You may have heard this term. Do you know what it is or how albino stamped envelopes are created?

Stamped envelopes are created from large sheets of paper. Each sheet produces several envelopes, the number varies depending on the size of envelope being produced. Many older envelopes, i.e. pre-1990 material, were produced by a process that prints the ink and slightly embosses the envelope at the same time with the stamp design. Some of the more modern issues have been produced by other printing processes such as offset printing which do not emboss the envelope.

An albino envelope shows the embossing, but it completely lacks the ink. This happens when two or more sheets of paper pass through the printing press at the same time. All of the sheets are embossed by the printing press, but only one sheet receives the ink.

Albino envelopes are errors in the sense that they completely lack the ink used for printing. However, they are not listed in the Scott catalog for two reasons. First, albinos are relatively common. Many stamped envelopes are known with albino copies. Second, their value is minimal. In most cases, albinos are worth a few dollars at best.

If you would like to know more about postal stationery, I invite you to check out the United Postal Stationery Society, UPSS. If you want more information about the UPSS, let me know or go to the UPSS website at http://www.upss.org.