Black Heritage Stamp Issues - Philatelic Primer

All About the Hobby of Philately
(Stamp Collecting)

Types of Collections: Sheets and Panes

A Sheet is the full or complete impression from the plate as they come off the printing press. (In the Case of multi-colored stamps the impression can be from a single plate or from individual plates; one for each color of the stamp.) Shown on the left is a full sheet consisting of 6 panes for the Buffalo Soldiers Issue of 1994.

Another specialty area is the collecting of individual used stamps from each of the different positions contained on a sheet.

For Example: the top right stamp of this
sheet would be numbered S1111UR5 (Plate Number, then Pane Location and then Stamp Location)

A Stamp Pane is the part of the original Sheet that is issued for sale at local post offices. They are usually one of four or six groupings of stamps which go to make up the full sheet. They are commonly referred to (in error) as a sheet.

Illustrated at the left is a full pane of the Buffalo Soldiers Stamps.