The watermarks of Poland - 1958-1963
Publicado: 09 Feb 2011 14:57
Watermarks - a state of exception
Over the whole wide world philatelists meet problems with the watermarks of their postage stamps. Not surprisingly as usually the watermarks are hardly visible. When a watermark is relatively simple and apart from that symmetrical it will be not so difficult to establish the relative position of the watermark, but when the design is complicated and therefor a-symmetrical - the philatelists have a big problem!
Polish stamps of the 1958-1963 period have been a definite headache for Polish philatelists from the beginning. A problem that could not be overcome! Why?? The answer is simple!
We have to know something theoretical about paper - not just whether paper can be thin or thick or translucent or opaque. Just the basics would be alright to know. even though in Polish philatelic literature there had been several publications on watermarks of Polish postage stamps, I hadn‘t met any theoretical approach anywhere.
A few little known properties of paper.
Some notions about paper a well known in philately like thickness, luminescence, watermarks but are not described and explained till the end in full! Some notions are not known at all even though we don‘t need much more that good eyes, a magnifying glass , a UV-lamp, a ruler...
In short, without going into much details, paper is manufactured in a paper mill on a papermaking machine. The still wet pulp is transported along a long web with tiny holes - a sieve - (in German a Langsieb) - through which it looses most of the water of the pulp and gradually the pulp is transformed into a papermass. After passing the long web a complex system of cylinders will eventually flatten the paper-reel, may add a coating etc.
Although it is never meant to be, the sieve leaves an imprint on the bottom of the paper. The imprint will reflect the structure of the sieve, in general how the sieve had been woven! As far as could be established the number of possible structures was very small until the 1970-ies - to be more precise - 2 in total!
The above mentioned cylinders at the end of the line may also leave some imprint but never in such a way the sieve has. And if they have it will be on the top side of the paper not on the bottom side!
What will leave an imprijnt on the top side of the paper is what is meant to be done by a specially affixed design on the dandy-roll [egoutteur in French] but a lot earlier as the paper reel is supposed to be still wet enough - the watermark.
Thus the imprints of the dandy-roll [watermarks] and the sieve are on opposite sides of the paper-reel!
What has this all got to do with the problems the philatelists meet when studying watermarks? What a philatelist studying watermarks has to do in the following order:
1. Establish the direction of the paper, the way the papermass was passing the long sieve, by looking carefully at the little threads in the paper. The threads have a tendency to flow - while that was still possible in the wet pulp - in a particular preferential direction. Under the influence of heat or moisture the threads will shrink more in thickness than in length and thus the paper - in our case the stamp - will curl a bit and may form a small cylinder with the axis parallel to the direction of paper.
During further research always keep the stamp in a position that the direction of paper is vertical!
2. Establish which side of the stamp is the top side of the paper i.e. the felt side where the watermark is. The felt side is usually a lot smoother!
3 Establish the bottom side of the paper - the sieve side - which is usually a lot rougher, the threads are well visible and longish.
In case of coated paper or gummed it will not be that easy to establish which side is which! In the case of the Polish stamps involved we are only dealing with uncoated paper!
4. The structure of the sieve can be - atl east until the 1970-ies - divided nto 2 groups. This can be seen in stamps of all nations. Machine-made paper manufacturerd in the years 1860-1938 always have the same structure. The structure is the equivalent of the linen-binding
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Where the „x“ represents the horizontal threads of the web being on top of the vertical threads when crossing, and the “-“ viceversa.
Around 1938 the paper mills started to use a sieve with a slightly more complicated askew binding:
-x--x--x--x--
x--x--x--x--x
--x--x--x--x-
-x--x--x--x--
x--x--x--x--x
--x--x--x--x-
-x--x--x--x--
and its mirror:
-x--x--x--x
--x--x--x--x
x--x--x--x--
-x--x--x--x-
--x--x--x--x
x--x--x--x--
-x--x--x--x-
In the early 1970-ies a completely different kind of bindings were devised for the making of the sieves. I will not deal with this matter now as it is not relevant for the watermarked Polish stamps!
Once more, we need to establish - and this is not always easy - but it can be done:
- the direction of paper (vezelrichting, loop-richting [NL], Faserrichtung, Laufrichtung [D])
- which side is the top or felt side and with is the sieve (or wire) side (zeefzijde [NL], Siebseite [D])
- occasionally what the structure of the sieve or wire looks like - no matter whether there is a watermark or not.
to be continued....
Over the whole wide world philatelists meet problems with the watermarks of their postage stamps. Not surprisingly as usually the watermarks are hardly visible. When a watermark is relatively simple and apart from that symmetrical it will be not so difficult to establish the relative position of the watermark, but when the design is complicated and therefor a-symmetrical - the philatelists have a big problem!
Polish stamps of the 1958-1963 period have been a definite headache for Polish philatelists from the beginning. A problem that could not be overcome! Why?? The answer is simple!
We have to know something theoretical about paper - not just whether paper can be thin or thick or translucent or opaque. Just the basics would be alright to know. even though in Polish philatelic literature there had been several publications on watermarks of Polish postage stamps, I hadn‘t met any theoretical approach anywhere.
A few little known properties of paper.
Some notions about paper a well known in philately like thickness, luminescence, watermarks but are not described and explained till the end in full! Some notions are not known at all even though we don‘t need much more that good eyes, a magnifying glass , a UV-lamp, a ruler...
In short, without going into much details, paper is manufactured in a paper mill on a papermaking machine. The still wet pulp is transported along a long web with tiny holes - a sieve - (in German a Langsieb) - through which it looses most of the water of the pulp and gradually the pulp is transformed into a papermass. After passing the long web a complex system of cylinders will eventually flatten the paper-reel, may add a coating etc.
Although it is never meant to be, the sieve leaves an imprint on the bottom of the paper. The imprint will reflect the structure of the sieve, in general how the sieve had been woven! As far as could be established the number of possible structures was very small until the 1970-ies - to be more precise - 2 in total!
The above mentioned cylinders at the end of the line may also leave some imprint but never in such a way the sieve has. And if they have it will be on the top side of the paper not on the bottom side!
What will leave an imprijnt on the top side of the paper is what is meant to be done by a specially affixed design on the dandy-roll [egoutteur in French] but a lot earlier as the paper reel is supposed to be still wet enough - the watermark.
Thus the imprints of the dandy-roll [watermarks] and the sieve are on opposite sides of the paper-reel!
What has this all got to do with the problems the philatelists meet when studying watermarks? What a philatelist studying watermarks has to do in the following order:
1. Establish the direction of the paper, the way the papermass was passing the long sieve, by looking carefully at the little threads in the paper. The threads have a tendency to flow - while that was still possible in the wet pulp - in a particular preferential direction. Under the influence of heat or moisture the threads will shrink more in thickness than in length and thus the paper - in our case the stamp - will curl a bit and may form a small cylinder with the axis parallel to the direction of paper.
During further research always keep the stamp in a position that the direction of paper is vertical!
2. Establish which side of the stamp is the top side of the paper i.e. the felt side where the watermark is. The felt side is usually a lot smoother!
3 Establish the bottom side of the paper - the sieve side - which is usually a lot rougher, the threads are well visible and longish.
In case of coated paper or gummed it will not be that easy to establish which side is which! In the case of the Polish stamps involved we are only dealing with uncoated paper!
4. The structure of the sieve can be - atl east until the 1970-ies - divided nto 2 groups. This can be seen in stamps of all nations. Machine-made paper manufacturerd in the years 1860-1938 always have the same structure. The structure is the equivalent of the linen-binding
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Where the „x“ represents the horizontal threads of the web being on top of the vertical threads when crossing, and the “-“ viceversa.
Around 1938 the paper mills started to use a sieve with a slightly more complicated askew binding:
-x--x--x--x--
x--x--x--x--x
--x--x--x--x-
-x--x--x--x--
x--x--x--x--x
--x--x--x--x-
-x--x--x--x--
and its mirror:
-x--x--x--x
--x--x--x--x
x--x--x--x--
-x--x--x--x-
--x--x--x--x
x--x--x--x--
-x--x--x--x-
In the early 1970-ies a completely different kind of bindings were devised for the making of the sieves. I will not deal with this matter now as it is not relevant for the watermarked Polish stamps!
Once more, we need to establish - and this is not always easy - but it can be done:
- the direction of paper (vezelrichting, loop-richting [NL], Faserrichtung, Laufrichtung [D])
- which side is the top or felt side and with is the sieve (or wire) side (zeefzijde [NL], Siebseite [D])
- occasionally what the structure of the sieve or wire looks like - no matter whether there is a watermark or not.
to be continued....