Niuafoʻou (Tonga) 1993
"10 years of Niuafo’ou's stamps"
U N D E R C O N S T R U C T I O N
Issue Date |
03.05.1993 |
ID |
Michel: 239-240,
Scott: 156-157
Stanley Gibbons: 186-187
Yvert:
UPU: N/A Category: pR |
Designer |
Mr. Ray Edge, Walsall Security Printers of London, UK |
Stamps in set |
2 |
Value |
60s - The map of the Niuafoʻou Island and Herbivorous Dinosaurs: Iguanodon, Brachiosaurus and Rhamphorhynchid in background
80s - The map of the Niuafoʻou Island and Carnivorous Dinosaurs: Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus
|
Size (width x height) |
35mm x 30mm |
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 Goverment of Tonga |
On May 3
rd of 1993, the Post office of the Government of
Tonga
on behalf their Niuafo'ou Island, issued a set of 2 stamps "10 years of Niuafo’ou's stamps".
The left side of each stamp shows the 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 was 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, began approximately 11,650 years before present).
Products
Tonga did not issue any imperf stamps from this set,
the only imperfs known are genuine plate proofs, and come from the Walsall Security Printers archives.
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] The
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.
References:
- [R1] Technical details and stamps presentation:
Acknowledgement:
-
Many thanks to Mr. Greg Jorgensen from Australia, who sells philatelic materials from archive of
Walsall Security Printers on the Internet under nickname tonga2, for explanations about their printing process.