Since 1924, several printers around the country have been employed to
print the seals each year. To distinguish its seals, each printer placed
a small mark somewhere on the sheet. To find early printer's marks, you may
find yourself counting dots and looking for spurs.
But since 1936, the printer's mark has been a tiny
letter
on a seal near the center of the sheet. For example, on most sheets of 100,
you can find a small letter B, C, D, E, F, I, M, N, R, S, U or W on the
sixth stamp in the sixth row
. You will usually see it in a corner of the seal or under an arm of a figure.
Eureka Specialty Printing in Scranton, Pennsylvania had the longest
printing history (1911-92). They used "E" (for Eureka) until 1974, then changed
to "S" (for Specialty) in 1975. An "S" on older sheets (until 1958) was used
by Strobridge Lithographing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio which began printing
seals in 1909. In 1957 and 1958, sheets by eight different printers exist,
and some are fairly scarce. For example, Berlin ("B") is tough, particularly
if it is perforated 11 rather than 10½ x 11. Maybe you'll find one! Some
collectors like to collect full sheets, which are easier to keep than US
postage stamps because they fit into 8½" x 11" page protectors. Other collectors
save the printers mark as singles or in a block of nine. Looking at our
Christmas Seal Pricelist
, you can see that not many sheets of certain printers for some years were
saved.
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