of the stamps does not exactly look very pretty. Amazingly, the numbers are completely intact.

Now to the numbers: I believe those are artefacts. I will try to make pictures tomorrow. The numbers look different from what I've seen so far. They might have been printed on the envelopes. On the other hand, there is nothing on the back of the stamps besides those numbers. Well, I'll try to make the pics and post them here.

Regards,

George

All the back numbers on US stamps were "sprayed" on, so they should be pretty distinct from other "font styles". Usually, if anything has transferred from the envelope onto the back of the stamp, it is mirror imaged.

Oops, yes, khj, I did not think of the mirroring. You are right, for sure. So, it looks like I got one real back number and an artefact. Anyway, I'll post the pics tomorrow or so.

Regards,

George

Great! Looking forward to it! Hopefully my power won't go out again!

k

Ok, I think I was a bit too fast yesterday. I thought I had one good back number on a self-adhesive, however, those are both artefacts from the envelopes themselves - the numbers appear mirrored on the stamp/gum residue.

Agree?

I guess those two stamps are too "young" to belong into the "back number right on the stamp" category. One of them probably isn't even a coil stamp.

Regards,

George

Well - it looks like I am too new here to be able to post pics. The forum software said that everything was ok and the image uploaded to the forum, but it won't show for some reason.

Sorry about that. I'll try once more with just one image here.

George

OK, there are two more possible reasons why the pics won't load correctly. One being, that my user name contains a space ... hmm.

Another one could have been that I did not crop the pics, although I stayed below the 100 kb size limit, I think.

I tried a version with around 56 kb but it would not show in the preview. So it is either my user name or that I am too new here (do I need 50 posts to upload stamp pics, too?)


Regards,

George

George, I hope you solve the image loading problem. You and the
rest of the good folk here have already added to my knowledge.

I contacted the staff of this forum 2 days ago but did not get an answer so far. I could load the pics externally and place a link there - however, I believe, external links are not allowed for new members.

Well - anyway, I don't think my "back numbers" are all that interesting as they are mirrored and thus they should be artefacts from the backing papers (postcards, envelopes). I am still searching for real ones in the thousands of unsoaked US stamps I have lying around.

Marty posted a very nice example of such a really existing US back number anyway.

George,

I'm sorry to hear that you have such trouble uploading photos. I hope that can be resolved soon. Meanwhile, When going through your used coils, hold then up to a bright light prior to removing the stamp from the paper and you should be able to see the back number.Then you will know which stamps need extra special handling so as not to lose the back number. I believe all of them have 5 digits. And all numbers are "sprayed" as khj mentioned which makes them look similar to dot matrix printing. Let us know if you find any. I'll continue to look for mine with the hope of posting more photos of the positions and colors of the numbers.

Marty

Thanx Marty. That is what I have been doing recently - looking at the stamps in bright light. Unfortunately, most of the used stamps I have lying around are non-coil ones or really recent. So I don't think I'll find too many numbers, if any.

Well, I don't think the pics are so important as I have not found any "real" back numbers yet.

Just noticed you apparently live in Guatemala. Now - that is stamp-wise surely interesting. I used to live in Iran and Thailand many years ago - brought some stamps from each country.

Greetings from Munich, Germany,

George