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Dummy Stamps

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Dummy stamps, also known as test stamps are label resembling a postage stamp that is used by postal authorities for testing equipment and training postal workers. They generally have the same size and shape as regular stamps but with a minimal design.

In the United Kingdom test stamps for coil dispensing machines are sometimes known as poached eggs, because of their design. They are printed the same size and format as the definitives and perforated in the same manner. The amount of ink used is also the same as actual postage stamps, so that they can be used to test the machines with material as close as possible to the actual postage stamps. The colour of these dummy stamps was changed from green to black after 1937.

These dummy stamps all share several common characteristics. They are not Post Office accountable paper; they document the production and use of postal stamps often better than the stamps themselves do; they are often very difficult to discover and obtain, and they are just fun to collect.

- Mrs. Nagalakshmi Tadakaluri, Philatelist.



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