Goebel Printing Presses

Goebel GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany has produced state of the art printing presses for over 150 years which have been and are still being used by many stamp printing companies worldwide

Quote from their site states.

In general, these presses are equipped with perforating units for the standard round shape hole perforation of stamps and/or with rotary die cutters for self-adhesive stamps. All printing techniques imaginable for producing stamps are applied: gravure, offset, intaglio and combinations of these techniques. Goebel's first press combining different printing techniques was built as early as 1929.

On their home site is a short history of the firm.

http://www.goebel-gm.com/index.php/...tory-en.html

One of their customers, the Swedish PFA Stamp Printing Works has had good success
with Goebel presses over the years, just look at Swedish stamps.

Of course they have had some excellent engravers including a guy called Slania
whose work could have been printed on any kind of printing press and still looked good.

In 1938 PFA bought a rotary Goebel press , capable of printing in only 1 colour steel-engraving.

In 1964 the PFA added a 3 colour steel-engraving Goebel press

In 1983 the Stamp Printing Works installed a 10 colour Goebel press.
It could print up to 6 colour recess and 4 colours offset

The pic below shows the 1964 Goebel 3 colour.



See here below page 70 of the Collecting by Engravers thread for more info.

http://goscf.com/t/9106&whichpage=70

So




http://www.goebel-gm.com/index.php/...tory-en.html

So 1911 is our starting point for following the Goebel thread!

There's an interesting article entitled "The Goebel Press Era of Canadian Stamps" by Ken Sargent with Leopold Beaudet. It is found in The Corgi Times, Volume 18, Number 4, January-February 2010, Supplement.

There are some great imiages of goebel printing presses ar
https://www.google.com/search?q=goe...1680&bih=791

also, some great videos on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+press&sm=12

jogil, it looks like one has to be a member of the
Elizabethan II Study Group to be able to view the article.

When would you start?

Thanks for those links acanalizo, Goebel certainly
manufactured a lot of presses.

P.T.T. (Swiss Post Printing Works) bought two Goebel
printing presses during it's 72 years of existence.


SSR I - Goebel Germany

The SSR I was made by the Goebel Company in Darmstadt, Germany and was installed in the P.T.T. printing
works in Bern in 1935. It was used to produce the Cross and Wavy Lines prints. In 1936, a photogravure press was
attached to the SSR I. This combined press can print using the recess or the photogravure method, or by both recess
and photogravure methods simultaneously. The Alpine Post (medium, small, large (sheet and rolls) varieties), 3 Fish
design, and Large Hermes Head and Aztec Calendar trial prints were produced on the SSR

SSR IV - Goebel Germany

This press was made by the Goebel Company in Darmstadt, Germany and was installed at the P.T.T. printing works
in Bern in 1985. The printing room had to be modified before installation. It can print in up to seven colours (three
recess and four offset-lithograph). The Lake Geneva Landscape trial print was produced on the SSR IV. The first
postage stamps produced by SSR IV were the 1986 Europa issues.

Yet on page 58 of The Swiss Trial Prints http://www.swiss-stamps.us/Research...alPrints.pdf I noticed
it states that test stamps were printed on the Goebel SSR IV in 1984 by Recess / Photogravure Combined

Lake Geneva Landscape
Inscription:Specimen 1984
Designer & Engraver: Pierre Schopfer
Printing: Recess / Photogravure Combined (multicolour recess)
Printing Machine: SSR IV (Goebel)
Paper: Phosphor (without violet fibres)
Sheet Size: 50 (10 rows x 5 columns)
Plate Numbers: 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 Square dots with eighteen white sections
Printing Dates on Sheets: Date for number 700 – 9.5.85
Sheet Numbers: Sheets seen have numbers; prefixed with an A or B
Value in Margins: 00.00 In the left hand margin on each row
Sheet Inscription: None
Stamp Inscriptions: SPECIMEN 1984 at top; PROBEDRUCK SSR IV and P. Schopfer at bottom


Yet before it says that the Goebel SSR IV delivered in 1985 printed via Recess/ Offset-lithograph.

Either there is a mistake here or perhaps in 1984 before the press was delivered the P.T.T was debating
whether they should go with Offset-lithography or photogravure and finally settled for Offset-lithography.

The revolution in recess printing - dry this time instead of having to use slightly moistened paper - made it also possible to have comb-perforation [or harrow/block-perforation] with a more or less fixed size! Before that line perforation - separately or in-line - had to be used, like in the case of the Stickney rel-fed recess presses.

Goebel made his move around 1933 selling the narrow-reel, reel-fed presses for recess to a.o. the Danish Post Office Printers [1933], the Swiss PTT in Bern [1935], the Swedish PTT in 1938, etc... In the mean time or a bit earlier similar presses for photogravure to Italy, South Africa, The Netherlands [JOHEZ, 1935], Mexico [1936], etc... Argentina [Casa de Moneda] acquired a reel-fed typography Goebel in 1930/1931 using it for coil stamps in the first place.

By the mid 1960's the Canada Post Office Department was
interested in having more variety in the stamp program
and to give their current long term security printer
the Canadian Bank Note Co, some competition.
More colourful stamps, different print techniques,
innovative booklet formats for easier dispensing, etc etc.

Therefore when the British American Bank Note Co approached
Canada Post it received a contract to produce as of 1968
- the first class definitives in sheets of 100
- medium and high value definitives
- stamp booklets
- aerogrammes in 2 colour photogravure
- and the opportunity to quote on all commemoratives.

To fulfill this contract BABN bought a Goebel BRNST-50
webfed,rotary press which was capable of printing
3 colour recess engraving (using 1 cylinder) and
4 photogravure cylinders.

The Goebel press used a double platen system to perforate
the sheets.
Initially they used a perf 10 spacing but because
of complaints of separation problems within less than a year
the perforations were changed to 12 X 12.5

At that time Canada Post asked the printer for
panes to have straight edges on 3 sides.
This was supposed to eliminate all the selvadges
cluttering up the Post Office counters.
I guess the higher ups at Canada Post hadn't
heard there is such a thing as a waste basket.
Within a couple of years the idea behind it
and the straight edges were gone.

The first stamp BABN produced on the Goebel was the Nonsuch
which was issued on June 5, 1968.

1 colour engraved and 3 colours photogravure.

Engraved by George Arthur Gundersen

It was the first Canadian stamp with comb perforation.

Quantity 24.5 million

Canada Scott 482




Philatelic Plate Block



Straight edge Plate Block for Post Office field stock.




After a 20 year run printing hundreds of millions of stamps
BABN retired the press.
These booklet stamps were the last stamps printed by BABN
on the Goebel press.
3 colours engraving and 1 colour photogravure, the green bars at the top.
Engraved by Robert Couture

Canada Unitrade 1188a BK100 Jan 18, 1989



Most of the information here is from the article The Goebel Press Era of Canadian Stamps in the Corgi - Times Jan-Feb 2010 issue, written by Ken Sargent with Leopold Beaudet.

Ken Sargent was president of BNAB until his retirement 1985.

I thank SCF member jogil for emailing me the article.

The Danish Postal Service was another printer who bought repeatedly purchased Goebel printing presses.
Since 1932 the PFA has bought at least 4 Goebel machines, named M1-M4.

Below is an overview of the capacity and duration in use of the individual machines


M1 1932 - 1982 Steel engraving 1 colour

M2 1953-1982 Steel engraving 1 colour, Photogravure 1 colour

M3 Since 1968 Steel engraving 3 colours, later 6 colours

M4 Since 1981 Steel engraving 6 colours, Photogravure 1 colour, Offset 4 colours.



Denmark Post apparently bought a new intaglio and offset press in 2009 but
I have no info if a Goebel or not.

The following is an article from the January 1989 issue
of PFC Journal, Danish Post.

It features the engraver Arne Kühlmann but also has
some great info and images showing how the Danish
State printer is able to produce so many beautiful
stamps using Goebel presses.







NB: Replaced missing images.

See article on Canada stamps at http://www.bnaps.org/ore/Sargent-Go...lPress_1.htm

For Canadian stamps, the Goebel press was used by the British American Bank Note Company to print sheet and booklet stamps by engraving and/or photogravure printing combinations from 1968 to 1989.