The Intaglio Dry Printing Of US Postage Stamps (First Presses)

The USBEP issued its first sheet-fed intaglio (Hoe) flat plate press dry printed (on pre-gummed paper sheets) Scott 1041 sheet postage stamp on April 9, 1954. This was shortlived with the last such U.S. postage stamp being Scott 1053 which was issued on March 19, 1956.


The USBEP issued its first sheet-fed intaglio (Miehle) rotary plate press dry printed (on pre-gummed paper sheets) Scott 1041B sheet postage stamp on April 9, 1954*. However, this press was replaced by the sheet-fed intaglio Giori rotary plate dry printing press (which used pre-gummed paper sheets) from 1956 to 1985 starting with Scott 1094 which was issued on July 4, 1957.

The web-fed Huck and Cottrell intaglio rotary plate presses that were used starting in the 1950s to start replacing the Stickney rotary plate press (1914-1962) both still used web rolls of un-gummed paper that were wetted by these presses but which contained less water (5%-10%) as so called "dry" than those that were wetted by the Stickney rotary press (15%-35%) as so called "wet" and these presses also still gummed the un-gummed paper rolls after the printed paper had dried after printing.


The Huck presses were used from 1950 to 1955 starting with Scott 1016 which was issued on November 21, 1952 but this stamp was wet printed so that its first dry (less wet) printed stamp was Scott 1063 which was issued on July 28, 1954.


The Cottrell presses which were used from 1955 to 1985 replaced the Huck presses and its first dry (less wet) printed stamp was Scott 1081 which was issued on August 5, 1956. It was not until March 1, 1971 that the USBEP issued its first web-fed intaglio (Cottrell) rotary plate press dry printed (on pre-gummed paper) Scott 1278a and 1393a (dull gum) booklet panes in Scott BK119 booklet. From the end of 1973 onwards, all stamps printed by the Cottrell presses were dry printed (on pre-gummed paper).


*The Overrun Countries Issue Scott 909-921 from 1943 to 1944 is considered to be the first sheet-fed intaglio rotary plate press dry printed (on pre-gummed paper sheets) U.S. postage stamps. However, these stamps were printed by the American Bank Note Company (ABNCo), New York, NY instead of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (USBEP), Washington, DC and these stamps were printed by two different printing processes that were put together with the frames being intaglio engraved and the centers being offset letter pressed instead of intaglio printing only.

Great post jogil, lots of good info there.

When you say
do you mean to say that only one press was used?
I have read that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing employed
four presses.

Also the BEP used various other intaglio dry printing presses
in the later part of the 20th Century.

A Press or press 702 was capable of producing up to eight colors (five-color gravure and three-color intaglio)installed in 1973.

C press ,web fed Goebel single- station three-color intaglio press obtained in 1982 printed numerous definitives during the eighties and nineties. Designated as Press 901.


D press was a Goebel six-color offset, three-color intaglio press obtained in 1984 was was frequently used to produce single-color definitive stamps. It was officially designated as press 902
Then why buy a press that was capable of printing 9 colours?

F press was a Goebel multi- station combination offset-intaglio press, with an intaglio station identical to that of the C press.

Then there was the Huck nine colour intaglio press used between 1968 - 1976 which was prone to printing problems and never lived up to potential.

lithograving: It would mean more than one of the same press (presses) but it covers them all as the same one type/kind of press. Also, I should change the title to early U.S. intaglio dry printing presses since there were many other ones like you have listed that came later. Thanks.

The sheet stamps gauge 11.25 x 10.5 or 10.5 x 11.25 for the web-fed rotary press stamps.
The sheet stamps gauge 11 x 11 for the sheet-fed flat press and sheet-fed rotary press stamps.