Victorian Stamps with Advertising Printed to the reverse In the Auction section of this forum I have just linked to a pair of Victorian Stamps of 1893 from New Zealand with product advertising to the reverse, the sticky side. I suspect this may have been common but the pair listed have been through the then all by hand postal system and removed with the advertising clearly visible. The glue must have been poor or the printing excellent. Did many other countries print advertising on the reverse of stamps I wonder? https://www.stampexchange.com/threa...ith-advertising-to-reverse.7659/#post-2142069
Hi Bickerstonehall: Not sure about how many countries permitted advertising on stamps, but I seem to remember England did, at least during the Victorian period. I have a U.S. stamp, a 2 cents Columbian that has advertising for stamp mounts on its reverse. Looks like the ad was placed by a British stamp dealer. I've kept it as an anomaly. DonSellos
I think that 6d for 1000 stamp mounts is a much later addition to that stamp. 6d was quite a lot of money then and I not sure how many collectors there would have been then who would have collected and bought stamp mounts by the thousand. This Errington and Martin was printed after the stamp had gone through the postal system whereas product advertising was printed on the stamp before it passed though the postal system. I did find the information below. 'Errington & Martin is a stamp company that was established in England in 1880. The firm specialized in importing stamps and, later, in selling approvals worldwide. Part of the firm's focus was that all stamps sold by Errington & Martin were guaranteed genuine. Indeed, the company was known for its efforts at battling forgeries throughout the first half of the twentieth century'
In an article I wrote for our club earlier this year, I pointed out the New Zealand stamps from 1893 with the advertising slogans on the reverse. Apparently this was unpopular with the public who feared the health effects of licking printing ink off the gum side of the stamps and was discontinued after a year. These adverts. form a sort of time capsule for that year... Also three Romanov Dynasty type Russian stamps were issued in 1917, due to a coinage shortage. These Russian "stamps" are printed on thin cardboard, and were issued to be used in place of coins. The reverse of each "stamp" has Imperial Arms, the value, and a four-line inscription meaning " Having circulation on par with silver subsidiary coins."
Hi Bickerstonehall: Thank, you, a generous offer, but I doubt the stamp is worth that and I would not feel good about taking $20 for it. Let me send you a Conversation message later today. Surely we can work a deal as I really don't collect items like this and the stamp is just languishing in a stock book. DonSellos