Direction of printing in practice

[Rein]

Since 1931 Swiss postage stamps have been printed by Courvoisier SA in photogravure. In all these stamps it is failry easy to establish trhe direction of printing. Several stamps exist with more than one direction of printing.

A matter that had not been described in Swiss philately before!

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[Rein]

An example of the 1946 Alpenpost defintives featuring the post offcie buses. Each value has TWO directions of printing due to the fact that the printing cylinder was made up of several counter sheet that were placed in head-tail position.



The ink is running to the left:




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[Rein]

The ink is running to the right:




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[Rein]

It is often easier to find the direction of printing when you look at the ink waves!

An extreme example can be found at many Swiss stamps in photogravure!



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[Rein]

The ink flowing to the left!




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[Rein]

The ink flowing to the right!




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[Rein]

Let's get back to the beginning of Courvoisier SA, La Chaux des Fonds printing stamps in photogravure - the 1931 - 1937 period - when they only printed sheet-fed!

Later on they mostly printed their stamps in reel-fed photogravure although occasionally sheet-fed printing was still practised.

Swiss stamps on white, coated paper with coloured fibers. Printing sheets 5x10, direction of printing always R [ink flowing to the right].

The perforation gauge was 11 3/4 with 24/15 teeth horizontally / vertically; smoothpaper, red and blue fibers.

1931 Pro Juventute
1932 Disarmament
1937 Pro Juventute

The perforation gauge was 11 3/4 with 24/15 teeth horizontally / vertically; smoothpaper, black and red fibers.

1937 Alpenpost

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[Rein]

Direction of printing to the right:





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[Rein]

Direction of printing to the right:





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[Rein]

Direction of printing to the right:





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[Rein]

White coated paper with coloured fibers. Printing sheets 10x10.

Perforation gauge 11 3/4 with 14/17 teeth horizontally/ vertically; smooth paper with blue and red fibers.

1933 Pro Juventute

Direction of printing U [ink flowing upwards]:





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[Rein]

Direction of printing U [ink flowing upwards]:





There are examples of this stamp known with the yellow background up side down which can only be explained if the printing had been done sheet-fed!!

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[Rein]

Perforation gauge 11 3/4 with 14/17 teeth horizontally/ vertically; paper with blue and red fibers; gum broken in a horizontal / vertical cross pattern!

1934 Pro Juventute direction of printing U
1935 Pro Juventute direction of printing D [ink flowing downwards]
1936 Pro Juventute 10rp direction of printing U
1936 Pro Juventute remaining values direction of printing D
1936 [Pro Patria-Block? I haven't seeen it yet myself]

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[Rein]

Direction of printing U:





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[Rein]

Direction of printing D:





You can see the broken gum pattern at the front!



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