Original Film Negatives Of US Stamps?

I have a friend who worked for a company that did printing for the US Postal Service in the 1980s. He said they would sometimes be given the original film negatives of the commemorative stamps; the negatives were about four times the size of the actual stamp. I thought these would be interesting to collect, but haven't found any information online. Has anyone heard of such negatives? Does anyone collect them? Thanks! (This is my first post and I hope I did it correctly.)

I think you may be referring to "Photogravure" process. Look up a parallel link that appeared here a while ago: TOPIC_ID=16798.
Good luck on finding the negatives.

I see no way any security printer would release any of the intermediate stamp production materials to employees or the public. So I suspect you have a press release transparency used for publicity purposes. It would be in correct colors, rather than a true "negative". (I seem to recall also seeing a set of 4 color-separated transparencies with some issues, but I do not have one.)

To show an example of what I believe you have: Here is the photographic portion of the press release packet for the Madam CJ Walker stamp issued in 1998. At left is a black and white photo, center is the stamp to show actual size, and at right is the color transparency with a white page behind it.



They are quite collectible by specialists of each stamp issue. While supply is quite low and the survival rate reducing the number further, the demand is lower, keeping the price is quite modest when you can find one.

I have these "negatives" but don't know what they are, or what they were used for.
Reversed images show perforated stamps

My thought was similar to John's, that these would be negatives used for "publicity photo" or "photo essay" prints. Here are two such prints:



Negatives for these prints would be quite scarce I should think, and even one-off items. They would certainly be collectible for the specialist, say for an exhibit for a specific stamp, but I doubt that they would be so available as to make them the basis for a collection itself.

Basil

Thanks so much for the replies! I think John Becker might have it right. I should have described it as a "transparency" instead of a "negative." Here is a pic scanned with a white paper background. The actual size is about 5 inches high by 3 1/2 inches wide.

Ciletaliph,

Those look like negatives of essay stamps.

Basil

I see no difference in Ciletaliph's images from the issued designs, so I believe they have nothing to do with any essay, production, or publicity purpose. I sense nothing official about them, but instead believe his items were more than likely made by a private collector with access to a darkroom and a little time. Using a negative "from the wrong side" to create reversals is trivial. It would be relatively easy even today to make the same positive and negative images from the issued stamps, even trimming off (or now cropping off with software) the perforations - note the very small margins on all three "imperforate" examples.

Back circa 1978 when I was hired to help Sotheby's Stamp Auction Company sell the Homan Krassa Stamp Company stock for the estate of Bill Homan, I saw similar negatives as well as a stockbook full (1,000s of these "essay" stamps, ca 1920s and to 40s) of cut out photographic prints (that did not show the perforations). It was apparent they had been selling these as "essays" - I consider them forgeries pure and simple. The are frequently offered by stamp dealers today as "essays" ...

I have a small collection of New Stamp News Releases that were issued with a B&W photo of the stamp being issued. The photo is on photo quality paper type & larger than issue. These accompanied a brief press release for local newspapers to place in their paper as information to general public and collectors. These were provided pre-digital photo download capabilities so that the print shop could place with the story. As the digital era proceeded their need diminished and color digital representations were made available, (much like Linn's gets their photos). In reviewing the thread the transparent negatives are quite interesting and might have been produced for earlier newspaper productions. Someone more familiar than I would need to chime in for more detailed info.

As others have said, while often called "essays", they were produced for publicity purposes (both the b&w ones on glossy photo paper and the color transparencies).