| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| 1d 1s | In Victorian Great Britain there were 12 pence (12d) to one shilling (1s) and 20 shilling to the pound (£1) therefore 240 pence (240d) to the pound. |
| Alphabet | The line-engraved stamps used five different alphabets for the corner letters (the last is sans serif, 1d 1864, 2d 1858) |
| Bantams | 1870 ½d stamp (I assume that these are called Bantams because of their small size) |
| Blued paper | The blue colour was the result of a chemical reaction between the paper and the fugitive ink introduced in 1841 (made fugitive by the addition of prussiate of potash to the red ink). |
| Cancels | Cancellation or postmark, this is designed to prevent the stamp being used again, but also has other interesting information like the town and the date. |
| Commemoratives | Stamps that commemorate an event, the normal stamps are definitives |
| Corner letters | Line-engraved and many surface-printed stamps have corner letters that allow us to identify the position of a stamp on the plate, eg. AA, AB, AC etc |
| Current number | The date sequence in which plates of all values (1d, 2d etc) are made by a printer (Perkins or De La Rue). This included stamps not used for postage such as revenue and telegraph stamps. Hence the current number for postage stamps would have gaps in the sequence. |
| Definitive stamps | Stamps ordinarily used for postage rather than special commemorative issues, the first GB commemorative stamps were the 1924 Wembley issue. |
| Die | The original design of the stamp in metal, two dies were used for the line-engraved 1d and 2d. A transfer roller is used to transfer the design from the die to the plate. |
| Downey Heads | The design of the head on the new 1911 king George V definitives was based on a photograph by W & D Downey the court photographers. The head is three quarters left rather than full left as on previous stamps and it was very unpopular with the public and was changed to full left in 1912. |
| Embossed | The 1847-54 6d to 1s values were embossed onto the paper so that the design appears raised on the paper. See the scan of the 1s value |
| Entire | Envelope complete with stamp and postmark |
| Fugitive ink | The ink will run if wetted |
| High Values | This usually refers to the high value definitives that have a larger design than the low value definitives eg. values 2s6d, 5s, 10s, £1, £5 |
| Imperf | No perforations, the stamps had to be cut using scissors |
| Imprimatur | By official regulations, whenever a plate was laid down, an impression on the same watermarked paper and in the selected colour to be used for the issued stamp was submitted to Somerset House for approval. This sheet, when approved and placed in the archives, was known as the imprimatur sheet. Some stamps have been removed from the sheets and end up in collections. (These can often be recognised because they are imperf and the issued stamp was perforated) |
| Ivory head | An ivory head is due to the absence of ink on the head, so that it appears white (ivory) against a blue background on the back of the stamp. |
| Line-engraved | This is the printing process for the low value definitive stamps from the 1840 Penny Black onwards to 1879. The ink is in the engraved part of the design and forced onto the paper by pressure (intaglio), printed by Perkins, Bacon & Petch (from 1852 Perkins, Bacon & Co.) Perkins printed the low value ½d-2d line-engraved stamps from 1840 to 1879. |
| Machins | The design of Queen Elizabeth definitives (1967-) is based on a plaster cast by Arnold Machin (1911-99) |
| Maltese cross | Cancellation in the form of a Maltese cross used on line-engraved stamps from 1840-44, it can have different colours, numbers in centre and slightly different designs |
| Margin | The margin around stamps in a plate or pane. Also called selvage. This can contain words and other markings of interest to the philatelist. |
| Marginal inscription | The words printed in the margin of a plate of stamps |
| Marginal ornament | Name given to an ornamental design that marks the mid-point of a line-engraved sheet |
| Mint | Unused stamp. Most Victorian stamps are mounted mint, i.e. stamp hinges have been used to mount them in an album. Unmounted stamps are worth more. |
| Mulready | Designer of the prepaid letter-sheets and envelopes issued at the same time as the Penny Black |
| Overprints | Just two GB overprints plus quite a few used in the colonies |
| Pane | A plate of stamps is sub-divided into groups of stamps called a pane. Only the surface-printed stamps were printed with panes. |
| Perforations | The little holes in Tetley tea-bags, also the rows of little holes between stamps that allow stamps to be easily separated without using scissors |
| Perf 14 | 14 perforations in 2 centimeters (invented by a Frenchman in 1866 hence the metric units). Perf 16 and 14 were originally used, but perf 14 became the standard because a sheet of stamps was too fragile to handle using perf 16. |
| Perforated stars | The name given to the perforated penny reds from 1854 to 1864, these had a star design in the top two corners, which changed to letters in all for corners in 1864. |
| Philatelist | Philatelist=Greek philo- (love), + Greek ateleia, exemption from payment (because a postage stamp indicates prepayment of postage). A philatelist does not necessarily collect stamps, he studies them. You could say that it is attention to detail that makes the difference between a collector and a philatelist. |
| Plate number | The sequence in which a plate of a particular value (eg. 1d) is made. Die I of the 1d has plates 1 to 204, Die II has plates 1 to 225. New plates were required because they wore with use. The Penny Black was printed using 11 plates. i.e. plates 1 to 11. |
| Postal history | Refers to letters sent through the post before and after stamps were issued in 1840. The postal historian is interested in the cancellations and other envelope markings as well as the stamp. |
| reperforated | Some wing-margin stamps have been reperforated to remove the wing-margin to make them look nice. Reperforated stamps can be detected by checking the corner letters. |
| Ribbing | The watermark in the margin on most line-engraved stamps includes 5 lines, these can frequently be seen on the left and right-hand margins |
| Sea Horses | Popular name for the king George V high values, they depict three horses pulling Britannia along the ocean waves. Britannia was the Roman name for England and Wales and was immortalised in the anthem "Rule Britannia" in 1740 "Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves" |
| Selvage | The margin around a pane or plate of stamps |
| SG number | Stanley Gibbons catalogue number (Concise). Sometimes the Stanley Gibbons specialised number is used (DP20, DP43, J59s, L237 |
| Sheet | The paper size for line-engraved stamps was 10½ x 19¾ inches (26.7 x 50.2 cm) and there are 20 rows of 12 stamps on the sheet |
| Specimen | Stamps overprinted "specimen" and sent to postmasters or the UPU as an example of a new stamp |
| Surface-printed | The ink is on the surface of the plate rather than in the grooves as in line-engraved. Printed by Thomas De La Rue & Co., London. The surface-printed stamps were printed from 1855 |
| Trial | A trial is an internal experimental test to try out various colours, or cancellation inks etc before the stamp is issued. Various trials are represented on the site: the rainbow colour trials of 1840, 1841 2d small plate trial , 4d colour trials plate 15 in 1876, High Value Colour Trials 1878 . |
| UPU | Universal Postal Union Established in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) with its Headquarters in the Swiss capital Bern, is the second oldest international organisation after the International Telecommunications Union. |
| Watermark | When the paper is made pieces of wire shaped as a small or large crown (line-engraved stamps) are used so that the paper is thinner as it touches the wire and the resulting sheet shows the design seen from the back of the stamp in water or benzene or held up to the light |
| Wildings | Queen Elizabeth definitives based on portrait by Dorothy Wilding |
| Wing-margin | The surface printed stamps 1855-1880 were printed in panes and the stamps at the edge of a pane had large margins (wing-margins) |