Stamp Decodera

A few years ago, the US Post Office issued a business-card size plastic
stamp decoder. What was the purpose of the decoder?

Tony


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"A.E. Gelat" wrote :
A few years ago, the US Post Office issued a business-card size plastic
stamp decoder. What was the purpose of the decoder?

Tony


Hello Tony,

If you search in Google for usps stamp decoder you will get a lot of
results.

For instance :
http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/sr02_041.htm

Also this definition on the USPS site :

Stamp Decoder TM : A device with a special lens that reveals hidden
images on stamps. It is available from the U.S. Postal Service.


--
All the best,
Pierre Courtiade

Pierre Courtiade wrote:

"A.E. Gelat" wrote :
A few years ago, the US Post Office issued a business-card size plastic
stamp decoder. What was the purpose of the decoder?

Tony


Hello Tony,

If you search in Google for usps stamp decoder you will get a lot of
results.

For instance :
http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/sr02_041.htm

Also this definition on the USPS site :

Stamp Decoder TM : A device with a special lens that reveals hidden
images on stamps. It is available from the U.S. Postal Service.

This is a lenticular lens with very fine spacing - the old 3D
stamps of Bhutan, Umm al Qiwain, etc. use a lenticular lens to come up
with their 3D effects. In the case of the decoder, a few US stamps are
printed with designs that will show up under the lens, if the lens is
held at the correct angle relative to the microlines printed on the
stamp. Maybe the most common of them is the $1 fox definitive? When
you hold the lens against the stamp, a small fox silhouette shows up
within the fox's body. The lens directs your vision to different parts
of the design, depending on the angle you are at relative to the lens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_lens

"Scrambled Indicia" is the copyrighted term for the company that
makes these things. Here's their home page, and an animated GIF showing
the $1 fox stamp image.

http://www.syndtech.com/gssc/indicia.html
http://www.syndtech.com/gssc/ex_redfox.html

One of my favourite modern artists is Yaacov Agam, who does lots of
work with lenticular lenses, calling the resulting works "Agamographs".
If you move side-to-side relative to the artwork, your view of the
picture changes as the lens projects to different portions of the print
and you see one of two different designs. Unfortunately, these artworks
are very expensive. Oh well.

http://www.jwgallery.com/html/yaacov_agam.html

Agam has designed stamps for Israel and France at the least.
"Message of Peace" on a 1980 French stamp (Scott 1713) is one of my
favourite stamps of all. See the end of this page.

http://tinyurl.com/ytohph

Mette used to have a page about Agam on her website, but
unfortunately it was a victim of the Copy-Dan problem. (Mette, I
suppose you know about this Danish site? Modern art is present there ...)

http://www.artstamps.dk/Alphabet-A.htm

Ryan

"Ryan Davenport" wrote in message news:B%tTi.132722

This is a lenticular lens with very fine spacing - the old 3D
stamps of Bhutan, Umm al Qiwain, etc. use a lenticular lens to come up
with their 3D effects.

As does the 2007 world rugby cup issue I would assume
from France.
http://cjoint.com/data/kybPV8SmZN.htm
(220Kb)

It appears to be the same as the thick unwieldy Bhutan
lenticulars, albeit thinned down and with 4-5 views
of the ball as it flies through the uprights.

The scan captures the ball in two positions.

(stamp c/o Mr. Pierre Courtiade