Championship Stamp Supply Definitions of Philatelic Terms

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Face Value	The monetary denomination printed on a stamp and the price paid by a postal patron at a post office. Face value may be expressed in words, symbols, numbers or abbreviations.
Facer Canceller	A type of machine that, with the use of phosphorescent tagging sensors, turns all envelopes the same direction and cancels the stamps.
Facsimile	Nearly perfect reproductions of genuine postage stamps. Facsimiles may be created with or without the permission of the issuing authority and have been used both for study and for fraudulent purposes. Some facsimiles are clearly marked and help collectors to study and identify scarce stamps. Others are unmarked or faintly marked to aid swindlers in their efforts to pass them off as genuine stamps.
Fake	References to faked stamps often include those stamps that are genuine, but have been altered to resemble a much scarcer variety. Such alterations include removing or adding design elements, trimming or adding perforations, re gumming, altering or adding overprints or surcharges and numerous other repairs or alterations meant to deceive the unwary collector.
False Franking	Franking found on a mail piece from a mass mailing, where the face value of the stamp underpays the actual rate. On false-franked covers, the difference between the face value and the rate is paid directly to the USPS when the item enters the mail stream.
Fancy Cancel	Any obliteration that has been created in a decorative fashion to cancel a stamp. Such cancels, whether applied by hand or machine, are known from most countries and are actively collected as a specialty or, in the case of many pictorial fancy cancels, as an adjunct to topical collections. In the United States, fancy cancels had their heyday during the 19th century. Because the killer portion of the cancel was the only part that was supposed to touch the stamp, killer devices were needed to supplement the town and date stamp portion of the cancel. Postmasters of small post offices, most of whom supplied their own materials, had time on their hands and a shortage of funds. As a result, some began carving cork into handstamp killer devices. Some of these cancels, mostly created during the 1860s and 1870s, were quite ornate, while others were political in nature. By the 1880s, fancy cancels were being phased out by the U.S. Post Office Department. During the 1920s, there was a resurgence of fancy cancels when postmasters at small, usually fourth-class post offices began creating their own fancy cancels for use on registered letters. At that time, postmasters' salaries were based on the amount of business they did. Fancy cancels attracted the needed attention to conduct more business, but this practice was soon hut down by the USPOD. Today, some collectors consider some metal die hub cancels that are pictorial a form of fancy cancel, particularly when they are clearly struck on single stamps. The most famous fancy cancels are from Waterbury, CT. Many of these range in value from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Although not all fancy cancels are rare or valuable, they do command a premium over their normally canceled counterparts, and pictorials are usually worth more than geometric's.
Fantasy	Stamp look-a-likes that are complete fabrications from nonexistent countries or localities. Some fantasies were created to defraud collectors, while others have been created for political purposes. Still other fantasy items are made by collectors for the sheer fun of the process.
Farley's Follies	This is a series of special printings created for collectors during the mid-1930s, named after then-postmaster James A. Farley. A number of stamps of the time were presented in ungummed, imperforate press sheets to friends and dignitaries of Farley and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When a few of these items began to appear on the market, there arose a general outcry from the hobby. As a result, special printings of the entire 1934 National Parks issue, as well as several others, were printed in imperforate, ungummed form and sold to collectors in press sheet and souvenir sheet form. Although the stamps were valid for postage, their origin was never forgotten and they have always been referred to as Farley's Follies.
Faults	Any condition factors that negatively affect the value of a stamp. Stamp faults include, but are not limited to, poor centering, thins, tears, holes, color alterations, extraneous markings, paper inclusions, heavy cancels, short or pulled perforations, facial scuffs, and other elements that can make a stamp less attractive to collectors.
Fermented Fruit Juice Stamps	A form of tax paid revenue for use with fermented fruit juice products. Many tax paid stamps very specifically state their product or use on the stamps themselves.
FFC	Abbreviation for first-flight cover.
Field Post Office (Fieldpost)	A military post office, often traveling, that is capable of processing and moving the mail in the field. Field Post Offices from many countries denote status in their specialized postal Field Post Office markings.
File Fold	Evidence that a cover has been folded so that it would be filed easily. These folds frequently occur near the center of the cover but can appear anywhere. This detracts from the value of the cover to varying degrees: a fold through the stamp is a major problem, but if the fold is at the bottom of the cover and has been pressed out or not folded heavily, the value is not affected as much.
Fine	A term that relates more to centering than to overall condition. A stamp that has fine centering if off center, but its design clears the perforations on all sides. Imperforate examples will be off center, but will have all design margins intact.
Fine Perforation	A perforation pattern with small holes and teeth that are quite close together.
Firearms Transfer Tax Stamps	Issued to show payment of taxes connected with the transfer of ownership of federally regulated firearms. They are affixed to transfer of title documents. These are among the few types of U.S. revenue stamps still in use. The most recent known type was released in 1995.
First Issues	The first series of U.S. revenue stamps released for use during the Civil War. These revenue stamps represented various taxes created to raise funds for the war effort. Although each denomination comes in various types, such as protest, bank check, or certificate, any type of revenue (except proprietary stamps) could still be used for any revenue after December 25, 1862.
First-day Ceremony Program	Special items created for limited distribution to guests at first-day ceremonies. Such programs not only contain the listing of participants and a program of events for the ceremony, but also examples of the new stamp and first-day cancel tying it to the program. First-day ceremony programs may be officially produced by the U.S. Postal Service or by a sponsoring organization. During the late 1980s, these programs became very popular among collectors, and prices rose. The USPS began selling them by subscription to help alleviate demand. Meanwhile, collectors continued to find ways of inappropriately obtaining more than one at ceremonies for trading or resale, causing the USPS to rethink the entire product. Ceremony programs are still distributed at first-day ceremonies, but frequently at the end of the ceremony, thus defeating their original purpose.
First Day Cover	An envelope bearing a newly released stamp and canceled to reflect the first day of its release. A first-day cover may have special markings, such as "first day of issue" that denotes it as such, or it may look plain to the eye. Early first-day covers usually gear no cachet or illustration, while modern examples frequently have elaborate designs, including hand-drawn or hand-painted. In modern-day use, a first-day cover may or may not have been canceled on the actual date it reflects. Large demand for FDCs has resulted in 30-day grace periods for canceling most covers.
First-Flight Cover	Any item of mail carried on the first scheduled flight of a new service route or carrier. While some early first-flight covers have little to distinguish them from ordinary letter mail, most have special adhesive labels, markings, or cachets that enable them to be identified as such.
Fiscals	See Revenues.
Fishing Stamps	State revenue stamps to show prepayment of fees for fishing. Like duck stamps, fishing stamps are intended to be placed on fishing licenses and signed by the sportsman across the face. Depending upon various state regulations, fishing stamps may be all-inclusive or cover only one or two specific types of fish.
FL	Abbreviation for folded letter.
Flag Cancel	A term most frequently applied to flag-shaped metal die hub cancellations that contain a flag design as part of the wavy-line killer, widely used in the United States in the early 20th century.
Flappers	See Wing Margin.
Flat Plate	A printing plate that is flat. Stamps are printed on a flat bed, sheet by sheet. More modern printing involves the use of rotary presses, which utilize curved plates and continuous rolls, or webs, of paper.
Fleet Post Office	A post office for U.S. Navy ships and bases. Some ships routinely use pictorial cancels; most bear the names of the ships. (See also Army Post Office)
Flexography	A form of letterpress (or relief) printing. Flexography utilizes rubber or plastic plates that can be molded around a printing cylinder. Flexographic printing is most commonly used to produce types of stamped envelopes and precancels.
Fluorescence	A photochemical reaction to longwave ultraviolet light that causes stamps, inks, and postal markings to glow brightly. Stamps that are fluorescent will glow under both longwave and shortwave UV light. Unlike phosphorescence, fluorescence glows only during exposure to the light source. The use of a long wave ultraviolet light cannot only aid the collector of tagged stamps, but also is essential to the detection of fakes, forgeries and repaired stamps. This type of light is much like those used in poster shops and roller skating rinks. There is no inherent danger to using longwave UV light.
Flyspeck	Describes any of thousands of types of minor varieties that require magnification to clearly see. These varieties can include plate varieties, printing anomalies, or paper varieties.
Folded Letter	Before envelopes came into use, people folded their letters so that the text would be concealed inside, with a blank side on the outside left to write the address. Envelopes did not come into widespread use until the 1850s.
Foreign	A term used by collectors to describe the stamps of all countries other than their own.
Foreign Transfer	The definition of this plate variety, which is one of the scarcest of all plate variety types, is much the same as that for double transfers. The biggest difference is that the bits of design elements visible on the finished stamp are those of a different stamp design. (See also Double Transfer).
Forerunner	A documented historical predecessor of a stamp or series. In some cases, this may refer to stamp series or designs that were forerunners to later issues. In others, the term may refer to geographical or political forerunners to a country's postal administration.
Forgery	A forgery is an unmarked reproduction or fabrication of a real stamp (usually scarce) that is intended to defraud collectors. Numerous common forgeries also exist. These were created to fill large demand for supposedly common stamps for use in packets and mixtures. Most of these were created during the early part of the 20th century. (see also Packet Forgeries) Forgeries can be very realistic or very crude.
Format	Private firms that undertook the dispatch of overseas mail from major cities and commercial centers during the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries. Many of these applied distinctive manuscript or hand-stamped markings to the mail they handled, which was deposited for a fee paid by the sender at the post office of the country of destination with adequate postage to carry it on to its destination.
Foxing	A condition associated with deteriorating paper as a result of age, improper storage, sunlight, or various combinations. Specifically, foxing refers to yellowish-brown spots or stains that appear on aging paper, due to a chemical reaction. In many cases, old covers and stamps have these telltale stains. In recent years, foxing also has been associated with several early attempts at self-adhesive stamps. Because there was no barrier layer to separate the unstable adhesive from the stamp paper, the adhesive used with these stamps eats away at the paper. This is particularly true of the 1974 10-cent United States Dove Weathervane stamp. In some cases, foxing can be reversed to salvage these stamps. Foxing is considered a stamp fault and frequently is caused by various forms of bacteria.
FPO	Abbreviation for Fleet Post Office.
Fractional-Denomination Stamps	Stamps issued in fractional denominations for use by major mass mailers to take advantage of the various automation sorting discounts available to large-volume postal customers and bulk mailers. Virtually all these stamps of the last 25 years have been issued in coil format only, because only coil stamps can be used in the high-speed stamp-affixing equipment that mass mailers use.
Frama	Although the name Frama is specific to a manufacturer of special patterned papers for use in automated vending machines, it is used interchangeably by most collectors for most types of computer-vended variable denomination stamps. Frama labels are a form of stamp that consists of a specially printed patterned background design. The denominations are then placed on these items at the time they are vended by the machine. Thus a single type of Frama may have a nearly unlimited number of different denominations.
Frame	The outer part or border of a printed stamp design. Frames can range in complexity from a simple line to an ornate and elaborately detailed arrangement covering much of the printed stamp.
Franking	The way in which the postage on a given piece of mail is prepaid.
Freak	A highly collectible form of printing or production problem. In many cases, freaks look more spectacular than major errors, but are generally more affordable. Freaks include misperforated or miscut stamps, color shifts or smears, nearly missing colors or perforations, set-offs and a host of other odd-looking items. A freak is differentiated from an error because it is a more random occurrence. A freak may be unique or may occur inconsistently on numerous stamps, but is not a major error of the printing or production process.
Free Franking	A printed or hand-written notation that mail should be sent through the mail stream free of charge. In the United States, this is a privilege extended to military personnel during wartime, to federal elected representatives during their terms of office, and to presidents for the rest of their lives.
Front	A cover that has had the back side removed. Removal of a cover's back may include removal of a damaged area, making the item easier to mount, or simply ignorance of philatelic practices. While a front is definitely worth more than a piece in most cases, it certainly is worth far less than a complete cover.
Fugitive Ink	Water-soluble ink, which was used to discourage fakes, forgeries, and the chemical cleaning of stamps for illegal reuse. Such inks run when moistened and are easily damaged by rubbing. Such stamps are left on the piece when collected as used examples. (See also Aniline Ink).
Future Delivery Stamps	Created to facilitate tax collection on any sale of crops, goods, or merchandise at boards of trade for contracts related to the future delivery of any of those by-products.

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Definitions taken from © Copyright All About Stamps, written by Wayne L. Youngblood, used with permission. Championship Stamp Supply wishes to thank Wayne L. Youngblood and Krause Publications for their kind support and permission in using © Copyright All About Stamps for our online definitions of philatelic terms.