Press sheet

A press sheet is essentially a full printed sheet of stamps as it comes off the printing press. They are kept by printers as a reference, sometimes having notes added for colors used, changes that need to be made, etc. As such, they are usually imperf. These have come into collectors hands on occasion. The relatively more common finds today are full sheets of the US "Farley" issues, typically rolled and with some degree of damage over the years.

However, this practical concept has been been turned into a philatelic money-making device when full printed sheets are sold to collectors. The USPS has been selling press sheets of its issues for some time n ow, for example. In the case of self-adhesives, they are offered with both die-cut or imperf stamps. That alone should give an idea that what you are getting is not a genuine artifact of the printing process.

Storage and display problems alone should discourage collecting these, but collectors will be collectors. Can we guess that collections of these will be a source of interesting discount postage stamps in the future? That is, assuming the adhesive holds up over time. 



[[Category:P]]