Stamps Featuring Flora and Fauna and National Treasures Issued (Showing Units of Sen)
Stamps Featuring Flora and Fauna and National Treasures Issued (Showing Units of Sen)
November 1, 1950
In 1950 a group of stamps featuring national treasures, important cultural assets and flora and fauna peculiar to Japan replaced the industry design stamps. These new stamps were issued with the aim of promoting Japanese culture.
The denominations of these stamps included sen, but the zeros indicating units of sen were later removed, leaving only units of yen. The stamps which showed the units of sen are called the 'First Flora and Fauna and National Treasure Design stamps.'
To improve the printing quality of standard stamps, no watermark was included.
Stamps Featuring Flora and Fauna and National Treasures Issued (Showing Units of Yen Only)
May 10, 1952
After the 'First Flora and Fauna and National Treasure Design stamps,' a group of stamps featuring new designs and showing the face value only in units of yen were issued. Around this time the relief printing and intaglio printing methods which had been so popular up to then were replaced by the gravure printing method. This new method produced clear designs and allowed many colors to be used.
These stamps are called the 'Second Flora and Fauna and National Treasure Design stamps.'
The first design change appeared on the 10 yen stamp in April 1961. Following this, stamps with new face values and new designs were issued in line with the revision of postal charges in June 1961. The new stamps are known as the 'Third Flora and Fauna and National Treasure Design stamps.'
'NIPPON' Appears in Roman Letters
June 20, 1966
In accordance with new regulations of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), all stamps issued on or after January 1, 1966 in member nations had to show the name of the country of origin in Roman letters. In Japan, the designation 'NIPPON' was added.
In July of the same year, 'luminous stamps' were issued for the purpose of testing an automatic aligner and postmarking machine. This machine operated by detecting a luminous substance applied within the printed area and then automatically postmarking the mail. It was tested at the Omiya post office in Saitama Prefecture.
Stamps Marking the Mechanization of Postal Processes
July 1, 1967
Mechanization of mail processing made remarkable progress. The luminous stamps were replaced by stamps which could be detected from the colors using in printing. Accordingly, an automatic aligning and postmarking machine was developed and adopted.
At the same time a line of color about 0.5 millimeters in width was provided around the circumference of each stamp. The same design was printed in different colors and stamps with modified designs were issued one after the other.
