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
small collection of phase prints ** Michelwert over 2700.00 €
Buy-it-now for 102 €
What are phase prints:
Anyone who enjoys picking up a brush – whether as an artist or as a DIY enthusiast – knows the unavoidable 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 aren’t any different. Every industry that works with colors faces the same problem. In the printing industry, color rollers and printing formes must be continuously cleaned to free the color wells again and thus guarantee constant color uptake capacity and print quality. Here, however, the cleaning is not done with a wipe and soap, but with dry ice, ultrasound, or laser.
In stamp printing, these cleaning processes not only yield precisely sharp and high-quality postage stamps. They also create philatelic peculiarities that wonderfully document the production process of a stamp. After cleaning, the cleanliness of the printing formes is tested before the actual printing job begins. This is how proofs, trial prints, or phase prints arise.
In multicolor printing, the brand image is gradually assembled with the help of several printing formes. So several inspection passes are required for a single stamp – after all, each color should come from a perfectly cleaned forme. At the same time, the fit of the different formes should be checked. Each phase of the printing is tested individually. The result is the so-called phase prints.
Using the postage stamp issue of the GDR, e.g. (not included here) "20 Years of Society for Sport and Technology" of 1972, one can visually follow the process. The image of MiNr. 1777 consists of four colors: gray, turquoise blue, olive yellow, and violet ultramarine.
In the first step of the print control, only the gray color is applied to unperforated paper. It is still impossible to guess what the motif might be. The second phase print adds gray and turquoise blue – creating an image that could depict a rotor. In the third phase olive yellow is added. Now we can clearly recognize that it concerns maritime affairs – and also that the color registration matches, with the image parts fitting together perfectly. The fourth and final phase print shows the finished image and is – apart from the perforation – identical to the final stamp.
These phase prints of MiNr. 1777 are, by the way, newly discovered in MICHEL-Deutschland-Spezial 2023. To illustrate the valuation principle, we disclose their price here exceptionally: a price range of 20 to 80 euros is given. The lower price applies to the first printing phase, i.e., the “stamp” in pure gray. The value then increases evenly until the phase print with four colors is reached, i.e., the two-color costs 40, the three-color 60, and the four-color 80 euros. Not bad, considering that normal stamps are in the cent range.
Phase prints, by the way, never carried full postage – not even the four-color ones. They don’t have to. They’re beautiful as they are.
Source Michel
see photos
small collection of phase prints ** Michelwert over 2700.00 €
Buy-it-now for 102 €
What are phase prints:
Anyone who enjoys picking up a brush – whether as an artist or as a DIY enthusiast – knows the unavoidable 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 aren’t any different. Every industry that works with colors faces the same problem. In the printing industry, color rollers and printing formes must be continuously cleaned to free the color wells again and thus guarantee constant color uptake capacity and print quality. Here, however, the cleaning is not done with a wipe and soap, but with dry ice, ultrasound, or laser.
In stamp printing, these cleaning processes not only yield precisely sharp and high-quality postage stamps. They also create philatelic peculiarities that wonderfully document the production process of a stamp. After cleaning, the cleanliness of the printing formes is tested before the actual printing job begins. This is how proofs, trial prints, or phase prints arise.
In multicolor printing, the brand image is gradually assembled with the help of several printing formes. So several inspection passes are required for a single stamp – after all, each color should come from a perfectly cleaned forme. At the same time, the fit of the different formes should be checked. Each phase of the printing is tested individually. The result is the so-called phase prints.
Using the postage stamp issue of the GDR, e.g. (not included here) "20 Years of Society for Sport and Technology" of 1972, one can visually follow the process. The image of MiNr. 1777 consists of four colors: gray, turquoise blue, olive yellow, and violet ultramarine.
In the first step of the print control, only the gray color is applied to unperforated paper. It is still impossible to guess what the motif might be. The second phase print adds gray and turquoise blue – creating an image that could depict a rotor. In the third phase olive yellow is added. Now we can clearly recognize that it concerns maritime affairs – and also that the color registration matches, with the image parts fitting together perfectly. The fourth and final phase print shows the finished image and is – apart from the perforation – identical to the final stamp.
These phase prints of MiNr. 1777 are, by the way, newly discovered in MICHEL-Deutschland-Spezial 2023. To illustrate the valuation principle, we disclose their price here exceptionally: a price range of 20 to 80 euros is given. The lower price applies to the first printing phase, i.e., the “stamp” in pure gray. The value then increases evenly until the phase print with four colors is reached, i.e., the two-color costs 40, the three-color 60, and the four-color 80 euros. Not bad, considering that normal stamps are in the cent range.
Phase prints, by the way, never carried full postage – not even the four-color ones. They don’t have to. They’re beautiful as they are.
Source Michel
see photos
Details
Era
1900-2000
Geographic origin
GDR
Condition
MNH (Mint never hinged)
Title
small collection of phase prints **
