Postal stationery, i.e., envelopes, postcards, letter-cards, wrappers, telegram forms, &c.: frequently termed entires.
Postmark.—The official obliteration applied to a stamp to prevent its further postal use.
Pre-cancelled.—Two or three countries have adopted the system, to save time in the post-office, of supplying sheets of stamps cancelled prior to use. This may be a convenience, but the practice undoubtedly opens the door to possible fraud.
Print is an impression taken from any die, plate, forme, or stone.
Printing, in its fullest sense, is reproducing from a die, plate, stereotype, &c. (all of which see). There are, on this definition, four kinds of production: "Embossing," where the paper is impressed with a raised design, by pressure from a cut-out die (see Embossed); "Surface-printing" or "typography," where the portions of the plate which receive the ink and print the design are raised: this process causes a slight indentation on the surface of the paper and a corresponding elevation at the back; "Printing direct from plate" (so-called Line-engraved, which see), in which the portions to be inked are recessed: in this process, the printed design on the stamps is in very slight relief, due to the ink being taken from the recessed engraving. "Lithography" is printing from a stone, on which the design has been drawn or otherwise laid down: impressions from a stone are flat.
Proof.—An impression, properly in black, from the die, plate, or stone, taken in order to see if the design, &c., has been properly engraved or reproduced.
Provisional.—A make-shift intended to supply a temporary want of the proper stamp, which may have been unexpectedly sold out, or may not have been supplied owing to lack of time.
Quadrillé.—See Paper.
Re-issue denotes the bringing again into use of a stamp which has become obsolete, or at any rate has been long out of use at the post-office; it sometimes implies a new printing.