On the 1st June, 1934, a seal of new design was issued. This seal was designed in Egypt and embodied a sphinx and pyramid, and both the new design and the alteration in the words "Letter Seal" to "Letter Stamp" were approved by G.P.O.s, London and Egypt.
  These stamps as well as the Jubilee stamps were all printed by photogravure process by Messrs. Harrison & Sons, London. In addition to the altered design they were slightly longer and narrower, being 38x17 mm. between the outside of frame-lines. They were printed on unwatermarked paper in sheets of 400 fifty horizontal rows of eight stamps-and made up into books, each containing five sheets of twenty stamps (four across and five down) with a margin on one side only. No gutter margin was employed, the stamps on each half-sheet (50x4) being printed tete-beche to the other so that the side margins could be used for binding purposes. They were perforated 14. The first printing was of 500,000 (May, 1934), 250,000 being in crimson and 250,000 in bright green. The green stamps appear to have been put in use when the crimson ones were exhausted about January, 1935. Two further printings of the crimson stamps were made, 400,000 in March and 500,000 in November, 1935. These printings were precisely similar to the first. The plates, etc., used for these issues were disposed of : First printing (Postal Seal). Dies were destroyed. Second printing (Letter Seal). Dies went to Egyptian Postal Museum. Third printing (Letter stamps). Dies destroyed. Original designs to Egyptian Postal Museum. Surplus seals which were returned to H.Q., B.T.E., Cairo, were dealt with by a board of officers who, in conjunction with Egyptian Post Office officials, saw that they were burned or otherwise destroyed. |
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