Help needed with Old Glory booklet stamps

[john6625]

Hi.

As we all know there are no stupid questions.....but as I don't collect US I am sure this probably fits into the stupid question category.  Also if this is in the wrong thread could a moderator please move it?

I recently came by a small box of mint US booklets, mostly from the early to mid nineties. There were a few non denominated booklets and some research indicated that the value is set at when these were initially bought. For the issue I am inquiring about 32c (Old Glory  USA G).

Now my question is why the different colour 'G'.  I have blue, red and black and the booklets are all dated 1992?  Also is the rate correct?




Thanks in advance for any info.

[Butterfly]

Regular Scott catalog wasn't much help.

[tomd]

Here is what I have for you from Scott Catalog 2009, I hope this helps.

[john6625]

Thanks Butterflies and tomd. Just what I was after Tom.

Thanks

[Butterfly]

The three different booklets were apparently produced by three different printers. Maybe the USPS opted to let the printers do it "their way", allowing for cheaper contracts?

[khj]

Mar 14, 2016 4:25:00 GMT -5 john6625 said:

Now my question is why the different colour 'G'.  I have blue, red and black and the booklets are all dated 1992?

There were a total of 5 different printers for all the various G stamps. The water-activated gum booklets were produced by 3 of the printers. The reason for the different colors were:

1. To easily identify the printer for water-activated booklet stamps

black: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP)
red: KCS Industries (KCS), plate number starts with "K"
blue: American Bank Note Company (ABN), plate number starts with "A"

2. To milk collectors for more money

The other 2 printers for the some of the other stamp formats were Stamp Venturers (plate number start or ends with "S") and Avery-Dennison (the self-adhesive stamps, plate number start with "V")

[Butterfly]

Thanks k for the additional info.
While on the subject of dumb questions, here's another one.

Are there any modern US stamps having identical(or nearly identical) appearance produced by more than one printer??

[khj]

Mar 14, 2016 12:13:02 GMT -5 Butterfly said:

While on the subject of dumb questions, here's another one.

Are there any modern US stamps having identical(or nearly identical) appearance produced by more than one printer??

Of course, on Stamp Bears there is no such thing as a dumb question.

The short answer is yes. However, I cannot think of a specific example at the moment. When it comes to me, I'll post it.

Stamps that are visually indistinguishable to the unaided eye have been printed by different press types, and also by different printers. However, in some cases the press/print can be determined by the type of paper used -- this requires the use of additional equipment such as UV lamp.

[john6625]

Thanks khj I thought it may have had something to do with reprints but different printers makes perfect sense now.

It's also good to see that Australia Post isn't the only service in the world that likes to gouge it's customers of thier hard earned.

[khj]

john6625, since you mentioned that you had other booklets...

FYI, from the 2015 Scott US Specialized catalog, the 3 booklets you have appear to correspond to (check face value of booklet in case I saw your pic incorrectly):

black G: $3.20 booklet, BK220 = $6.50
red G: $6.40 booklet, BK223 = $19
blue G: $6.40 booklet, BK222 = $13

The blue G booklet also exists as a $3.20 booklet.
The black G booklets BK220 and BK221, and the blue G booklet BK222 have more than one set of plate numbers.

The black G $3.20 booklet also exists as BK219 (perf 11.2x11.1), so you may want to check to see if you have that one. Except for the perforation, it looks almost identical to the BK220 (perf 10x9.9) you showed.

[john6625]

Thanks khj.

Here is what I have.

1 x $3.20 Black G perf 10x9.9
1 x $6.40 Black G perf 10x9.9
1 x $3.20 Black G Perf 11.2x11.1
1 x $6.40 Blue G
1 x $6.40 Red G

Also the perf 11.2x11.1 booklet has a shiny cover to the booklet compared to the other two. The different perf booklet is the one on the RHS.



Thanks for the info

[tony]

Hi john6625

The G rate stamps where first issued on Dec 13 1994 through to 1995 in Scott specialized they start at 2877, also if you look at Steiner pages there are spaces for 17 stamps.

I still do not have all of them. Hope this is of some help.

[john6625]

Thanks Tony. It is interesting that they were issued in 1994, but the booklets show a 1992 date, presumably when they were actually printed.

[khj]

Mar 16, 2016 6:03:22 GMT -5 john6625 said:

Thanks Tony. It is interesting that they were issued in 1994, but the booklets show a 1992 date, presumably when they were actually printed.

That is correct. They were produced well in advance, so that adequate supplies would be available for the rate change. Although we don't use much postage now, back then for the country the size of the US, they would have to have hundreds of millions of stamps available for distribution within 2-3 months.

In case anybody was wondering why the letter "G" instead of the amount "32¢", USPS needed to get approval for any rate hikes. There was no guarantee that they would get the rate hike requested, and back then the "forever" stamp concept had not caught on. So USPS would print a "letter" stamp in preparation for the next unknown rate hike, with the amount announced with the rate hike (i.e., after the printing). So: A=15¢, B=18¢, C=20¢, D=22¢, E=25¢, F=29¢, G=32¢, H=33¢. After that, USPS prepared non-denominated stamps that were simply inscribed "FIRST CLASS". Later on, the "FOREVER STAMPS" came out.

[khj]

Mar 15, 2016 4:13:34 GMT -5 john6625 said:

Also the perf 11.2x11.1 booklet has a shiny cover to the booklet compared to the other two.

That is correct. The various booklet covers came in slightly different color shades, and also in as shiny/dull. However for each particular printer/value, there are no multiple variations that I know of (i.e., only one of type of cover for each printer/value combination). So I didn't list out the cover types.

The only collectible varieties for the booklet specialist would be the plate positions based on the markings on the tab. There are a few for this issue that have a slight premium, but nothing to write home about and difficult to find a buyer willing to pay that premium.

[john6625]

Thanks khj, I was wondering why US Post just didn't issue forever stamps. Seems to be quite are varied collecting area.