ESG - Glossary (I)

Elizabethan II Study Group
Journal: The Corgi Times

Glossary

Glossary

Imperforate - stamps printed in the sheet without the aids to separate the stamps (ie. no perforations, die cutting or rouletting). Modern imperforates are usually errors or produced solely for the sale to stamp collectors.

Imperforate pair

Imperforate between - stamps missing the perforations between each other but still perforated around themselves.

Imperforate between

Imperforate bottom half of stamp and margin - a bottom block of stamps with margin where the margin and the bottom half of the lower row of stamps is imperforate.

Imperforate bottom half of stamp and margin

Impression - a copy taken by pressure from a plate, die, or block.

Imprimatur (Latin for 'let it be printed') - the first sheets of stamps from an approved plate, normally checked and retained in a file, prior to a final directive to begin stamp production from a plate.

Imprint block - a block of four or more stamps to which is attached the margin bearing the printers' imprint/inscription. Typically collected in four positions: upper left (UL), upper right (UR), lower left (LL), lower right (LR).

Imprint block (UR)

Indicium - the imprint on postal stationery, as opposed to an adhesive stamp, indicating prepayment and postal validity.

Inkjet cancellation - cancellation applied by a Jet Spray Printer.

Inkjet cancellation

Ink smear - a printing freak where excessive ink has spread and covered portions of the stamp.

Ink smear

Inscription -

(1) text or other information inscribed on a stamp.

(2) plate printing information appearing in the stamp's selvedge.

See Plate block.

Instanta - trade-name of a well-known perforation gauge, published by Stanley Gibbons Ltd.

Instanta perforation gauge

Intaglio - In recess. Strictly speaking all recess methods o f printing. That is, hand or machine engraving, and the photogravure processes, are 'intaglio'. In philately, it can be correctly applied to all processes where the inked image is below the surface of the plate or cylinder.

International Reply Coupon (IRC) - coupons issued by members of the Universal Postal Union to provide for return postage from recipients in foreign countries. IRCs are exchangeable for postage at a post office.

International Reply Coupons

Invert - turned upside-down. In stamp printing there have been inverted centres, inverted frames, inverted surcharges and overprints and inverted watermarks.

Canada has had 3 inverted colour errors on its postage stamps:

5c St. Lawrence Seaway (1959)
$1 Runnymede Library (1989)
$2 Provincial Normal School (1995)

Invert (St. Lawrence Seaway)

Irregular perf - where the perforation holes vary in their relation to one another on any side of a stamp.

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