Niuafoʻou (Tonga) 1996
"XIII Congress of international union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric science"
U N D E R C O N S T R U C T I O N
Issue Date |
14.09.1993 |
ID |
Michel: 303-304,
Scott:
Stanley Gibbons:
Yvert:
UPU: N/A Category: pR |
Designer |
Derek Miller |
Stamps in set |
2 |
Value |
T$1 - Prehistoric humans and animals: Cro Magnon man, Mammoth, Sabretooth Tiger and more.
T$1 - Anticient humans
|
Size (width x height) |
50mm x 35mm |
Layout |
Mini-Sheet of 6 stamps (3 stripes of 2 stamps) |
Products |
FDC x1 |
Paper |
|
Perforation |
12.25 x 12 |
Print Technique |
Offset, multicolor |
Printed by |
Walsall Security Printers of London, UK |
Quantity |
|
Issuing Authority |
Post office of the Goverment of Tonga |
On September 1
st of 1995 the Post office of the Goverment of
Tonga
on behalf their Niuafo'ou Island, issued the set of 2 stamps "XIII Congress of international union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric science".
These stamps shows some scense of prehistoric and anticient humans life.
Four days later, on September 5
th, Post Authority of
Tonga issued similar stamp set with the same title:
"XIII Congress of international union of prehistoric and protohistoric sciences".
Joint issue of Tonga 1996 (MiNr.: 1429-1430, Scott: 929a-b) and Niuafo’ou (MiNr.: 303-304, Scott: 190).
Products
Tonga did not issue any imperforated stamps from this set,
the only imperforated szuff known are genuine plate proofs, and come from the Walsall Security Printers archives.
FDC |
Mini-Sheet |
Used Cover |
 |
 |
 |
Monochrome Proof [1] |
Plate Proof [2] |
Specimens [3] |
 |
 |
 |
Notes:
[1]
Monochrome Proofs were done on thin card and in black and white by Walsall Security Printers of London UK,
and were used to check the design.
The monochrome proofs were, usually, produced in amount of 20, then sent to Tonga
for the officials to check.
When accepted, they were sent to stamp magazines to illustrate the upcoming new issues.
[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:
Stamp designer Derek Miller
Acknowledgement:
-
Many thanks to fellow collector Mr. Peter Brandhuber from Germany, for sharing some scans his collection.
-
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.