Philatelic Terms Illustrated - G to Z
Gold Foil Embossed Stamp Starting in the late 1960's many African countries began printing their high value stamps from gold foil which had the design embossed in whole or part. Some of these were produced from 100% foil, while others, like the above stamp from Upper Volta, which is now known as Burkina Faso, were printed on paper which had a coating of gold. These were largely eschewed by traditional collectors at the time they first appeared, with the result that many are quite scarce today. Granite Paper Granite paper is a wove paper in which coloured threads, usually made of silk, and usually black in colour appear on the surface of the paper embedded within it. The above scan shows two Japanese stamps from the 1920's that were part of the same issue. The stamp on the right is printed on regular wove paper, and shows no fibres on the paper surface. The stamp on the left shows several black fibres visible on the surface. This is what philatelists refer to