Imponderables

[semperfiona]

The United States Postal Service doesn't even print stamps that have to be torn apart and licked anymore (do they?), so why do the self-stick variety have imitation perforations?

Comments

[needlegrrl]

because we're comfortable with the stamps looking like that?

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

You're asking for logic from a federally-mandated monopoly? ;-)

[queensheba.livejournal.com]

I thought the perforations actually kind of help the stamps come off the sheet of adhesive better.

[firinel.livejournal.com]

Same.
I always get the breast cancer stamps, and those preforations are the real sort.

[freddyferret.livejournal.com]

It's Big Brother at work. They're using nano-technology to spy on us, they're hidden in the perforations.

Actually, I don't think I've seen any with perforations, real or otherwise, lately. But I don't mail much and I could have just missed that little detail.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

the last time i went to the PO, there were still lickable stamps.

sometimes you have to ask for them, not that i do. i ask the kind postmistress if she still has any bat stamps hidden away for me.

[jingoro.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, it's a security feature! When stamps were printed on sheets, the perfs (little round holes) absolutely had to line up so that a hole nailed the corners of 4 adjacent stamps. It's hard to describe in wrighting, but the detail was called a "bullseye". It's actually rather hard to reproduce, much harder than straight cuts, and adds to the expense of counterfiting stamps.

When they went to self-adhesive stamps, there were laws in place requiring them to keep the 'bullseye', or a smiliar detail, as an anti-counterfiting precaution ^_^