Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 1998

Rövid tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven

owned and rented: the Stamp Museum, the Postal Museum and its branches -Telephonia Museum (Budapest), Radio and Television Museum (Diósd), Postal Museum (Balaton- szemes), Postal Museum (Nagyvázsony), Delizsánsz Exhibition Room (Debrecen), Postal Museum (Opusztaszeri National Historical Memorial Park), Postal Museum (Hollókő), Post Horn Gallery (Miskolc) - its outlying collection, the Postal and Telecommunications Museum Collection (Sopron), and its stores - in the basement of Post Office no. 5, the basement of the Csepel Post office, in the Csepel Telecommunications Exchange, and in the Rákospalota Telephone Exchange.

Gabriella Nikodém: Occasional rubber stamp and printing device collection

The Stamp Museum’s occasional rubber stamp collection currently holds 10,092 stamps and 5539 stamp designs. In both cases, the museum’s registration numbers stood at 10,335 after the 1998 registrations. The discrepancy arises from past disposal and re-cutting of rubber stamps and the deficiency of the regulations, which have only made it compulsory to store the designs in the Museum in recent years. The year’s increases were 918 rubber stamps and 604 designs.

The Stamp Museum’s printing plate store currently holds 19,174 collection items. In principle, at the end of each year, both printing presses that produce stamps hand over the plates of the stamps produced over the year. The number of these varies from year to year depending on the number of stamp issues and the number of ordinary stamp issues - i.e. those that the printers retain for reprinting until their withdrawal - and the number of plates used for them (e.g. whether 4 or 16 films were used for colour separation, etc.). Thus in 1996 the printing plate collection was augmented by 866 new items, in 1997, because of the uncertainties that started at the time (what the museum should and should not get from the Post Office) 6, and in 1998, 135.

Acquisition of a printing plate by purchase or donation is extremely rare, since they form part of a strictly closed production chain from which they pass directly from the printers to the museum. However, we did receive a donation this year of a stone offset lithograph plate from 1919 used to print stamps certifying deduction of membership fees of the Christian Socialist Party. The plate was discovered during drainage work in the courtyard of the Saint Emeric Cistercian Community, along with many other finds. Abbot Előd Ákos Briichner informed the Museum of Budapest History that the excavation was to be continued by restorer AttilaTóth. He contacted us when he established that the plate was probably produced for printing stamps. Although the Stamp Museum’s collection is restricted to plates related to the production of postage stamps, we were delighted at the opportunity to acquire this item, because of its potential value it teaching the history of printing in the museum. It was rare for stone to be used in the offset process rather than aluminium or zinc sheet, which we do not readily allow to be touched. A stone plate can be passed round freely, enabling the ink lines, and the greasy feel of the etched and loaded surfaced to be appreciated. We therefore expressed an interest and registered our intention to purchase the find, but in the event the Abbot donated it, sending with it a very kind letter. It has already taken its place in the plate store, among the museum objects designated for viewing.

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