GB2048817A

GB2048817A - Sheets of self-adhesive stamps, vouchers or the like

Info

Publication number: GB2048817A
Application number: GB8011589A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: WALSALL SECURITY PRINTERS Ltd
Current assignee: WALSALL SECURITY PRINTERS Ltd
Priority date: 1979-04-28
Filing date: 1980-04-08
Publication date: 1980-12-17

Abstract

The invention concerns sheets of self-adhesive stamps 39 or the like releasably adhered to a base material 31. The sheet and base material are divisible by means of lines of perforations 36 or the like into discrete portions 35, for instance carrying one stamp, and the portion of base material is also printed so that it supplements the stamp and has some intrinsic value or purpose. The stamp may comprise a voucher or token, but has special application for postage stamps and pre-paid gift vouchers. The shape of the stamp may vary and the printing may be on the reverse and/or obverse face of the backing material, and the use of the backing material can be for anti-fraud or stock control, or supplementary pre- payment on purchase. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Sheets of self-adhesive stamps, vouchers or the like This invention is concerned with improvements in self-adhesive stamps, vouchers, tokens, tickets, labels, marking devices, tallies, coupons, dockets, impress, badges or the like, herein referred to as "stamps" where the context so admits and includes the various applications for which such stamps are used, for instance, revenue, postage, pre-paid gift, admission, tote, lottery, pricing, and dues.

It is already known to provide sheets of stamps which are formed from a laminated sheet comprising a base sheet treated with a release agent, and a face sheet coated with a selfadhesive that is exposed when the face sheet or part thereof is removed from the base sheet.

Normally the face sheet is printed and defines an array of rows of stamps which can be separated discretely from the base sheet by means of lines of severance that extend only through the face sheet.

According to a previous invention of ours, the subject of U.K. Patent No. 1 ,41 4,777, we devised an arrangement for enabiing the base sheet and the face sheet to be divided into discrete portions, for example for use in vending individual postage stamps from a sheet so that the purchaser received both the base sheet portion and the stamp portion of the face sheet, and the purchaser could later separate the stamp from the base sheet when the stamp was required to be adhesively secured to a letter, package or the like.

Of course, the traditional use of stamps for postage in the form of perforated gummed sheets continues, and the introduction of self-adhesive stamps has only occurred in a small portion of the market throughout the world. The introduction and use for postage has been applied mainly for special commemorative stamps where sales are influenced by factors relating to such commemorative issue. In particular, such commemorative issues are often produced to restricted number and widely purchased for collectors and philatelic specialists.

Self-adhesive stamp sheets are more expensive to produce than the traditional gummed stamp sheets so that gummed stamp sheets continue to dominate, particularly for certain types of stamps as hereinbefore referred to, such as for revenue, dues, and gift vouchers.

As well as the cost factor, there is another disadvantage arising from the use of self-adhesive stamps, and that arises from the fact that a selfadhesive stamp comprises two parts. One part is the stamp which is used, but there is the base sheet portion that has novalue to the user, and is simply scrap once the stamp has been removed.

Such scrap formed by the base sheet portion has to be thrown away, and in some instances, it constitutes a litter problem. For instance, in offices selling stamps for postages. It will be appreciated, that the relatively high cost of self-adhesive stamps compared with gummed stamp sheets stems from the cost of the basic material of which half is merely wasted. The actual cost of printing, distribution and related expenses does not vary whichever type of stamp sheets are used.

It is an aim of this invention to provide an improvement in self-adhesive stamps which obviates unnecessary waste and provides the base sheet with a useful purpose that can have economic and other benefits that can be off-set against the higher cost of the self-adhesive stamps.

According to this invention we provide a sheet of stamps comprising a laminated sheet formed of superposed sheets of a base material coated with release agent and a face sheet coated with a self adhesive, the face sheet being printed and arranged to form separable stamps, and the whole sheet being divisble into discrete portions by means of perforations or lines of weaknes extending through the whole sheet, the base material being printed as well as the face material whereby, a discrete portion comprises at least one stamp and one printed base portion which has an intrinsic value or purpose supplementary to the stamp indicated by printing thereon.

By this invention, each discrete portion has a dual function, one being the self-adhesive stamp and the other being supplementary thereto provided by the backing portion. Thus the backing portion is not scrapped or thrown away but is put to practical use in a number of ways as later described.

The printed base portion may be printed indicating an intrinsic value so that the base portion is retained by the purchaser for use in a non-self-adhesive manner and this value may be pre-paid by the purchaser of the stamp. Particular enterprises that are considered possible for such dual use, particularly associated with the sale of postage stamps, include government or local authorities or other bodies where a large number of the public have to pay for services or costs and, where it is already arranged for collection of monies due to be made "over the counter" by various schemes. For instance, supplementary values can be printed on the base portion to be pre-paid on purchase of the postage stamp, and such base portion can be kept and collected by the purchaser for payments of bills for public services and supplies such as gas, electricity or telephone.

An application, particularly at present for overseas use is the voluntary collection of Charity or Health contributions which may be pre-paid supplements without the need for special issues of postage stamps.

In other applications of this invention, the intrinsic value printed on the base portion need not be pre-paid by the purchaser but could be prepaid by the authority or commercial concern having ultimate responsibility for receiving the backing portions as collected by the purchaser for redemption. In such applications, the authority or commercial concern would subsidise the initial higher purchase cost of the self-adhesive stamp sheets.

One application which could be exercised by the Government or a commercial enterprise is the issue of share tickets in a State or Local Lottery so that by the purchase of postage stamps, the purchaser is given "a chance" to win.

Another application of this invention has significant import in commerce where it is becoming more common for shops, distributors and firms to sell gift vouchers, or to issue free tokens which are collected for later redemption.

Such vouchers and tokens are exchangable for goods and thus are of value which must be accounted for by the commercial concern, either on issue or redemption. It is therefore proposed that the base portion can provide, by means of the printing thereon, a stock or issue record once the stamp (such as a gift voucher) has been removed and secured to a card for the purchaser. it is also considered that by means of the printing on the base portion, a user may have and maintain a record of usage once the self-adhesive stamp has been removed. A number of applications are suitable, especially as the base portion can be used instead of a traditional counter-foil arranged to be detached from the main section on usage.

The wide range of printing inks now available, also enable the base portion to be read by sensing devices for automatic stock control or anti-fraud applications, and this is most important where the value of the stamp or stamps (in all appropriate contexts) is high.

It will now be understood that this invention gives the base portion a purpose which can have monetary value or other intrinsic value so that it is reserved by the purchaser or user and is not discarded. This resolves the problem arising from litter for most people would not throw away something of value, or if thrown away, someone else will probably pick it up. Furthermore, the supplementary charges or costs arising from the use of self-adhesive stamps can be off-set against savings likely to be made by commercial payments received for the special application of printing to the backing material, or the actual use of the backing portions which are associatedwwith issue or use of the stamps.

The printing on the base material may be on the closed face to which the release agent is applied.

This being suitable for some applications such as for Lotteries or Surprise token use. Other applications where the printing can be applied to the closed face include those where a stock control on issue is required so that the person dispensing the self-adhesive stamps can instantaneousiy look at a sheet and see how many have been used, and possibly at the end of a period, tear off the used portion of the sheet with all of the values and other information printed thereon for return to a stock controller. Another application of this closed face printing may be applied where certain areas of the base sheet are exposed as well as the face sheet, for example where the skeletal waste or ladder of the face sheet is removed from the sheet by the manufacturer. The user would then be able to immediately recognise the type and variety of stamp sheet being used.

The printing may be applied to the open or reverse face of the base sheet, and this may be in combination with printing applied to the closed face. The printing on the open face can be simple advertising, or could comprise information or have the intrinsic value or purpose of the kind aforementioned.

Preferably, the invented stamp sheet is divisible into the discrete portions by means of lines of perforations extending through the whole sheet to divide same into rectangular or square discrete portions. The lines of perforations and the spacing thereof are selected in accordance with the size of the discrete portions required and the size of the sheet. Instead of perforations, lines of rouletting or scores or slits may be used for dividing the stamp sheet into the discrete portions.

The face material is provided with lines of weakness which permit the face material to be separated from the base material by a simple bending action, and such lines of weakness are preferably only through the face material, although it is envisaged that one such line of weakness may be contiguous with one of the lines of perforations or other dividing lines extending through the whole sheet.

With stamp sheets according to this invention it is not essential that the waste portion of the face material be stripped from the sheet prior to use.

This has an economic advantages in manufacture of the stamps sheets. However, it is envisaged, as aforementioned, that for some special applications, the waste could be stripped and such stripping could give an indication of the intrinsic value or purpose of the stamp and/or backing portion.

The invention may be applied to stamps that have a special outline, that is non-linear. Examples are Revenue Stamps that are often circular, or special postage stamps that have a designed irregular outline. Other shapes for stamps used as tokens, labels and such devices can be used.

It is envisaged that this invention may also be applied to long sheets of stamps, for example in strip form with one or two columns only and marginal edges. These stamps may be provided with the sheet being rolled for dispensing by a machine, and provision could be made for the machine to separate the self-adhesive stamp in dispensing with the machine having means to wind off the backing portion that can be retained for later separation when required, for instance at the end of a trading period.

The type of printing to be applied both to the base material and the face material can be selected as desired, but in some applications it will be necessary to corisider colour show-through and the quality of the printing inks to be employed where the printing is covered by the release agent.

The invention can be applied to specialised forms of printing, for instance, the use of embossed or laid or hot-pressed gold or metal printing, or even the use of metal or metallic forge proof inserts or printing.

Exemplary embodiments of this invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: FIGURE 1 is a front view of a stamp sheet FIGURE 2 is a rear view of the stamp sheet shown in Figure 1; FIGURE 3 is a sectionai view of the stamp sheet shown in Figure 1 taken on the line Ill-Ill; FIGURE 4 is a front view of another stamp sheet in which the waste is stripped from the backing material; FIGURE 5 is a sectional view of the stamp sheet shown in Figure 4 taken on the line V-V; FIGURE 6 is a front view of another stamp sheet which has stamps of non-linear outline and which has been partially used and having printing on the closed face; and FIGURE 7 is a front view of a strip-like stamp sheet, partially used.

With reference to the first embodiment shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the stamp sheet 10 is a laminated sheet formed of a base material 1 such as paper, a coating of release agent 2 applied to the base material 1, a face sheet 3 superposed on the base material and carrying a layer of selfadhesive 4 adjacent the release agent. The base material 1 and the face sheet 3 are of suitable papers for printing, and may themselves be laminated sheets.

The sheet 10 is divisible into discrete portions 5 by means of lines of perforations 6 or rouletting which extend in parallel and spaced apart array both lengthwise and across the sheet. In known manner, the sheet is shown with marginal borders 7 that are usually required for printing, registration, coding and possible handling and bundling. These borders 7 are optional and form no part of this invention. The perforations extend right through the face sheet 3 and the base material 1 so that the sheet can be divided as required into sections that may comprise one or more discrete portions 5.

The face sheet 3 is also provided with lines of weakness 8 that only extend through the thickness of the face sheet and which intersect the lines of nerforations 6. These lines of weakness 8 are provided to assist separation of the face sheet from the base material once the sheet has been divided into the discrete portions 5 or prior to such division. The lines of weakness 8 are preferably made by scoring through the face material 3 in a controlled manner known in the art, and may be continuous or broken.

The face sheet 3 is printed and divisible so as to provide a plurality of stamps 9 which may be postage stamps of chosen design and value. The reverse face la of the base material 1 is also printed to provide a series of tokens 11 each represented within one of the discrete portions delineated by the lines of perforations 6. These tokens may be of any design, and can have some intrinsic value such as a discount value to be redeemed at a company shop, or the value could be a pre-paymentfff an amount added to the value of the postage stamp on purchase so as to be collected to pay a bill likely to arise, such as for electricity, or other service widely used by the public In use of the sheet of stamps, the purchaser may buy one or more and the vendor can easily divide the sheet by separating the sheet along the perforations.The user can then remove one or more of the stamps as desired and save the tokens for redemption or use later. Convenientiy, instructions for redemption or other use can be printed on the token, or included in the border, or even on the obverse face 1 b of the base material when stripped of the covering stamp.

With reference to the second embodiment of this invention shown in Figures 4 and 5, the stamp sheet is made of a base material 21 coated with a release agent 22, and there is a facing sheet 23 with a self-adhesive coating 24. The sheet is divisible into discrete portions 25 as previously described by means of the array of lines of perforations 26. However in this embodiment, the waste from the facing sheet 23, has been removed or stripped from the base material 1 which is printed on the obverse face 21 b and the printing, or some of it, is revealed to the user as well as the stamps 29. The printing on the obverse face 21b of the base material 1 may continue underneath the stamp and only be exposed once the stamp has been removed from the discrete portion.The exposed printing on the stripped part of the base material may designate the subject or application or purpose of the token or other stamp provided by the base material for easy reference by the vendor, stockist, user or the like. It will be understood that the printing of the token or stamp on the base material 1 need not be constant, and different intrinsic values or designations for different parts of the base material can be employed as desired, for example, in surprise tokens, lotteries or commercial advertising.

Furthermore, if required, the reverse face 21 a of the base material can also be printed as in the first embodiment just described.

With reference to the third embodiment as depicted in Figure 6, in this the facing sheet 33 coated with the self-adhesive overlying the base material 31, and there are the lines of perforations 36 which enable the sheet to be divided into discrete portions 35 when required. The stamps 39 provided by the facing sheet 33 are of circular shape and are defined by broken scores through the facing sheet for ready separation from the base material 31. Printing designating the face value of the stamp is provided on the obverse face 31 a of the base material so that once the stamp 39 has been removed, the amount of the face value of the stamp is left exposed on the base material as indicated, By this type of sheet, the stamp may be used in situations where a counter hand or designated official applies the self-adhesive stamp to a document, pass book or similar on receipt of payment.The sales, and thus stock control can be made and processed readily by the amounts exposed on the obverse face 31 a of base material, and for some applications, the base material portion from which one or more stamps have been removed can be returned for replacement by new stock and costing control.

This application of the invention is considered to be of particular importance in transactions where a quick check on cash takings and eventual control through a centralised department may be required, as no elaborate training or sophisticated equipment is required to use the stamps sheets.

Additionally, this invention enables a wide range of values to be provided in a single sheet, as the printing can be set up for several values so that a multiplicity of sheets is not required.

Furthermore, by suitable printing and/or coding applied to the backing sheet, the location of sale or use can be entered and later analysed in a group accounting operation with a plurality of sales outlets.

With reference to the fourth embodiment as shown in Figure 7, this depicts another type of stamp sheet according to this invention suitable for use in an automatic roll dispenser. There is the base material 41 in the form of a strip which can be separated into discrete portions 45 by tearing along the transverse line of perforations 46. The face sheet 43 is stripped of waste and provides rectangular vouchers which may have the value and a serial number printed thereon. In known manner the strip can be loaded into a coin-freed operated dispenser by means of which the vouchers may be purchased on insertion of one or more coins.

The vouchers can be dispensed free of the base material so that the self-adhesive layer is exposed ready for use by the purchaser for securing to a gift card, book or collection card, and the base material is retained within the dispenser for later checking and verification by reference to printing on the base material. The perforations enabling the base material to be separated permit the strip to be quickly checked by removal of the base material strip, say at regular intervals when cash collected in the coin-freed mechanism is emptied and an instantaneous check can be provided.

In an alternative use ofthe stamp sheet as depicted in Figure 7, the dispenser can be arranged to supply the whole sheet portion to the user who tears the strip across to remove it from the dispenser. The self adhesive voucher can then be applied as required, and the base material may be printed in the manner of a counterfoil record or give the purchaser due notification of the conditions applying to the purchase and/or transaction.

It appears that there are numerous applications to which stamp sheets according to this invention could be applied, and many have special merit in security or anti-fraud control where special printing and coding techniques have to be applied, and where the use of such stamp sheets could be employed by quite inexperienced persons having only ordinary counter trade experience without need for immediate financial control and supervision.

It will be appreciated that this invention is deemed to embrace various combinations of printing to produce and provide stamps as herein defined, and that the number, shape and type on each sheet can be varied as desired for each application.

Claims

1. A sheet of stamps comprising a liminated sheet formed of superposed sheets of a base material coated with release agent and a face sheet coated with self-adhesive, the face sheet being printed and arranged to form separable stamps, and the whole sheet being divisible into discrete portions by means of a perforations or lines of weakness extending through the whole sheet, the base material being printed as well as the face material whereby, a discrete portion comprises at least one stamp and one printed base portion which has an intrinsic value or purpose supplementary to the stamp indicated by printing thereon.

2. A sheet according to claim 1 wherein the printing on the base material is on the reverse face thereof.

3. A sheet according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the printing on the base material is on the obverse face thereof.

4. A sheet according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the face sheet includes lines of weakness within each discrete portion whereby the stamp of such discrete portion can be removed by bending the discrete portion and peeled off leaving the base material.

5. A sheet according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the face sheet is stripped of waste and exposes part of the obverse face of the base material.

6. A sheet according to an.y one of the preceding claims wherein the stamps are square or rectangular in shape.

7. A sheet according to any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein the stamps are non-linear in shape.

8. A sheet according to any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the stamps comprise a single row extending on the base material which is in the form of a strip.

1 0. A sheet of stamps substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the embodiments depicted in the accompanying drawings.

8. A sheet according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the discrete portions comprise a plurality of rows extending in regular array both longitudinally and transversely of the sheet.