Classics Forever Arrived

Got my USPS shipment of the Classics Forever sheets today.

Nice, but could have been nicer.

1. I wish the background of the stamps were white rather than cream.

2. If these had been engraved, they would have been superb.

I REALLY wish they had done imperf press sheets of these. These designs as imperfs on mail would have been great.

For those unaware, these sheets are NOT being sold at post offices. You can only get them online or by phone... why, I have no idea.

Scan of actual sheet:

They do look really sharp. I agree, imperfs would have been great. I will have to order a few.

Thanks for posting! I'm glad to see they're shipping. I put my order in early last month so I'm hoping for a shipping notice soon. Can't wait to get them!

I received mine in the mail today, too. In fact, I ordered a few for both collecting and for use as postage. In the copies I have it seems the stamp in the UR corner (Franklin) has smeared inking (somewhat similar to what collectors encountered with the Inverted Jenny Souvenir Sheet). Does anyone know if this is this an inherent problem with the printing of this issue?

Here's what I mean:

My 20 sheets have that anomaly in the same position, but to a much lesser extent. On most sheets it's not noticible unless you examine under magnification.

Oh well, I guess quality control is no longer an issue with the USPS and its printers.

By the way, did anyone notice that the USPS cellophane packaging of these stamps has an error on it? The description should read SS/6 but instead reads SS/16!

with the engraved comment


I ordered 3 packs of these and may order more.


-MV

I ordered 10 sheets, and on some the anomaly is barely there. One sheet is almost like the above picture of wt1's.

Peter

OK, I have had supper and feel better now. Had a chance to look at my sheets and they are a flyspeckers delight. Almost every sheet I have has a 'doctor blade' line on it, some black, some blue. There are lots of dots, some of which are constant. The biggest one is under the 1st 'e' of forever at the height of 2016 on the left middle stamp. Another one that is constant on my ten sheets is under the 2nd 'e' of forever in front of 2016 on the left bottom stamp. The Grand Prix however goes to Mr. Washington, the middle stamp on the right side. Under the 2nd 'e' of forever there is a burr on the bottom frame line, and in a half circle around it are four blue dots.
Just to be precise, all ten of my sheets are from the bottom left plate position.

Peter

revenuecollector, thanks for that great scan.




I thought the stamps were engraved and the border was printed
offset.
At least that's what it states in the USPS postal bulletin 22441 (5-12-16)

I don't have the stamps in hand therefore I can't tell.
They look quite good in that scan though.

I would have thought that being a collector item more care would have been exercised but apparently not

Click on the image and view it at full resolution. It becomes apparent that the stamps are not engraved.

I'm only going by what is in the Postal Bulletin
from May 12, 2016.
I was wondering why it stated under Manufacturing
Process both Intaglio and Offset but lists
only the Alprinta74 press which is strictly
a web offset printing press

I'm surprised that they printed 18 million sheets??? Is that how many collectors will buy?

Not 18 million sheets -- 18 million STAMPS -- divide by 6 stamps per sheet (pane) and it comes to only 3 million panes of stamps. That's quite a small quantity, relatively speaking, and because they are not going to be available at local post offices, the quantity is probably more than sufficient for a "special" issue.

Make sense now