This article is from the Mar-Apr 1999 issue of the Confederate Philatelist. Posted with the permission of the journal editor.
If you are familiar with the early flat plate-printed stamps of the United States, you must be aware of the term "kissed off." A kiss-off occurs when a newly printed and still wet sheet of stamps has the next sheet placed upon it, causing ink from the first sheet to be transferred to the back of the second sheet.
Among the thousands of Confederate stamps I have seen over the years, I can never recall seeing this phenomenon. And this situation holds true with other collectors with whom I have conferred. You can quite easily tell a kissed off stamp from one printed on both sides. A stamp printed on both sides has a correct image just like the front of the stamp, but a kissed off stamp has a reversed, or mirror, image.
This stamp came my way attached to a piece of blue envelope. Since the cancel was not present on the paper, I decided to soak the stamp off and put it in my stock. To say the least, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the image on the reverse of the stamp. I was disappointed when I realized the stamp was not printed on both sides, but a reverse image. Upon finding that I did, however, have something unusual, I decided to share my find with the members of the Alliance.
 |  |
The stamp is an Archer & Daly engraved of 1863 type I in a dark blue color with what appears to be a Charleston, South Carolina postmark (Figure 1 on the left). The kiss-off (Figure 2 on the right) shows that it was placed on the newly printed wet stamps underneath it at least three times because there are three separate areas of reverse printing.
I wish you luck in finding a kissed off stamp for your collection, but, please, don't soak all those stamps off their covers. Happy Hunting!
Return to Top of Page