Championship Stamp Supply Definitions of Philatelic Terms

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Value	This term can refer to either the printed denomination of a stamp or to its monetary market value to a collector or dealer. The term also refers to the relative light or dark of a color, on a scale from white to black; thus, a high-value color is a very light pastel shade. A low-value color is very dark.
Variable Denomination	A relatively modern type of stamp that uses a form of key plate to produce the basic (but blank) background design. Computer printers then print the denomination on the stamp at the time it is vended. U.S. variable- denomination and Autopost stamps are included in this category, as are the various Frama and other types of foreign computer-vended stamps. (See also Autopost and Computer-Vended Postage)
Varnish Bars	See Lacquer Bars.
Vertical Pair, Imperforate Horizontally	Vertical pair of stamps lacking horizontal perforations between stamps and with horizontal straight edges at top and bottom. Perforations are present at left and right sides.
Very Fine	A term that relates more to centering than to overall condition. A stamp that has very fine centering is slightly off center, but has clear more-or-less evenly spaced margins surrounding the design. Imperforate examples have four decent margins.
Vignette	The central design portion of a stamp. In most cases, this is a portrait, but it can include other strong design elements contained within the border as well. A second and much less commonly used meaning of the word comes from an early French term that described pictorial labels with no postal value.

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Wallpaper	Disparaging term used to refer to speculative stamps issued in quantity chiefly for sale to collectors. The issues of third-world and emerging countries. The idea of reference is that such issues, generally available, at rare discounts, are about as valuable as wallpaper.
Wallpaper Cover	A specific form of turned cover most frequently associated with the U.S. Civil War. When paper was in short supply, some people used wallpaper samples and other items to fold down and use as envelopes for correspondence. Such covers, popular with collectors, are generally folded so as to display the wallpaper pattern for exhibit purposes.
Want List	Throughout the history of stamp collecting, collectors have found the want list a most effective way of obtaining desired stamps. A listing is made by a collector of those stamps he or she needs, which is circulated among other collectors and dealers. The desired stamps are then obtained through purchase or trade. Such listings generally include the country name, a brief description, catalog number, desired condition, and other characteristics that are helpful to the recipient to locate stamps.
War Tax	Any tax levied to help finance a wartime effort through the use of revenue stamps.
War Tax Stamps	Stamps issued by various countries to raise money for war. Most represent a tax imposed or the use of the mail, and war tax stamps are required on letters or parcels along with regular postage stamps. Such stamp issues may either be overprinted stamps of the country or issues created specifically for the war tax.
Washed	A term with similar connotation to the term "cleaned," but generally referring to used stamps that have had their cancels chemically removed to be illegally reused in the mail stream. An alternative, obsolete use of this term is to describe soaking stamps from paper for legitimate collecting purposes.
Watermark	Letters impressed on paper during manufacture to discourage counterfeiting. Paper is thinner where the watermark has been impressed and, therefore, appears darker when the paper is immersed in watermark detecting fluid. On some occasions, watermarks are inverted or backwards. Such varieties are quite collectible, but generally do not fetch a premium. Some watermark error exist, such as the U.S. $1 Presidential watermark error (Minkus 553w, Scott 832b). This is a stamp that was not intended to bear a watermark, but has one as a result of a small quantity of watermarked revenue paper inadvertently used. Such errors are usually scarce and command a substantial premium over the standard version.
Watermark Fluid	Non-aqueous liquid that soaks the paper (but doesn't moisten the gum on mint stamps), making it more translucent, and thus making the watermark much easier to see. The watermark detector is a small, shallow ceramic or plastic dish in which a stamp can be immersed in watermark fluid. It is black in color, to make the watermark more readily visible.
Waterstained	One of the many different forms of damage that can occur to an improperly stored cover. Once water has contacted the paper, it frequently dissolves any pigment present and redistributes it throughout the paper fibers. As a result, large spots may be found, primarily around the edges of such covers.
Way Letters	Letters picked up and delivered by a route carrier or mailman. The "WAY" marking may either be hand-stamped or written in manuscript.
Web Fed	Rotary presses that use continuous rolls, or webs, of paper to print stamps. Such webs are later cut and processed into individual post office panes, booklets, and coils of stamps.
Web Printing	Line-engraved intaglio printing accomplished on paper that has been pre-moistened to a content of 15 to 35 percent. During the early 1950s, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing began using the dry printing process, which could be accomplished on paper with a 5-percent moisture content.
Wholesale	The price paid by stamp dealers for stamps or covers they wish to resell. Because stamp dealers derive their sustenance from buying and selling stamps, they must be able to purchase philatelic items at a price that allows them to resell the items at a profit.
Wine Stamps	First released in 1914, these include a number of types and designs used to pay taxes on cases of cordials and wines.
Wing Margin	A huge margin on any one side of a stamp. Wing margins are most commonly associated with British stamps of the late 1800s. Prior to 1880, the gutters on the press sheet between pairs of stamps were perforated, rather than trimmed. As a result, the center margin positions would typically feature either a right or left margin of much larger than usual width. Such stamps are scarcer than normal examples, but like the straight-edged stamps of the United States, wing margin stamps have traditionally been seen as less desirable to most collectors, resulting in a lower value for such items.
Winterhilfe	Special charity stamps to aid the poor in winter.
Withdrawn	Withdrawn from philatelic sale means a stamp is no longer available from a philatelic window, or from the Philatelic Sales Division; however, such stamps may still be found in standard post office stamp stocks for some time. Withdrawn also means when a stamp has been completely withdrawn from all USPS sales windows.
Wove Paper	This is the most popular and adaptable form of paper used in stamp printing. Wove paper may either be coated (for gravure and offset printing) or uncoated (for intaglio or letterpress). Under magnification, wove paper shows a woven appearance of paper fibers as they are laid down during the papermaking process. Wove paper also is one of the strongest forms of paper.
Wrapper	There are two primary forms of wrappers. The first is a form of postal stationery in the form of a sheet of paper gummed at one edge with an imprinted stamp design, used for wrapping and mailing periodicals. The second form is most commonly encountered with private die proprietary stamps. In most cases, these refer to wrappers for patent medicine products with the revenue stamp printed as part of the design. Wrappers also can refer to labels and wrappers for products with the appropriate revenue stamp affixed.

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Zig-zag Roulette	Also known as point roulette, this is a form of a stamp separation that leaves evenly shaped pointed teeth on stamp edges. No paper is removed during the process.
ZIP Block	A margin block of United States stamps bearing the inscription "Use correct ZIP code" in the selvage. These blocks were collected similar to plate blocks primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, when they were most widely issued.
ZIP Code	Stands for Zone Improvement Plan, which was a program launched in the early 1960s to speed the processing of mail by assigning a five-digit code to each post office or organized mailing area. The system was the keystone of modern automation and is still an important part of mail processing, although population growth has caused the five-digit code to grow to nine and 11 digits. The 11-digit code is not widely used, however.
Zusammendrucke	A German term, meaning "printed together," that came into use originally as a result of the German state printing office. Beginning in the early years of the 20th century, it made available to collectors full printing sheets from which booklet panes were separated so that booklets could be manufactured. The sheets were too large to mount in an album, so collectors subdivided the sheets so as to yield every possible setenant combination and configuration of the stamps, labels, and selvage possible. Some of these, which might occur only a few times in an entire sheet, are quite valuable, especially when the sheet from which they came was sold in very limited numbers. Others are inexpensive and common.

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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.