What Philately Teaches - A Lecture Delivered before the Section on Philately of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, February 24, 1899 by John N. Luff
page 32 of 49 (65%)
page 32 of 49 (65%)
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sufficient quantity to make the paper appear a faint rose color.
Manila is a coarse buff paper made from manila fibre. It is generally used for newspaper wrappers. It will scarcely be necessary to say that paper is found in a great variety of colors and that such colored paper has frequently been used for stamps. We cannot consider paper without treating of watermarks, since they are made in the process of paper making and constitute an important feature of stamp paper. Watermarks are designs impressed in the paper pulp. The paper is slightly thinner in the lines of these designs and appears lighter when held to the light. Of course you are all familiar with this appearance from having noticed the watermarks in note paper. On rare occasions the watermark is a thickening of the paper instead of a thinning. In such a case the watermark appears more opaque than the paper. Watermarks in paper used for stamps are, of course, intended as a security against counterfeiting. [Illustration: Watermark U.S.P. (mirrored letters)] There are a great variety of watermarks; words, letters, figures, heraldic devices, etc., etc. Sometimes the design covers the whole sheet and at other times several stamps, but usually there is a separate watermark for each stamp. The current stamps of the United States are watermarked with the letters "U. S. P. S.", United States Postal Service. This is so set up that the letters read in sequence from any point and in any direction. At one time several of the British colonies in Australia employed paper watermarked with a figure or word of the |
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