Postage Stamp collecting

Various stamp shapes

In earlier times, postage stamps showed the portrait of a country’s ruler or coat of arms.
Today, almost any subject of daily living and the environment can be found on stamps.

There are basically two different kinds of postage stamps: "Regular Issue" stamps which are issued over a longer period of time, and "Special Issue" stamps sold over a short period of time only, commemorating a notable personality or special event. Sheets of stamps are divided by perforations to facilitate easy separation. In the past, stamps were also cut or punched from sheets. Stamps are issued in different formats: coils, sheets and stamp booklets as well as souvenir sheets. Sheets of stamps are sold with 9, 10, 20, 25, 50 and 100 stamps per sheet. The perforation holes and their distances from each other can vary greatly with each stamp. Stamps with differing perforations have separate catalog numbers and different prices. To determine the size of the perforation, you need a perforation gauge, which gives the number of holes in a 20 mm length.

In addition to the usual shapes (vertical and horizontal), there are also triangular, hexagonal, octagonal, trapezoid, and rhomboid stamps.
The smallest stamp issued to date measures 1.1 x 1.3 cm and the largest 9.4 x 7.2 cm.
Postage stamp paper may be smooth, ribbed or rough and more recently, postage stamps may have been coated with fluorescent or phosphorescent inks for electronic processing.

On the back of the postage stamp is the adhesive or gum. It should be free of finger prints. Recently, more and more countries have been introducing self-adhesive stamps.