Misplaced Pages

Se-tenant

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Globe icon.The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Se-tenant COLLECT and DUPLICATE stamps of the American Rapid Telegraph Company, 1881

Se-tenant stamps or labels are printed from the same plate and sheet and adjoin one another, unsevered in a strip or block. They differ from each other by design, color, denomination or overprint. They may have a continuous design. The word "se-tenant" translates from French as meaning "joined together" or "holding together".

There are differing ways of preparing a se-tenant sheet. One can have stamps of one design on half of the sheet and the second design on the other half. In this case, the only se-tenants would be in the center where the two halves meet. A more frequent set-up is to have pairs of differing stamps throughout the sheet. Sometimes when two different designs appear on a single pane, the stamps are arranged like a checkerboard, with the different designs alternating in each row and column horizontally and vertically. One can have a triptych, or a tête-bêche format (head to toe). Stamp booklets often contain se-tenant stamps or labels.

United States stamps

1971 Historic Preservation postage stamps in a block of four se-tenant stamps

Four of the U. S. Postmasters' Provisional stamp issues distributed between 1845 and 1847 were se-tenant productions: the Baltimore Postmaster's provisionals (two different images on a sheet of twelve), the St. Louis Bears (three different images on a sheet of six), the Providence R. I. provisionals (two different images on a sheet of twelve) and the Alexandria Postmaster's Provisionals (a pair of not-quite-identical 5¢ images). With the issuance of U. S. national postage stamps, which began in 1847, se-tenant production disappeared from the nation for 117 years, not introduced until the 1964 Christmas Issue, which presented images of holly, mistletoe, poinsettia and a conifer sprig in a block of four stamps. After 1967, the U. S. began offering se-tenant issues with some frequency.

The US has since printed as many as 50 different stamps on a single sheet, such as in the 50 state flags, birds and flowers. Se-tenant stamps began as issues of separate designs that were simply attached to one another, but have developed to issues where the stamps are part of a larger continuous design.

References

  1. Baadke, Michael (2000-04-27). "Se-tenant stamps are different designs united". Insights. Linn's Stamp News. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  2. Carlton, R. Scott (1997). The International Encyclopædic Dictionary of Philatelics. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. p. 240. ISBN 0-87341-448-9.
  3. Bennett, Russell and James Watson. (1978) Philatelic Terms Illustrated. London: Stanley Gibbons Publications.
  4. Room, Adrian. (2000) Cassell's Foreign Words and Phrases. London: Cassell & Co., p. 329. ISBN 0304350087

External links

Categories: