GDR - small collection of phase prints **
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Selected by Benedikt Reichl
Over 40 years of collection expertise and 15 years of stamp trading experience.
Estimate € 150 - € 200
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Description from the seller
A small collection of phase prints ** Michel value over €2,700.00
Buy It Now for €102
What are phase prints:
Anyone who likes to pick up a brush themselves – whether as an artist or as a DIY enthusiast – knows the inescapable truth: After the actual work comes the big cleanup – and it can cost as much nerves as the work itself. It may be a small consolation that others don’t have it any easier. Every industry that handles colors faces the same problem. In the printing industry color rollers and printing plates must be continuously cleaned to re-expose the color droplets and thus guarantee constant color uptake capacity and print quality. The cleaning here, however, is not done with rags and soap, but with dry ice, ultrasound, or laser.
In stamp printing these cleaning processes not only give us razor-sharp and high-quality postage stamps. They also create philatelic peculiarities that wonderfully document the manufacturing process of a stamp. Because after cleaning, the cleanliness of the printing plates is first tested before the actual printing job begins. Thus arise the test prints, trial prints, or phase prints.
In multicolor printing, the stamp image is gradually assembled with the help of several printing forms. So a stamp requires several inspection passes – after all, each color should come from a perfectly cleaned printing form. At the same time, the alignment of the different printing forms should also be checked. Therefore, each phase of the print is tested separately. The result is the so-called phase prints.
Using the postage issue of the GDR, for example (not included in the lot) “20 Years of the Society for Sport and Technology” from 1972, one can pictorially follow the process. The stamp image of no. MiNr. 1777 consists of four colors: gray, turquoise blue, olive yellow, and violet ultramarine.
In the first step of print control only the gray color is applied to unperforated paper. It is still impossible to guess what motif it could be. The second phase print adds gray and turquoise blue – it creates an image that could depict a rotor. In the third phase olive yellow is added. Now we clearly recognize that it’s about shipping – and that the register marks line up, the image parts fit together perfectly. The fourth and final phase print shows the finished image and is – except for the perforation – identical to the final stamp.
By the way, these phase prints of MiNr. 1777 are being revealed for the first time in MICHEL-Deutschland-Spezial 2023. To illustrate the valuation principle, we disclose their price here exceptionally: a price range of €20 to €80 is given. The low price applies to the first printing phase, i.e., the “stamp” in pure gray. The value then increases evenly up to the four-color phase print, i.e., the two-color costs €40, the three-color €60, and the four-color €80. Not bad when you consider that normal stamps are in the cent range.
Phase prints, by the way, never carried postage value – not even the four-color ones. They don’t have to. They’re beautiful anyway.
Source Michel
see photos
A small collection of phase prints ** Michel value over €2,700.00
Buy It Now for €102
What are phase prints:
Anyone who likes to pick up a brush themselves – whether as an artist or as a DIY enthusiast – knows the inescapable truth: After the actual work comes the big cleanup – and it can cost as much nerves as the work itself. It may be a small consolation that others don’t have it any easier. Every industry that handles colors faces the same problem. In the printing industry color rollers and printing plates must be continuously cleaned to re-expose the color droplets and thus guarantee constant color uptake capacity and print quality. The cleaning here, however, is not done with rags and soap, but with dry ice, ultrasound, or laser.
In stamp printing these cleaning processes not only give us razor-sharp and high-quality postage stamps. They also create philatelic peculiarities that wonderfully document the manufacturing process of a stamp. Because after cleaning, the cleanliness of the printing plates is first tested before the actual printing job begins. Thus arise the test prints, trial prints, or phase prints.
In multicolor printing, the stamp image is gradually assembled with the help of several printing forms. So a stamp requires several inspection passes – after all, each color should come from a perfectly cleaned printing form. At the same time, the alignment of the different printing forms should also be checked. Therefore, each phase of the print is tested separately. The result is the so-called phase prints.
Using the postage issue of the GDR, for example (not included in the lot) “20 Years of the Society for Sport and Technology” from 1972, one can pictorially follow the process. The stamp image of no. MiNr. 1777 consists of four colors: gray, turquoise blue, olive yellow, and violet ultramarine.
In the first step of print control only the gray color is applied to unperforated paper. It is still impossible to guess what motif it could be. The second phase print adds gray and turquoise blue – it creates an image that could depict a rotor. In the third phase olive yellow is added. Now we clearly recognize that it’s about shipping – and that the register marks line up, the image parts fit together perfectly. The fourth and final phase print shows the finished image and is – except for the perforation – identical to the final stamp.
By the way, these phase prints of MiNr. 1777 are being revealed for the first time in MICHEL-Deutschland-Spezial 2023. To illustrate the valuation principle, we disclose their price here exceptionally: a price range of €20 to €80 is given. The low price applies to the first printing phase, i.e., the “stamp” in pure gray. The value then increases evenly up to the four-color phase print, i.e., the two-color costs €40, the three-color €60, and the four-color €80. Not bad when you consider that normal stamps are in the cent range.
Phase prints, by the way, never carried postage value – not even the four-color ones. They don’t have to. They’re beautiful anyway.
Source Michel
see photos
Details
Era
1900-2000
Geographic origin
GDR
Condition
MNH (Mint never hinged)
Title
small collection of phase prints **
