Cinderella Stamps

Cinderella stamps are one that is thematic, similar to postage stamps but which are not official postage stamps and carries no monetary value. Cinderella is a broad term for just about anything that looks like a postage stamp but is not. The term includes bogus stamps and fantasies. It also includes many fund raising labels, Christmas seals, and other stickers that were produced for legitimate purposes.

Remember Cinderella? She was the fairy-tale character who looked like a princess but wasn’t really ceaseless in guise. Cinderella stamps succeed in the same idea. They are very similar to postage stamps, genuine, but in reality, is just a decorative label. A real postage stamp can only be issued by a genuine Post Office; however, anyone is welcome to design and print Cinderella stamps. Nevertheless, they can’t be used for postage. They are very collectible and some collectors specialize Cinderella stamps alone.

Cinderella stamps include local postage, revenues, fakes, forgeries, fantasy, and phantom stamps, imaginary countries, toy postage stamps, postal strike issues done by private companies and individual, railway letter and parcels, and many other rare stamps. These stamps are not authorized by the country represented and were not produced under the consent of the country depicted on the issue. These stamps are printed by a dealer or other organization.

The collector value of the so-called Cinderella Stamps is virtually zero and they should be considered as fakes or frauds. Some people collect them on as examples of mineral art.

Cinderellas are often collected in a manner just the same as stamp collecting. Others were privately produced in limited numbers, a little know are quite rare but a great many are common and readily available.

A great number of Cinderella stamps issued in the 1910s and 1920s are advertising poster stamps. One of the most notable creators of Cinderella stamps was A.C. Roessler, who is a stamp dealer and created many visually attractive Cinderellas during the 1930s.

Poster stamps are miniature posters like the size of a stamp. They are commonly issued in panes with gum and perforations. Poster stamps perform all functions of a normal poster; advertising, promotion, and propaganda. These could be affixed to envelopes, letters, and invoices; they were even sometimes given away with the sale of a product. Other poster stamps could be collected like cereal box tops to acquire prizes or premiums.