StampPrinters.info: Stamp Printing at Enschede

Every year in a different British town, the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain is held over a long weekend. This year in Bristol, delegates were treated to a fascinating insight into security stamp printing at the world-renowned Dutch company of Joh. Enschedé of Haarlem.

It was good for me to renew my acquaintance with their sales manager, Bas Hilferink, who had flown over specially that morning to be with us – despite having a heavy head cold. I first met Bas in 1995 when I had the rare opportunity of visiting the Enschedé factory and seeing first hand the wonderful skill of a master printer. That visit could not be reported on in detail due to the confidentiality agreement that I had sign when entering the print works. It is especially pleasing, therefore, to be able to now record their activities and I thank Bas for checking and clearing the text of this article for publication.

The company was restructured in 1996 and is now split into five divisions, namely Joh. Enschedé Banknotes, Joh. Enschedé Stamps, Joh. Enschedé Amsterdam, Joh. Enschedé Belgium and Aestron Design, a recently acquired security consultancy. This split has enabled there to be a greater focus on stamps than hitherto.

Activities include development, design, production and distribution on a portfolio of products that includes banknotes, passports, driving licences, fiscals, vouchers, shares, tickets and, of course, stamps – both postal and savings. Enschedé has clients in sixty countries worldwide, produce over 500 designs / values per annum and print more than 20 million stamps per day (yes, per day!).

A variety of production techniques are employed including two presses printing in five or seven colour photogravure, four colour lithography, intaglio, letterpress, silk screen and foil printing. Holograms can now be applied and 1997 will see what is believed to be the first stamp in the world to be printed by the silk screen process (for Holland).

Enschedé offers ‘one-stop-shopping’ for its clients, producing gummed and self-adhesive stamps on sheets or sheetlets, coil stamps, postal stationery, booklets and ATM vended sheet formats through cash machines. Bas believes that the self-adhesive stamps will expand rapidly.

The lecture then covered stamps and security. To secure against what? Basically, there are two types. Firstly, counterfeiting (including printing and colour photostat machine copying) and, secondly, stamp washing which is a particular problem with litho printed stamps. It is understood that counterfeiting in the United States could be running at US$25 million per annum.

A security printer is part of a chain, which can only be as strong as the weakest link. Designers, material suppliers of papers and inks, transportation companies used and storage methods employed all play a part in protecting the stamp product. Post Offices also have a role to play and perhaps should be more open in telling the public what to look out for in a stamp, which consists of a balanced number of overt (visible) and covert (invisible) security features.

Overt features include the obvious, such as perforations, a head of State or Monarch, elliptical perforations, size or consistency of print quality and colour. Covert features invariably require a device to read and include phosphorescent, metallic or fluorescent inks and micro printing. Metallic foils are particularly good at stopping colour photocopying fraud.

The various elements involved in stamp production all have their part to platy in helping to protect the product. The use of seven or eight colours one stamp, employing certain colours that photocopy differently, using metallic inks, such as gold, silver or OVI (Optical Variable Ink) inks all can add to the difficulty of unauthorised reproduction. Similarly, coloured inks in gumming, OBA-free (Optical Brightening Agents) papers, visible or invisible security threads or watermarks impressed into the paper all add further protection.

The printing technique can be of prime importance, for photogravure offers better protection than lithography and a combination of litho and intaglio is difficult to replicate, requiring a skilled craftsman on the intaglio portion of the design. Perforations are hard to replicate, especially if they are unusual in format – i.e. not just round. Numbering can be extended to every stamp as added security, although this is rarely employed on postage stamps, being restricted mainly to trading or savings stamps.

All this protection of the product is fine, but unless other aspects of security are considered, all the efforts of the printer can be in vain. This is why Enschedé undertakes all waste destruction on site, burning in winter for heating and in the summer for use in the factory air conditioning system. There is no chance of sheets turning up at the local council rubbish tip, as has happened elsewhere in the world in past years. Physical security is also of paramount importance with entry into and out of the factory being tightly controlled by its own security force. They may be justifiably proud of their employees, for no-one has ever been caught thieving.

It is clear from this article that Enschedé consider all aspects of security in an ongoing attempt at staying one step ahead of the fraudster. As postage rates increase, the appeal to defraud also increases, so it is good to see that the postal services have a friend in the printing industry protecting their interests.

The need for stamp security also has the added bonus of producing interesting varieties for philatelists to include in their collections, for it is rare that a change of production technique is generated to separate us from our money – despite what some collectors erroneously believe!

(Published in Philateli-Graphics, 1996) 932 words