What A Waste Of Paper.

Hi..Take a look at the margin on this stamp..What a waste of paper..eh..??..Does anyone out there know of a stamp with more waste of paper then this one..??

It reminds me of a matted photo. What is the size of the stamp?
Tom

Argentine stamps of the mid-20th Century are known for their large margins (I am only considering stamps in which ALL copies were deliberately made with large margins, i.e. not considering US margin jumbos).

Here is just one of many examples (unfortunately, not "well-centered"):



k

Then, of course, there are stamps that are a TOTAL waste of paper...

Sdtom..the stamp size is 44mm X 33mm....this is not the largest stamp I have seen....but a good size.

Yes, the Hungarian stamp design itself is 35mmx26mm, so compare that to the paper dimensions measured by wert and we can see the margins are relatively oversized by a good percentage.

The Times of India Press in Bombay allowed some pretty generous margins for the later printings of Barwani:



(This setting dates from around 1938.)



(And this is a post-WWII setting, around 1947)

The printers of Poonch stamps tried to overcome the problem of waste by ruling the spaces for handstamping the stamps onto the sheets. However, things didn't always proceed as planned after the printer had indulged in a long lunch ...

A long lunch....I would say more like a liquid lunch..haha

...25-martini lunch.

Thanks for posting those pics, tonymacg.

Khj...what on earth is that "F" stamp you posted..is it real or just a joke..??

While I don't have it in my collection I remember seeing it.
Tom

Sdtom.....do you know if that "F" stamp is a real stamp....?

Yes it is. The value of the stamp was 4 cents.
Tom

The previously posted stamp is a real US stamp (Scott #2521) issued in 1991 and is arguably one of the ugliest stamps ever issued by the US, if not the ugliest. The stamp is not an "F" rate stamp, but rather a makeup rate stamp valued at 4-cents, which along with a 25-cent stamp would make up the then-first class postage rate of 29-cents.

Remember these stamps were all issued before "Forever" stamps were ever thought of. The "A" through "H" rate stamps represented an effort by the US Postal Service to have sufficient quantities of first class rate stamps on hand at all post offices before the actual postal rate increase amounts were known. When the new postal rates were announced, the lettered stamps were valued at the then first class postal rate.

Here's a "cheat sheet" created by the US Postal Service that identifies the value of all non denominated US Stamps. Note the top of page 3 which refers to the stamp in question:

http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals...00/Q604a.pdf

Thanks for the link wt1..apprecite it...it helps..bad enough that I have to struggle with Canadian stamps...I understand American stamps even less..haha

Thanks for replying while I was out, wt1!

Yeah, its a real stamp. But still a total waste of paper. The many questions it raised and the confusing wording on the stamp (wt1 actually did a great job explaining) are why I consider it a TOTAL waste of paper (although I begrudgingly admit I did enjoy collecting the matched plate blocks).

The post office printed it for "practical reasons". They didn't know how much of a rate hike, but wanted to print the stamps well ahead of time. So they simply printed the explanation on the stamp and announced the value of the stamp once the amount of the rate hike was decided.