July 2, 2008

Miniature sheets, Souvenir sheets and Sheetlets.

There is always some confusion among most of the Philatelist or Stamp collectors about the difference in Miniature Sheets and Souvenir Sheets, confusion as different philatelic entity has a separate description for Miniature sheet and Souvenir sheet.

When I browsed the net looking for a description and difference on those terms I found that it is defined in many ways and also depends on the country where the term was used.



In India most of the collectors use the term Miniature Sheet (refer picture above) including India Post, for the small sheet of stamp which may include one or more stamp, usually different stamps. The stamp may be part of the picture depicted in the sheet or a separate one, and the paper margin surrounding the stamps may be plain design. Here the stamp has perforation and can be separated from the sheet and when it is separated it usually it looks same as the separate sheets of stamp issued along with the Miniature sheet. The miniature sheet is issued purely for the collectors. We rarely use the term Souvenir sheet in India.



The Linns website has a different description:

A miniature sheet is a smaller-than-normal pane of stamps issued in that form in addition to being issued in full panes. The smaller size and fewer stamps are what distinguishes it from a regular pane. (This is usually referred as sheetlets among Indian collectors and what we refer as Miniature sheets are Souvenir Sheets according to the Linns)

A miniature sheet is usually without marginal markings or text saying that the sheet was issued in conjunction with or to commemorate some event, which is what distinguishes it from a souvenir sheet.

In practice, many dealers and collectors refer to both small regular panes and souvenir sheets as "miniature sheets." (Refer www.linns.com)



India had issued a Miniature sheet (or is it a souvenir sheet?) in 1973 for the India International Philatelic Exhibition, where the 4 stamps depicted in it did not have any perforation and could not be separated. Some collectors/Senior Philatelists define this as Souvenir sheet, as the stamps cannot be separated and this is purely a Souvenir to be collected by the Philatelists.



I would be delighted to get maximum comments on this subject as to what are your views and what it is known as, in your respective countries for those who read this article in different corners of the globe. For now, whatever name it is called by, most collectors love to have this piece (Miniature or Souvenir sheet) among their collections so do keep collecting and enjoy it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Mansoor,
I have just seen ur blog and read about M/s & S/s. As far as I know technically the stamps of miniature sheets are seperately available but stamps of souvenir sheets are not available seperately. In India only miniature sheets are issued as the stamps are seperately available. The INDEPEX-73 sheet may be called as souvenir sheet to some extent as the stamps cannot be seperated out. But its stamps are seperately available so its not purely souvenir sheet. But in other countries souvenir sheets are issued.
with kind regards,
J.Jyoti

Ajay said...

I agree with the views of J.Jyoti/\.
Ajay Agrawal

Anonymous said...

I want to add one more point about souvenir sheet that Souvenir sheets are exclusively issued to commemorate a specific event wheras miniature sheets are issued for any subject like personality, wildlife, art etc.

-Jeevan Jyoti
Shimla, India

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Thanks, your blog is very interesting.

From the above comments does it mean that India has no single Sovenir Sheet till date?

B.K.Bhat

Raghavendra Shenoy said...

hi Mansoor !

You have changed the design of your blog ? It has a new look.
I think J Jyoti's description of miniature sheet and souvenir sheet
is the right one.

Raghavendra

Surendra Bhaskar said...

Dear Mr. B.K.Bhat,Ms Jyothi,Mr. Mansoor,
I am surprised to note that no mention has been made so far in the blog of the ONE AND ONLY Souvenir sheet issued by India. This is the 1997 Mother Theresa S/s with a face value of Rs. 45/- meant for use as postage for speed Post. NO stamps were isuued in sheets/sheetlets separately. The PHILA Catalogue states the quantity printed is a mere 50,000 only. This makes this stamp twice as scarce as the famous Rajkumar Shukla with a quantity of 100,000 having a face value of Rs.3/- only and commanding a current market price of about Rs. 600/- based only on scarcity. This works out to 200 times its face value. Even if the same scarcity factor is assumed then the Mother Theresa S/s should be having a fair market value of 45x200= Rs.9000/- atleast if not Rs. 18000/- !!!, any comments?