Niuafoʻou (Tonga) 1993 "10 years of Niuafo’ou's stamps"
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| Issue Date | 03.05.1993 |
| ID | Michel: 241-242; Scott: 156-157; Stanley Gibbons: 186-187; Yvert et Tellier: 185-186; Category: pR |
| Design | Mr. Ray Edge, Walsall Security Printers of London, UK |
| Stamps in set | 2 |
| Value |
60s - The map of the Niuafoʻou Island and Dinosaurs: Iguanodon, Brachiosaurus and Rhamphorhynchid in background 80s - The map of the Niuafoʻou Island and Dinosaurs: Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus |
| Emission/Type | commemorative |
| Issue place | Niuafoʻou |
| Size (width x height) | 35 mm x 30 mm |
| Layout | Sheets of 25 stamps (?) |
| Products | FDC x1 |
| Paper | |
| Perforation | 14.5 x 14.25 |
| Print Technique | Offset, multicolor |
| Printed by | Walsall Security Printers of London, UK |
| Quantity | |
| Issuing Authority | Post office of the Government of Tonga |
On May 3rd, 1993, the Post office of the Government of Tonga on behalf of their Niuafo'ou Island, issued a set of 2 stamps "10 years of Niuafo’ou's stamps".
The left side of each stamp shows a map of the Niuafoʻou Island.
The right side of each stamp reproduces one of the dinosaur stamps from the "Evolution of the Earth (IV)" set, issued two months earlier.
During the "Dinosaurs Time" the Island did not exist. Niuafo'ou is a subaerial shield volcano formed by submarine explosive and effusive activity during the Holocene. (The Holocene is the current geological Epoch, which began approximately 11,650 years before present.
Products and associated philatelic items
| FDC | Cromalin Proofs [1] | Plate Proofs [2] |
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| Specimens [3] |
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| Printed in sheets of 20 stamps and 5 tabs in the middle | ||
Notes:
[1] The Cromalin Proofs are thick cardboard and in full colour, a proofing method used by Walsall Security Printers in which full color proofs are produced directly from the color separations prior to final production of the printing plates.
Each color is layered on top of the next thus building up to the full color design. The cromalin proofs never left the printing house in UK and were issued in small amount (3 or 4 pieces each).
[2] he Plate Proofs printed one sheet of plate proofs first, this sheet was taken for checking and approval by Walsall Security Printers company and the officials of Tonga.
After it passed the necessary checks, this imperforated proof sheet was placed in the printers archives and was left imperforated. All other sheets issued were perforated.
The Tongan plate proofs are genuine proofs done by the printers for checking purposes then kept until recently in the printers' archives.
[3] The "SPECIMEN" overprint in black was the normal specimen overprint done for most sets ot Tonga from 1981 to 1997.
[4] Tonga did not issue any imperforate stamps from this set, the only imperforates known are genuine plate proofs, and come from the Walsall Security Printers archives.
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References
- Technical details and stamps presentation:
colnect
Acknowledgements:
- Many thanks to Mr. Greg Jorgensen from Australia, who sells philatelic materials from the archive of Walsall Security Printers on the Internet under the moniker tonga2, for explanations about their printing process.
- Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his very valuable comments.
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