Europa stamps Printers

Europe

Did you ever ask yourself where your stamps were printed ?

We all saw in the under edge of each stamps the issue year or the name of the artist who designed the stamp but sometimes also the name of the printing house : Courvoisier - La Loupe - Joh. Enschedé - Matzoukis - the House of Questa - Printex - etc.

But do you know in which country they are ?

Some postal authorities have their own printing house : Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, etc. But most of the others must print their stamps with the help of privat printers and they are not always located in the same country !

For example the 2009 Europa stamps of Greenland, Guernsey and Norway are printed by Joh. Esnschedé in the Netherlands and the ones of Switzrland and Liechtenstein by the State printer of Austria. Azerbaijan stamps are printed in France by Cartor so did Portugal and Jersey.

But some Europa stamps aren't even printed in Europe ! So the Faroe Islands and the Isle of Man decided to let their Europa stamps being printed in Canada by the Lowe Martin Group and Slovenia have their Europa stamps being printed in ... Bahrain ! We are in the middle of globalization and liberalized markets !