Dummy Stamps Newsletter Online

Each issue of my Dummy Stamps Newsletter relates to items from the world of British dummy philatelic material from postage and stationery stamp printers, with an occasional excursion abroad when relevant to Britain somehow.

Please go to www.stampprinters.info/dummystamps.htm for the latest 20 page issue, now available online to download, read on screen, or print-off. All 26 back issues and supplements are also available from the same URL.

I have also uploaded to the same location a 30 page document relating to the printing presses and dummy stamps produced by the Swiss firm of WIFAG. It incorporates much research and 200+ scans of cinderella material, which will hopefully interest those with non-GB interests.

GLENN MORGAN

Thank you for sharing this Glenn

It sure is an interesting facet of philately.

Maybe one of the PDF bulletins might explain a couple of items in my collection? I know I have a few of the British "Test" stamps.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu, if you don't find your test items in the newsletter, why not post them here and I will give you the story behind the items (hopefully!). That goes for anyone else, too, of course.

GLENN MORGAN

Has publication of this newsletter stopped?

The latest issue online is from the second quarter of 2019: https://www.stampprinters.info/dummystamps.htm

Halfpenny Yellow, sincere apologies for the difficulties in accessing recent issues of Dummy Stamps - and for your interest. Registered users have been unaffected, but I had been unable to correct a technical issue that prevented me from updating my web pages. I have spent four hours this morning resolving matters and you will find the missing issues 55 to the new issue 60 at the link that you provided in your posting. GLENN

Guess: Switzerland.

Most likely. At least, the Susten Pass and Basel are in Switzerland

Thanks a lot for updating the recent issues Glenn. I see that the effort put into publishing the newsletter has been considerable - thank you for creating such a valuable resource on an area of cinderella philately which seems to have been largely overlooked so far!

Out of curiosity, are you aware of any Malta dummy stamps?

The only ones I know of are the Harrison black prints of the 1954 Centenary of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception which were included in the 1956 Penrose Annual (a beautiful book - I managed to purchase a copy of it online a few years ago). These were covered in issues 8, 9 and 33 of your newsletter.

Halfpenny Yellow,

I am pleased that the recent copies of Dummy Stamps were of use to you.

I am unaware of any dummy stamps PRINTED on Malta (Printex have never replied to letters from me and I have never found any sample material from them). Had De La Rue retained its contract to print British stamps, it had publicised that they would be printed on Malta instead of Gateshead. The rumour is (and that is all it is) that Royal Mail had not been informed, were disgruntled and so placed the print work with International Security Printers instead. We may have seen some DLR dummies from the island, but that was not destined to happen.

As for Malta RELATED material, the Harrison item that you have already mentioned sprang readily to mind. The only other item is not a dummy stamp, but a Cinderella card from The British Philatelic Exhibition of 1972. Details are:
Card depicting a proof-type reproduction of
the 1956 Maltese 10/- definitive (SG 281) in
black and numbered in black on the reverse.
10,000 printed. Normal version sold for 50p.
Printed by John Waddington using their
unique Kirketch process. (Kirketch appears to be a letterpress
reproduction of a recess-printed original.)

The above details are from British Stamp Exhibitions by myself and Graham Wilson.

Hope this helps. GLENN

Hi Glenn,

Are you able to identify the country of origin of these stamps, by any chance?

I'm assuming that they're test/dummy stamps, at least for now.

Thanks,

Jim

Thanks Glenn. :) Thanks for the details regarding the lack of DLR dummy stamps from Malta. The company currently prints excise stamps (tax stamps/revenue stamps) for a number of countries here in Malta - it would be interesting to see if they have any dummy stamps of these. I am not aware of any dummy stamps or any similar material from Printex either.

I had forgotten the 1972 exhibition card, which is an interesting item even though it's not a dummy stamp as such. I have one in my collection which I think I had purchased online a few years ago. This card is not always readily available but when it is it's usually very cheap (one example sold recently on eBay for £1).

For those who are not aware of the Malta items mentioned by myself and Glenn, I am illustrating them below. The blocks of four are the Harrison black prints for the 1956 Penrose Annual, and the proof-like card is from the 1972 philatelic exhibition.