Need help?

Welcom to our FAQ? feel free browse the questions below. If you don't find your answer here? see other ways to get help

TouchStamps: the basics

How does TouchStamps work?

It's quite simple:

Create an account on the website (it's free).
Start your collection.
Talk with other collectors.
Exchange with other collectors.

For more details, make sure to read the TouchStamps Community Guidelines. If you still have questions, check out the FAQ.

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The TouchStamps system is designed to be safe and protect your data. Your personal data, including your address, is important to you (and to us) so we work hard to keep it secure. Please be aware of the following:

The addresses stored in TouchStamps are only used for the purposes of exchanging in the project.
It is not possible for anyone to intentionally get your address from the system. To learn more about this, see how TouchStamps works.
All maps displayed in TouchStamps are only approximate and are not calculated from actual addresses. The coordinates used only show the geometric center of the nearest large city as selected by you in your account. The lack of precision is intentional to protect your privacy.
Your address and private data stored in TouchStamps is not sold, traded, given or shared with other third parties, or have any other use other than exchanging in TouchStamps. No one else will have access to your address without your explicit permission, as specified by our Privacy Policy.

You should understand that your address will be shared with the few members that will be sending items of collection back to you for exchange since that is the only way you can receive items of collection. Also, the information you publish in your profile such as the about text and your TouchStamps username is public. As with any other internet website, you should share only what you feel comfortable with.

If you wish to do some additional steps to maximize your privacy, here are some ideas:

Consider getting a PO Box in your local post office instead of using your home address. Alternatively, you can use your work or school address for exchange in TouchStamps.
All fields in your profile are optional: only share in your profile information what you feel comfortable sharing in a public place such as the internet.

Lastly, please understand that we offer this website to you completely for free and we will not be held responsible for anything that may occur as a result of its use or misuse. The system is very safe to use and designed to be secure, but if you run into problems as a result of using the service, we might not be able to help you. Please check our Terms of Service for more details.

If you still have any questions regarding this, feel free to contact us.

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Is TouchStamps suitable for collectors?

Yes!

Easily manage your personal collection. Collectors can create their swap and wish lists using the catalog and easily coordinate a swap with other collectors whom they are unable to meet.

TouchStamps provides a comprehensive collectibles catalog. The catalog is a wiki created by contributing collectors on TouchStamps.

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What is TouchStamps?

The goal of the Touchsatamps project is to enable anyone to manage their collection of postage stamps and share them with collectors around the world!

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Using TouchStamps

How do I send a message to a member?

You can send messages to other TouchStamps members through a link provided on the member's profile page. First, access the member's profile page. Next, find and select the Message!

Once you select this link, a form appears where you can type in a Subject: and Message:. You can also choose to receive a copy of the message you write by checking the Check this to receive a copy of the message option. When you are ready to send the message, use the Send message button.

The message is immediately delivered to the private email address provided by that member. To reply to your message, the member must access your profile page and follow the steps outlined above. In this manner, email addresses are kept private.

Guidelines

Be polite and use common sense.
Do not send private swap or trade requests to people who have indicated that they do not want to engage in such activities. You will see a helpful reminder to the right of the message box when the member has chosen NOT to partake in private swaps.
The number of messages you can send in one day are limited. This is to discourage spammers.

Not receiving messages from other members, a copy of your sent message, or emails from TouchStamps? Check out the FAQ for email problems.

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Search rules

Case

Words entered in uppercase are accepted, but are converted into lowercase when a search is conducted.

Words

The following may be entered:

Words of more than two characters.
Strings of words up to a maximum of 200 characters.

Spaces

Words should be separated using spaces.

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Accounts and profiles

Can I change my username?

Yes, you can! You can change your username in your edit account section. Note that you are limited to only 2 changes, so choose wisely! Changes of case do not count as a change, or in other words, changing from 'paulo' to 'Paulo' will not count as a change.

Once you change your username, all the links where your previous username was being shown will be updated to the new one - this includes the 'Traveling postcards' of anyone who would have to send you a postcard.

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Can I have more than one account?

Postcrossing does not welcome multiple accounts per person. The project is designed with safety and fairness in mind and for that, certain limits have been applied to each account so that the system as a whole remains balanced. But, by having more than one account, those limits no longer apply, which means you would be going around Postcrossing's limits, which creates several problems for other members and for Postcrossing as well.

For example, we can no longer make sure that any two persons do an exchange only once; it is harder for a receiver to know which account they should register a postcard with, etc. It also creates unbalances on the address selection system which is unfair to other members.

We do understand that postcrossers are very enthusiastic about participating in Postcrossing (and we love that!) and that sometimes they would like to send and receive more postcards than what their account allows them to. And that is why the limit of postcards each account can send at the same time increases over time.

For any postcrosser wishing to exchange more postcards than the account allows, we recommend to:

Organize direct swaps with other members. Or, do other types of postcard exchanges on the forum where many other members would be happy to exchange with you.
Be a little bit more patient! The amount you can send at the same time will increase, and soon enough you will find that you can send more than you can possibly handle or afford.

We occasionally tolerate that one person holds more than one account if within a reasonable amount, and only if we see strong evidence of proper usage. But, we still do not welcome such practices and we strongly discourage anyone from doing it. We do monitor for multiple accounts and Postcrossing reserves the right to delete (without any warning), all existing accounts belonging to the same owner, when we see fit. So please, don't open more than one account.

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How do I upload, change or delete my avatar

To upload or change your avatar (that's your profile picture or photo), first make sure that you own the copyright to the image that you are going to upload. Pictures that you took yourself make perfect avatars. Images must be in either the jpg or png file format and be larger than 140x140px. Square images work best on Postcrossing. Ready?

Verify that you are logged in to your account.
Go to the Edit avatar section from menu.
Use the Browse... button and choose your avatar image from your computer.
Use the Upload button. Wait. It may take a few some time for your image to upload.
Now you'll need to crop your image. You can change the size of the crop area by dragging any one of the eight handles (small squares around the image). A preview of what your image will look like cropped appears to the right.
Once you are happy with the preview, use the Crop button.

Your avatar is now uploaded.

To delete your avatar, go to the same Edit avatar page and use the delete link under your existing avatar.

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how to close your TouchStamps account

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The website

How do I access my messages?

There is no messages inbox on the Postcrossing website. Messages sent from other members are sent directly to your email address.

If you are not receiving messages from other members, a copy of your sent message, or other emails from Postcrossing, check the FAQ entry for problems with emails.

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Why am I not receiving emails from TouchStamps?

Do not panic!

Having a valid email address is important to participate in TouchStamps. It allows you to receive emails from us as well as use the private message feature. For this reason, you may be requested by us to confirm your email address. This confirmation is sent through email with an activation link.

Note: You can always retrieve addresses for your traveling or expired postcards on the TouchStampswebsite by following the FAQ instructions on lost addresses.

Some email servers wrongly consider email sent from TouchStampsto be spam and discard our emails. This is beyond our control, but there are several things you can do to resolve the problem:

Check your email account Junk/Spam folder for expected email. If you find our emails in there, try to mark them as "Not spam" if you can.
Make sure your email account has enough free space to receive email.
When possible, white-list our emails by adding @postcrossing.com (or postcrossing@postcrossing.com) in your list of safe senders.
Add postcrossing@postcrossing.com to your list of contacts. That may prevent emails from being considered to be spam.
Change your email address to one with a different provider (Gmail is known to work and the accounts are free).
Check your anti-spam filter. If you are using an anti-spam filter that requires senders to manually confirm that they want to send you a message, you might want to disable that for emails sent from the postcrossing.com domain.
If you are using an email address that forwards your email to a different email address, that may cause issues with receiving our emails. We use an email standard that minimizes spam abuse and email impersonation, but some email providers do not implement this standard and may forward our emails in an incorrect way. If you use email forwarding and you are having trouble receiving our emails, try using the final email address instead of using the forwarding email address.

In the unlikely event that none of these resolve your problem, please contact us for help.

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Will the website be translated into other language

No, not any time soon. For this project to work, there needs to be a common language among all participating members so that they can communicate through the postcards they write and receive. In this case, English was chosen due to its widespread online usage.

If the website is translated to other languages, a user can sign up without sharing a common language with other members. This member would only be able to send postcards to those who speak his language, reducing the diversity that the project aims to provide. Hence, for the moment, it is a requirement to be able to read and write basic English to participate in the project.

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Social media integration

How can I integrate my twitter account with TouchStamps

If you have a twitter.com account, you can integrate it with TouchStamps. When you send or receive a postcard, TouchStamps will automatically publish that to your twitter.

Here are some samples:

Writing a #postcrossing postcard to Brazil
Received a #postcrossing postcard from Russia - http://tinyurl.com/6huxtl
Received my first postcard from postcrossing.com - http://tinyurl.com/67xpej

To activate this, you just need to edit your account and connect it with your Twitter account - you will be taken to twitter.com to approve the connection between the two accounts. You can at any moment disable this functionality.

If you don't have a twitter account and want to learn more about this service, visit twitter.com website.

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Collection

About Exchange

Exchange is an interesting and useful form of replenishing a collection. Each philatelist, for various reasons, gradually accumulates a certain number of doubles - identical copies of stamps. You can try to exchange them for missing stamps in the collection, which may be among the counterparts of another collector.

In order to participate in the exchange for TouchStamps, you must:

    Log in using your account or register;
    Select the menu item User / Collection;
    Press the "+" button, fill out information about the collection item and indicate the sign "Change";
    Or edit the existing element of the collection with the indication "Change".

You can see the list of what the collector offers for exchange in the menu item "Collectors". Also in the catalog, for each position there is information about collectors who offer this catalog item for exchange. Thus, you can find an interesting position in the catalog and see which of the collectors offers it for an exchange and try to exchange it.

The principle of exchange is that during the exchange one collector selects what he needs from the list of “Change” of another collector, and the other from the list “Change” of the first.

In this situation, it may happen that the first collector has something to take for exchange from the second collector, and the second is not interested in anything from the “Change” list of the first. Naturally, the exchange will not take place.

Previously, in one or two messages, agree in detail with the prospective exchange participant on the terms and conditions of the exchange: on the directory through which the exchange will be conducted; about calculations; about which letters, registered or valuable, to send materials to each other, etc.

If the exchange participants have resolved the basic issues, then the exchange can begin, be sure to strictly adhere to the rules of good form developed by the practice of philately. All materials must be in good condition, materials should not be sent whose quality causes even the slightest doubt. One must be meticulously accurate in settlements with a participant in the exchange, not look for benefits only for himself, but proceed from the fact that the exchange must be mutually beneficial. It’s useful to adhere to the rule: “It’s better to get less than not enough.” Only with a conscientious, accurate attitude towards the exchange will it be long, pleasant and useful. All letters without exception must be answered no later than a week later. Shipments should be well packaged to prevent damage in transit. It is useful for stamps to make cardboard boxes the size of an envelope with glued strips.

For letters, philatelists prefer unlabeled envelopes and stick on them several stamps of various low denominations, preferably one recently released series, and if the tariff requires and allows it, then the entire series or quarter block of stamps. They are placed in the upper right corner, departing from the upper and lateral sides by a centimeter. Handing over the letter in the mail, they ask him to carefully repay it - the minimum number of stamps. All letters received from each exchange participant are stored in a separate folder in order to always be able to verify calculations. When exchanging, you should remember that the exchange takes place with a hobby colleague, and this correspondence can develop into a sincere long-term friendship. Is it worth recalling that it is worthwhile to take an interest in the health, studies, hobbies, family of the exchange participant, congratulate him on his holiday and birthday, and send a philatelic souvenir.

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How do I add an item to the collection?

You can manage your collection of stamps on-line on our website.

If you want to add a new element to your collection:

Log in with your account or sign up;
Choose in menu User/Collection;
Press the button "+";
Fill information about an element of collection in:

Description of fields:

Fields "Front" and "Back" contain images of the front and back sides of the collection item.

Field "Format" allows you to specify the type of the collection item and includes the following selection options:

Booklet;
Booklet Pane;
First Day Cover;
Maxi Cards;
Mini Sheet;
Postal Stationery;
Revenue Stamp;
Se-tenant;
Souvenir Sheet;
Stamp.

Field "Conditions" allows you to specify the state of a collection item and includes the following selection options:

Cancelled To Order;
Mint Hinged;
Mint Lightly Hinged;
Mint Never Hinged;
Mint No Gum;
Used.

Field "Whereupon" allows you to specify what is the item of the collection and includes the following selection options:

on-cover;
on-piece;
singly.

Fields "Width" and "Height" allow you to specify the dimensions of the item in the collection.

Field "Price date" allows you to specify the date of purchase of a collection item. Can be used to calculate statistics for a collection.

Fields "Currency" and "Price" let you specify the purchase currency and the value of the item in the collection. Can be used to calculate statistics for a collection.

Field "Price 2" allows you to specify the cost of the collection item in the collection currency (specified in the user profile). In the event that you purchased a collection item on a foreign trip, you can specify the currency and cost of the country where the collection item was purchased and specify the value in the collection currency. Can be used to calculate statistics for a collection.

Field "Note" allows you to add a description of the item in the collection.

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Why link the elements of the collection with a catalog?

Why link the elements of the collection with a catalog

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Modification

About Changelog

What is a changelog?

A changelog is a page which contains a curated, chronologically ordered list of notable changes for each version of a project.

Why keep a changelog?

To make it easier for users and contributors to see precisely what notable changes have been made between each release (or version) of the project.

Who needs a changelog?

People do. Whether consumers or developers, the end users of software are human beings who care about what's in the software. When the software changes, people want to know why and how.

Types of changes:

Added for new features.
Changed for changes in existing functionality.
Deprecated for soon-to-be removed features.
Removed for now removed features.
Fixed for any bug fixes.
Security in case of vulnerabilities.

`Unreleased` section at the top to track upcoming changes.

This serves two purposes:

People can see what changes they might expect in upcoming releases
At release time, Unreleased section move changes into a new release version section.

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Google Chrome’s RSS Support Problem. . . and How To

Many people have been enjoying the blazing fast Google Chrome browser. However, web developers are justified in having a few complaints. Chrome lacks support for RSS feeds. Until Google Chrome comes out with a built-in update the below is a good method for resolving the issue.

A Day in the Life of a Developer

So there you are, working on a new website blog, everything looking great and working. . . until you click your RSS subscribe link in Google Chrome. What follows is an unformatted, unreadable page of raw data that is completely useless to the typical end user. But what gives? You just clicked it in Firefox and everything came up fine. Check it in Safari; looks good. Wait, it even looks good in Internet Explorer!? How is this possible? How can a browser of Google’s caliber have such a glaring issue?

Words of Wisdom from a Google Engineer

Well, it turns out Chrome's RSS subscription extension was supposed to be bundled with the browser, but it is no longer included because not many people subscribe to feeds and the orange icon would've been distracting. A Google Chrome engineer offered a more detailed explanation:

"We originally intended to include RSS support by default as a native feature of Google Chrome (and we still might in the future) but we decided instead to implement this as an extension. This decision was made based on our philosophy of trying to limit ourselves to adding only the UI features that a vast majority of users need and allow each user to customize the browsers to fit their needs with Extensions. Given that most people are not familiar with and don't consume RSS feeds, we thought that RSS support would be a better fit as an extension, at least to begin with."

Conclusions

So there you have it fellow developers. When your clients point out that their RSS feed looks broken on Google you can utter one of the sweetest phrases to a developer’s ear: “It’s not my fault.”

Here is a link to the extension you can install on your individual Google browser to fix the problem.

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Dashboards

About Dashboards

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About Widgets

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Catalog

Browsing the Catalog

The TouchStamps Catalog can be filtered by these properties:

Countries: The country the stamp was issued for.
Emissions: The usage type of the stamp. Options are:
- Air Post: These stamps are intended for mail that will be transported by air. Some either include or are solely for the payment of an additional air post fee and are required for air post transportation. Others just have the correct value for air post, but can also be used for other types of postage.
- Air Post Official: These are Official stamps that are also Air Post stamps.
- Air Post Semi-Postal: These are Semi Postal stamps that are also Air Post stamps.
- ATM labels: These stamps are dispensed by “automatic teller machines” and their value is printed at the time of purchase. Therefore, the same ATM label stamp exists with a variety of values. In some countries ATM labels are difficult to distinguish from postal meter labels, the underlying difference being that ATM labels can be used at any time by any person, while the usage of a postal meter labels is always restricted, either by the printed date, or by the license of the postal meter holder, or both.
- Cinderella: A “cinderella stamp” is anything that looks like a stamp but is not an actual postage stamp (that is to say they are not stamps that were issued by a governmental authority of a country to be used to pay for postage). Cinderella stamps include:
  - Stamps that have been produced under the governmental authority of a country but not for postal usage, such as charity stamps, and various kind's of tax stamps (these tax stamps are known as “Revenues” and listed as a separate emission type on TouchStamps).
  - Stamps that are used to pay for postage (delivery) but have been produced under the governmental authority of a place that is not a “country”, such as stamps by a government in exile, or stamps from a territory or a micronation that was never recognized by the United Nations, the UPU, or its neighbors.
  - Legitimate stamps that are used to pay for postage (delivery) but that have not been authorized by the government, such as stamps for use by private courier companies. These private delivery cinderella stamps are listed as stamps with the emission type “Private” on TouchStamps.
  - Stamp shaped seals and labels that are produced in a place that is a country but that have not been authorized by its government and are not used to pay for postage or delivery, such as Christmas seals, propaganda stamps, and various other charity seals and labels.
  - Stamps that are fakes or forgeries of genuine postage stamps produced in order to deceive postal administrations and/or collectors.
  - Stamp shaped seals that have a fictitious country name or no country name at all that were printed to sell to collectors.
  - And anything else that looks like a stamp but is not an actual postage stamp.
- Commemorative: Initially commemorative stamps always were issued for a specific event. Nowadays the term is used for all non-definitive regular stamps, and they may or may not commemorate anything. Commemorative stamps are available only for a limited time, usually while stocks last. In some countries commemorative stamps can only be bought at larger post offices or at special philatelic counters. Commemorative stamps are now the majority of all stamps.
- Definitive: These stamps are intended for routine postal use. They are issued for an indefinite period of time in indefinite quantities and can be bought at any post office, even those where commemorative stamps are not available.
- Hunting Permit: These are government issued revenue stamps (non-postal) that are required to be affixed to hunting licenses or permits.
- Illegal: Fantasy stamps inscribed in the name of a legitimate postal authority but which were printed without any authorization or validity from that authority in order to deceive postal administrations and/or collectors into believing they are legitimate postage stamps. Such items are to be listed in the Cinderella group country, with the name of the postal administration being the series name.
- Insured Letter: These are for use on mailed items that are insured for a fee by the Postal Service. Inured mail differs from registered mail in that the value of the contents is declared and the mail is then insured for that amount.
- Military: These are stamps issued by a military organization to its serving military personnel for their personal mail that they send back home. Often this mail is transported by the armed forces itself until it reaches the destination country.
- Newspaper: These are stamps issued specifically for the mailing of newspapers, periodicals and printed matter. Many of these were destroyed because the stamp often was used to glue the wrapper with the recipient's address to the newspaper, and it was just torn off by the recipient.
- Official: These stamps are only to be used by government agencies and officials. Personal use is usually forbidden and fined. In many countries official stamps are also sold to collectors in unused condition by the postal authority.
- Official Reprint: Reprints of (usually) classic-era stamps officially produced by Government Postal Administrations for sale to collectors. Many catalogues separately list and value these reprints, which usually have less value than the original stamps.
- Parcel Post: These stamps are issued to pay for the postage of parcels (items larger than letters).
- Personal Delivery: These stamps were used on letters that had to be delivered personally to the addressee and no one else. The letters could not just be held at the post office general delivery window for pick-up.
- Personalized: These are stamps that can be customized to bear an image from a personal photo or design that is submitted by the purchaser of the stamp and then applied either to a blank area on the stamp or to a label attached to the stamp. On TouchStamps “Personalized – Official” means stamps that use the format frame for personalized stamps produced by a country, but the design is commissioned by the national post office and the stamps are sold by the Post Office to the general public just as they sell regular commemorative stamps. On TouchStamps “Personalized – Private” means stamps that use the format frame for personalized stamps produced by a country, but the design is commissioned by a private individual and the post office only sells them to that private individual who contracted their design, and not to the public at large.
- Postage Due: These stamps are affixed by the postal authority to items with no postage, or insufficient postage, to alert the letter carrier that the postage due (plus a premium) needs to be collected from the recipient.
- Postal-Fiscal: These are stamps that were originally produced for fiscal purposes, but were then allowed by Postal administrations to be used to pay postal fees. They are therefore considered postage stamps by the mainstream catalogues and are listed as such by catalogues that do not otherwise list purely fiscal (revenue) stamps.
- Postal Tax: These tax stamps are affixed to postal items in addition to the regular postage to pay for a tax required for each mailed item. They cannot be used to pay for postage.
- Precancelled: These stamps are for use by mass mailing senders. They are precancelled, so they cannot be used by regular postal customers as they are only valid with a mass mailing contract.
- Private: These stamps are issued by, and used to pay for delivery by, private courier companies.
- Regional: These stamps were issued only for a region within a country. It depends on local regulations if these stamps can be used only in that region or generally throughout the whole country.
- Registration: These are stamps issued for use on letters sent by registered mail.
- Revenue: Also called "Fiscal Stamps" these stamps are used to evidence the payment of various taxes, duties or fees. They are affixed to official documents and sometimes directly to merchandise. Historically stamps inscribed "Postage and Revenue" were available for either use and these are now usually worth much less if fiscally canceled than if postally used.
- Semi-Postal: These are stamps sold at a price that is greater than the stamps postal value, with the additional charge being applied for a special (often charitable) purpose. The denomination shown on these stamps usually has two printed values separated with a '+' sign. The first value is the price of the postage and the second value is the contribution to the special purpose.
- Telegraph & Telephone: Stamps issued to pay for telegraph or telephone services provided by the national postal administration.
- Used Abroad: Stamps from one postal administration that were supplied for use by that postal administration's post offices in another territory without any special overprints to denote the stamp's use in the second territory. Correct use can only be verified by correct cancellation type on the stamp or cover to which the stamp is applied. Known in German as Vorläufer or Mitläufer. Often found from colonies of European powers before the introduction of specific postage stamps for those colonies or when the Great Powers opened post offices in regions such as Latin America that were politically independent but whose postal administrations were felt deficient compared to European standards.
- War Tax: These are a special type of Postal Tax Stamp where the revenue collected is being used to defray the costs of a war.
Formats: Besides being collected as single stamps, depending on the way they were issued stamps can also be collected in other formats. Please note that due to the database format of the TouchStamps Stamp Catalog most of the other formats have a related single stamp catalog entry. Available options are:
- Booklet: A small booklet with stamps inside. Some booklets are sold through automates, the booklet cardboard then protects the stamps from mechanical damage. Booklets can be quite simple in design or be a piece of art that integrates the stamps or gives additional information about them.
- Booklet Pane: The small sheetlet of stamps that is included within a booklet. The pane of stamps may be of just one design or the stamps may be all different in design.
- Full Pane: Any sheet containing 4 stamps or more where there is repetition of designs, either all the stamps being the same design or a minimum of two sets of se-tenant pairs.
- Gutter Pair: Two stamps separated by a gutter (selvage).
- Mini Sheet: Any sheet containing 5 or more stamps where all the stamp designs are different, and the single stamps only exist as part of the sheet, not issued separately in their own single-design or se-tenant full sheet.
- Se-tenant: Two or more stamps with different denominations, colors, design, etc., joined together side by side, printed on the same sheet, in a strip or block. The stamps can be directly printed next to each other or be separated by one or more non-stamp labels (blank or with printing). For the TouchStamps Stamp Catalog also stamp pairs with non-stamp labels in between that are not upside-down to each other are categorized as se-tenant. Single stamps with a non-stamp label attached are considered single stamps and they are listed in the format "Stamp" and not "Se-tenant".
- Souvenir Sheet: Any sheet containing stamps where all the stamp designs are different and meet one of the following criteria :
  - 1. There are less than 5 stamps in the sheet and the stamps were not also issued separately in single-design or se-tenant full sheets at the time of issue of the sheet.
  - 2. All of the stamps in the sheet, regardless of number of stamps, were also all issued separately in single-design or se-tenant full sheets..
- Stamp: A regular, single postage stamp. The same stamp may also exist in the catalog as part of items in one or more of the other formats.
- Stamp with Attached Label : a joined se-tenant unit consisting of a one or more stamps and one or more decorative labels printed within the sheet of stamps.
- Stamp with Collectible Margin : a joined se-tenant unit consisting of one or more stamps with attached illustrated sheet margin (selvage) recognized by a TouchStamps-supported catalog as a distinct collectible variety of the stamp.
- Tête-bêche: a joined pair of stamps printed intentionally or accidentally in upside-down direction to one another. A pair of tête-bêches can be a vertical or a horizontal pair. Triangular stamps can be linked only "head-to-tail". Tête-bêche is a type of the Se-tenant.
Printings: The type(s) of printing used to print the stamp.
Perforations: To easily separate single stamps from the sheets, they are perforated. The perforation size is measured in the number of holes per 2 centimeters. A perforation of 13¾ means that over a length of 2 centimeters there are 13 and three quarters of a hole. There are different perforation types which may be described as follows:
- Comb perfs: Comb perforators perforate three sides of a stamp at once for an entire column or row. The process is automated and once one row or column is perforated, the perforation sheet is advanced to the next row or column. This process produces equal and regular corner perforations. This is the most common type of perforation method used for modern stamps with water activated gum.
- Combination perfs: refer to a situation where opposite edges are perforated differently. So for example a stamp that is perforated 11 vertically, perforated 12 on the top and perforated 10 on the bottom is a stamps with combination perfs. Combination perfs cannot be listed in the Perforation field and they should be noted in the Description field.
- Die cut: Die cut means a metal die has been used to cut out the stamps. The is the normal means of separation for self-adhesive stamps. A stamp that is die cut with straight edges on all 4 sides is to be listed as a “die cut” stamp in TouchStamps and not as an “imperforate” stamp.
- Frame perfs: All sides of the stamp are perforated at the same time and the corner perforations are therefore regular.
- Imperforate: A stamp with no precut means of separation is known as imperforate. Imperforate stamps need to be cut out with a scissors or knife. The straight edges of perforated stamps are also referred to as imperforate edges. However, a die cut stamps that has straight edges on all 4 sides is a “die cut” stamp and it is not an “imperforate” stamp.
- Line perfs: Line perforators consist of a single row of perforation pins that are arranged in a straight line. A sheet of stamps is perforated horizontally one row at a time and then turned 90 degress and perforated vertically one row at a time. This process produces haphazard corner perforations and can sometimes lead to stamps of different sizes. Line perfs are rarely used in modern times.
- Pin perfs: Pin perfs are stamps perforated with very small holes (as if by a sewing machine). The existence of pin perfs cannot be entered in the “Perforation” field in TouchStamps and it has to be noted in the “Description” field.
- Rouletted: Stamps that are “perforated” with horizontal and vertical cuts rather than holes.
- Syncopated perfs: Syncopated perforations are deliberately made uneven (as an anti-counterfeiting feature) either by skipping a hole or by making some holes larger and elongated.
- Serpentine: Serpentine means in a snake like shape (like the letter “S”). “Serpentine die cut” is quite common and differs from “die cut” by the shape of the simulated perforations. “Serpentine rouletted” also exists (such as with the early stamps of Finland) but on TouchStamps it cannot be listed differently from ordinary “rouletted”.
- Various: Stamps that exists with a wide variety of different perforations that are not treated by the printed catalogues as separate variants, are listed in TouchStamps with the Perforations field set to “various” and the known perforations types listed in the Description field.
Colors: The color(s) used on the stamp. While most modern stamps are multicolored, there are stamps with only one or a few colors. For these, color differences may be important variants.
Gums: A type of gum used for a stamp.
Years: The year of issue of the stamp.
Face Values: The numeric face value, not taking into account the currency. The value is used as written on the stamp, so a 1 cent and a 1 Euro stamp will both be listed under 1.
Currencies: The face currency of the stamp. The currency is used as the face value is written, so currencies with divisions will have two currencies listed, e.g. there are both Euro and Euro cent in the list.
Themes: A listing of the specific topics depicted on the stamp. Clicking on a theme will bring up other stamps that depict the same theme. A stamp can have more than one theme and will then be listed under each of them.
Catalogs: There are many (printed and/or online) stamp catalogs, using different numbering systems. Some catalogs cover only one country or region, others all countries. To aid users of different catalogs, a stamp can have several catalogs with their respective number assigned.

The catalog also contains other properties to further describe the stamps:

Name: The name of the stamp in English language. This field can contain a maximum of 60 characters.
Series: A series is a group of stamps that are related to each other, either by sharing a common (or similar) design or a similar reason for their being issued at a specific time. Clicking on the series name will bring up all stamps that belong to that specific series.
Variants: If a stamp is marked as a variant, you can get a list of all confusingly similar stamps by clicking on Click to see variants.
Width: Width (horizontal length) in millimeters. For non-rectangular stamps this is the maximum width of the stamp.
Height: Height (vertical length) in millimeters. For non-rectangular stamps this is the maximum height of the stamp.
Paper: A kind of paper used for printing a stamp.
Watermark: A watermark, if any, used for a stamp.
Print Run: The number of stamps printed.
Score: A unique index that enables estimating the value of an item.
Description: This may include information on how to distinguish variants or other information needed to identify the stamp.
Front Picture and Back Picture: In most cases only the front of the stamp should be pictured, unless the back has special features (e.g. text, counting number). Please follow the Picture Guidelines.

Link to this

World Postal Authorities Info

Following the links below you can find the official websites of world postal authorities and track the registered shipments. These should help you with trading collectibles with people you cannot physically meet.

Afghanistan: http://afghanpost.gov.af/en

Aland Islands: https://www.alandpost.ax/track

Albania: https://www.postashqiptare.al

Algeria: https://www.poste.dz

Angola: https://www.correiosdeangola.ao/pesquisaencomenda.aspx

Anguilla: http://www.aps.ai/tracking.php

Argentina: https://www.correoargentino.com.ar/formularios/oidn

Armenia: https://www.haypost.am/en

Aruba: http://www.postaruba.com

Australia: https://auspost.com.au/mypost/track/#/search

Austria: https://www.post.at/en/track_trace.php

Azerbaijan: http://www.azerpost.az/?options=content&id=22