667,000 Impressions???

I have 4 USA stamps from 1970 (Scott # 1415-1418) in a block of 4 and another block of 4 (Scott #1463) from 1972 which my father had noted down next to each of the blocks that they have 667,000 impressions.

I am not sure what is meant by this, but I checked the values in Scott and they are just minimal value like all other USA stamps from that period pretty much, which is what I expected.

Is there something I might be missing here on these?

Cheers... Marc

This might mean the number of impressions or copies printed of this particular stamp. That would be a generally British term.

Oxford Dictionary:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/...en_gb0403240

We (I) would say the number issued of a particular stamp issue or emission.

Isn't English fun!!

Thanks. In short though, no added value on these stamps I assume. If so, then I will just give them back to my dad and he can use them for postage in the states since they have minimal value otherwise.

667,000 is quite a few, though it is not like some of the more massive issues from the US in the 1970s/80's.

Scott's specialized lists #1415-18 at 489,255,000 and #1463 at 180,155,000.

# of impressions refers to the number of plate impressions, not the actual number of stamps printed; at least that's how the circle of collectors I used to hang around used the term. On those plates, each impression would print 200 stamps.

667,000 impressions does not account for all the stamps printed, so that figure may be for a specific plate number/combination (just a guess as I don't have the breakdown of impressions per plate).

Thanks for that khj. If I don't make mistakes, I don't learn.

Puzzler, you may still be right. One thing I've learned over the years is that definitions/usage sometimes differ among different collecting circles. That's just how collectors I used to hang around used the term "impression".