Stamps - Hand Painted Die Proof Stamps

The drawing on the left side is actually some kind of proof which was drawn by the artist who design the stamp. This stage of process is one of the critical stage, because instead of producing the samples by using the standard printing machine, the artist is producing "the issued stamp" by using his skill. He put the water-coloured on the print, which has the size of the original stamp.

By using hand drawn painting on the stamps, the designer can give a better understanding of what the stamp will look like once it is printed in the actual colour by using the normal printing.

Unfortunately not all the designer of the stamps are using this method nowadays, because the cost of doing a digital printing is so cheap and most of the design of the stamps are now done by using computer or photography. The art of miniature drawing and colouring may not be much of a help nowadays, but in the old days; they are very valuable.

This type of proof is very scarce and difficult to find. Most of them are coming out from the French related country. Either they used to be their colonies or they have some sort of relation with France in the past. Quite a few of them are in Africa. The most common of this type of proof are coming from Congo, Mali, Niger, Central Africa Repulic, Camerous and a few small islands in the middle of nowhere....

I've got quite a few of this type of proof myself. The only problem is that you have to be very careful with how you keep them. Indonesia is definitely not a good place to keep this kind of proof simply because of the high humidity. Most of these proof will go bad within a year or two after they are exposed to the Indonesian air. That could be one of the reason as well on why it is so difficult to find the proof of stamp in Indonesia.