Something different tonight.. a stamp essay. You all know what an essay is.. you wrote them in school .. but a stamp essay is something different. It is a prototype for a proposed stamp. In contrast, a proof is the prototype of an accepted stamp. Both essays and proofs are rare, as usually just a few are produced. They are not originally intended to be sold publicly, well to start with anyway, but handled by insiders or held in postal museums or collections. Possibly the first essay of a stamp not accepted is the Prince Consort Essay from 1850.

My scan below is of a reproduction sheet I received in my copy of the Australian Stamp News..


an unadopted essay….. Souvenir sheet.. . in other words a reproduction of the original essay. The original is held in the National Philatelic Collection.

As I had some fish on last nights cover I thought this might be a nice follow up to that Uganda cover. By the way I got some fantastic emails and one included pictures of people catching those fish ...amazing... Thanks Buddy..

Anyway this souvenir reproduction is yours if you can tell me the name of the designer… :-)

Must get to bed.. good night.. enjoy your stamps.. Michael