By Diana Revelins
Renowned South African philatelist Jan Hofmeyr, who clinched the prestigious single-frame Champion of Champions award in 2022 at Chicagopex, has now made British Columbia his home.
In this month’s Stamp Talks, Hofmeyr shared invaluable lessons he learned while writing Understanding the Grill Stamps of the United States.
“One of the biggest surprises to me,” said Hofmeyr, “was discovering how the United States post office at the time thought the grill method might actually work.”
The National Bank Note Company (NBNC) was responsible for printing the stamps for the 1861 definitive series. Charles F. Steel, a production manager at the company, is credited with inventing a process that involved embossing square indentations into the paper in a tiny “waffle” pattern before printing, to prevent their fraudulent reuse after being washed clean of cancellations.
This technique, known as “points down,” was developed by Steel. His idea was that by breaking the fibres in the paper, the cancelling ink would be absorbed deeply, making it impossible to clean and reuse the item.
“The United States had become very concerned about people cleaning stamps and reusing them,” Hofmeyr said, “and so the whole decade of the 1860s was spent exploring different ways to create stamps that could only be used once.
“How do you create a decent looking stamp when you have to print on a piece of paper that’s had all these flat bottom squares punched into it? The recipe for the grill was to punch these indentations into the paper, flatten the paper, and print on it.”
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