Stamp personalized

A stamp personalized or personnalisable is a postage stamp illustrated or accompanied by a label illustrated by a drawing or a photograph chosen by a private individual, an association or a nongovernmental company. The companies thus ensure their promotion on mail; the private individuals can announce happy events as of the envelope.

These stamps are sold more expensive than them facial value by the postal administration which ensures the impression of the image. The catalogs dimension generally better these stamps because of the scarcity of each type of Personnalisation.

To satisfy the collectors, several postal administrations sell stamps personalized with standard labels ensuring the promotion of their services.

In South Africa

To present its service of personalized stamps, the South-African post office emitted in 2001 a layer of 20 stamps in limited series, each stamp himself-holding with the photographs of the candidates of a play of TV-reality, Gladiator , diffused on television channel MTN.

In Austria

In Austria, since 2003, the Austrian post office ( Österreichische Post AG ) sells stamps personalized under trade name Meine Marke (“my German stamps”). The purchaser chooses among formats, provides photography and a mention. The stamp is designed to post in more the mentions of the country and the facial value. According to the number of ordered specimens, to several thousands, the price is approximately more of the double of the facial one.

At the beginning of 2005, following the cancellation of the emission of a stamp within the framework of the Austrian philatelic program, an Austrian militant of the human rights ordered more than 20.000 stamps personalized with the effigy of the 14 {{E}} Dalaï Lama for her 70e birthday. This mediatized order was cancelled following pressures of the embassy of the Popular republic of China which had already obtained the cancellation of the official emission.

In the United States

With the the United States, the sale of stamps on Internet is authorized at certain private companies by US Postal: the private individuals and companies can print labels of stamping including/understanding code-bars. One of them defrayed the chronicle by obtaining the right to emit stamps personalized in 2004.

The experiment of the summer 2004

During the summer 2004, the company of Los Angeles Stamps.com obtains the right to sell stamps personalized by photographs of its customers. Quickly, a scandal occurs when The Smoking Gun, a satirical site, announces that it could order boards of twenty stamps to the effigies of the husbands Rosenberg, of Jimmy Hoffa, Ted Kaczynski alias Unabomber , stained dress of sperm of Monica Lewinsky, Slobodan Milošević and Nicolae Ceauşescu.

The advertisement by United States Postal Service of the refusal to see the experiment being prolonged creates a speculation for these personalized stamps due:

with a weak pulling for this country: 2,7 million specimens in very distributed on the 7 facial values available (including 2,8 million for the 37 hundreds of the simple letter),
to the selling price of these sheets of 20 stamps sold with more of the double of facial, is 16,99 dollars for the sheet of 37 hundreds, and 150 dollars for that with 3,85 dollars (7 380 stamps in all).

According to the French magazine Stamps magazine of April 2005, there were two rather exceptional uses of these stamps in Philatélie set of themes:

twenty envelopes were freed from a stamp carrying the photography of the Amundsen-Scott base and dispatched by the usual postal service since the the Antarctic,
the merchant of stamps Henry Gitner bought illustrated stamps of the Halley's Comet to benefit from a vogue set of themes among certain philatelists. He initially yielded them to the double of the purchase price before selling them at strong price at the time of the speculation.

The second experiment in 2005

April 26th, 2005 (see), US Postal authorizes three companies, Endicia, Stamps.com and Pitney Bowes to be emitted some for a one year test. However, the postal administration reinforces and clarifies the payment:

on the property of the images, the customers must have of them well the rights of use,
on the printed subjects, the three companies are responsible for the choices.

In France

Personalized Postage stamps

Until October 2007 La Poste sold this type of stamps under the name of Personalized Timbres-Poste (or TPP ) and by sheets of ten stamps himself-holding with ten labels personnalisables. The price is of approximately less twice facial value.

The purchasers order their TPP by Internet site of the Post office, which implies to have of technical equipment and their photograph with the numerical format. The models of stamps proposed initially were of the stamps of celebration (birthday, congratulations, etc), and diversified to almost propose all the beautiful stamps known as semi-permanent as well as Marianne.

Moreover, already personalized mini-sheets are sold with for personalization:

the Cérès
and the logotype of the service of the Personalized Postage stamps.

To date, these mini-sheets are always marketed by La Poste.

Since October 29th, 2007 La Poste proposes a new model of personalization completely substituent to old. Dénomé MonTimbraMoi© it proposes a personalization at 100% of the stamp. Available to the www.montimbramoi.fr address, the site proposes with the Net surfer to insert the photograph of its choice into the center of the stamp (and either beside a stamp), to choose the format of its stamp (horizontal or vertical), to affix preset elements of text, and to choose the facial value of its stamp among 3 possibilities: 20g France, 50g France or 20g World.

See too

External bonds

Meine Marke.at (Austria)
Photostamps.com (privately held company states-unienne)
MonTimbraMoi Site of the French Post office

Sources

PJM, “My market of the month”, heading of Stamps magazine which regularly flushes out personalized stamps.
Jean-Louis Emmenegger, “postal Veto to meditate”, article published in the Echo of the timbrology n°1786, June 2005, pages 76-78; on the Austrian stamps not emitted with the effigy of the 14th Dalaï Lama.

Random links: