Postage stamp design
Most important is the denomination indicating its monetary value, while international agreements require a country name on almost all types of stamps.
A number of recent stamps have substituted a textual description of the rate being charged, such as "1st" for first-class letters, or "presorted ZIP+4" to indicate a particular type of bulk mail.
Canada also uses a non-numerical denomination, the mark "P" printed over a maple leaf, on its domestic postage rate stamps.
[1] Semi-postal stamps are usually denominated with two values, with a "+" between, the first indicating the actual rate, and the second the additional amount to be given to a charity.
Usage pattern has varied considerably; for 60 years, from 1840 to 1900, all British stamps used exactly the same portrait bust of Victoria, enclosed in a dizzying variety of frames, while Spain periodically updated the image of Alfonso XIII as he grew from child to adult.
While numeral designs are eminently practical, in that they emphasize the most important element of the stamp, they are the exception rather than the rule.
The choice of image is nearly unlimited, ranging from plants and animals, to figures from history, to landscapes, to original artwork.
In some cases, overt political pressure has resulted in a backlash; a famous example is that of the US in the late 1940s, when the US Congress had direct authority over stamp design, and a large number of issues were put out merely to please a representative's constituency or industry lobbyists.
Occasionally the public is polled for its choice of design, as with the US Elvis stamp of 1993, or some issues of the Celebrate the Century series.
In addition to the expected denomination and country name, textual elements may include a statement of purpose ("postage", "official mail", etc.
), a plate number, the name of a person being portrayed, the occasion being commemorated, the year of stamp issue, and national mottoes.
Labuan is an early example; more recently, stamps of Israel include its name in Hebrew, Latin, and Arabic characters.
Chinese stamps of the 1940s have secret marks in the form of slightly altered characters, where two arms might be changed to touch, when previously they were separate.
The smallest postage stamp on record was issued by Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1856, and was a square, with sides measuring 10 millimeters.
The biggest stamps in history were used in the United States from 1865 and measured 52 by 95 millimeters, but were used exclusively for mailing newspapers.
Stamp design has undergone a gradual process of evolution, traceable both to advances in printing technology and general changes in taste.
A 2004 example is the Lewis and Clark stamps of the US, whose frames are classic 19th-century, surrounding full-color portraits of a quality not available until the latter half of the 20th century.
Once a general subject has been chosen, the postal administration typically contracts an outside artist to produce a design.
In the end, successful stamp designs receive relatively little notice from the general public, but considerable praise from the philatelic press.
Errors have ranged from minute points of rendition (such as the subtly reversed ears on an Austrian stamp of the 1930s), to misrepresentations of disputed territory in maps, to mistaken text ("Sir Codrington" on 1920s Greece), to the truly spectacular, such as the US "Legends of the West" sheet using the picture of the wrong person.
", which must have looked good during the design process, but affixed to the corner of an envelope it suggests that the recipient is an alcoholic in need of public encouragement, and few people ever used this stamp on their mail.
