# C64a - 1963 8c Plane & Capitol,carmine,tagged
Â
1962 8¢ Airliner and Capitol Dome
First Phosphorescent U.S. StampsÂ
By the late 1950s, mail volume in the U.S. and around the world was constantly increasing. Many countries began to explore new ways to sort and postmark their stamps in quicker and more efficient ways.
Working with private sector companies such as Pitney Bowes, the U.S. Post Office worked to develop machinery that could find the stamp and flip the envelope (a process known as âfacingâ) so the postmark would be placed in the right spot. In order to do this, the stamps needed to be able to be âseenâ by the machine.
The Post Office then needed to test their new idea, and selected U.S. #C64 as the first stamp to implement this experiment. The stamp was issued on August 1, 1963, in Dayton, Ohio. The Post Office sent their special machinery there and overprinted the stamps with a special compound called a âtaggant.â Invisible to the naked eye, the taggant made the stamps glow pinkish orange under the UV light. The experiment was a success â the machine acknowledged the glow, flipped the letters, and applied the cancels in quick order.
Did you knowâ¦
that a stamp missing its phosphorescent tagging is considered by many to be similar to a missing color error? Mystic has a large selection of these neat âtagging omittedâ stamps you can browse and order here. Many are affordably priced under $10, and all are half their Scott Catalogue values!
Â
Â
1962 8¢ Airliner and Capitol Dome
First Phosphorescent U.S. StampsÂ
By the late 1950s, mail volume in the U.S. and around the world was constantly increasing. Many countries began to explore new ways to sort and postmark their stamps in quicker and more efficient ways.
Working with private sector companies such as Pitney Bowes, the U.S. Post Office worked to develop machinery that could find the stamp and flip the envelope (a process known as âfacingâ) so the postmark would be placed in the right spot. In order to do this, the stamps needed to be able to be âseenâ by the machine.
The Post Office then needed to test their new idea, and selected U.S. #C64 as the first stamp to implement this experiment. The stamp was issued on August 1, 1963, in Dayton, Ohio. The Post Office sent their special machinery there and overprinted the stamps with a special compound called a âtaggant.â Invisible to the naked eye, the taggant made the stamps glow pinkish orange under the UV light. The experiment was a success â the machine acknowledged the glow, flipped the letters, and applied the cancels in quick order.
Did you knowâ¦
that a stamp missing its phosphorescent tagging is considered by many to be similar to a missing color error? Mystic has a large selection of these neat âtagging omittedâ stamps you can browse and order here. Many are affordably priced under $10, and all are half their Scott Catalogue values!
Â