Poor Man's Zeppelins

I came across a BEP Souvenir Card from the 1971 ASDA Postage Stamp Show that had reproduced the C13-C16 Zeppelin set (sans denomination). Beautiful engravings! Does anyone know how these (and other Souvenir Cards) were made? The engravings look exactly like the original and I was wondering if original dies were somehow used.

I think I'll skip spending thousands to fill those spaces in the album with these. If I cut them right, I can send them into PSE and get 100J certificates!

Canyoneer

This souvenir card indicates the print is from an adaptation of the original die. Note there is no value on any of the stamps.

Original. Click to see larger image.

The reproductions do look nice!

Once you get past the Zepps, the road to completing your US airmail collection is wide open!

Jack Kelley

Finding them on cover is difficult.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing began their "official" souvenir card program in 1969. The USPS put out their first card in 1960, but didn't really get started putting out regular cards until the 1970s. You can take a look at all these cards on the Souvenir Card Collectors Society website:
BEP cards - http://www.souvenircards.org/galler...b-index.html
USPS cards - http://www.souvenircards.org/gallery/PS/PS.html

The BEP chose to reprint the stamps on their cards at original size, but removed the denominations so they would not be confused with valid postage stamps. USPS cards (which were also printed by the Bureau, under contract) left the denominations, but instead enlarged the stamp images by 150% to 200%.

There are a couple more Zep cards you might be interested in -- and these are far cheaper than the genuine article, too.

I picked up a few facsimile sheetlets of used versions of the Zeppelins from H.E. Harris (I think). I cut one up and put the stamps in my album. If you don't look too closely, it almost looks like they're in mounts.

Moschophoros

The color of those reproductions helps distinguish them from genuine stamps.

Haha. It certainly does. I'm not trying to fool anyone, just filling some holes until I strike it rich. ;)