Swiss Post Stamp Printers

Stamp Printers ceased production

At the end of June 2002, Swiss Post Stamp Printers ceased production after over 72 years, so the Swiss Post would like to take the opportunity to look back and renew the major milestones in its manufacturing career.

Swiss Stamp Printers

The Swiss Stamp Printers commenced operations on 1 April 1930, or to be precise, from that date on, the PTT took independent charge of its operation. Prior to that date, it had been the federal Mint, which had commissioned Swiss stamps, and the Stamp Printers continued to operate in the Mint building on Bernastrasse in Berne for another 37 years.

PTT took over

Four years after the PTT had taken over the printworks, a new series of definitives depicting landscapes, replaced the head-and-shoulders portrait of William Tell and of his son with a crossbow, In 1936, the PTT bought the first web printing press which made it possible to combine single-colour gravure with intaglio printing, opening the way for much more detailed drawings and, above all, for more rational production than sheet-fed printing. The landscape set was redesigned by Carl Bickel and engraved in steel. For the first time, the stamps commemorating the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition were printed in two colors.

Printing press built by Wifag

The 1940s saw the introduction of another web printing press – built by Wifag, a Berne-based printing-press manufacturer, and set up in the Mint building. With this doubled capacity, the definitives could be made bigger. The Technology and Landscape set, as well as the numerous stamps in the Monuments and Architecture and Crafts sets, bear witness not just to the acknowledged high standard of Swiss stamp graphics, bit also to the sophisticated art of steel engraving and the technical skills of the print-shop. The print runs grew from year to year, and increasingly colourful print media triggered a call for more colourful stamps too.

Two gravure-printing units

Wifag was commissioned to construct a web printing press combining two gravure-printing units with a single intaglio-printing unit. This system was installed in the new print works building at Ostermundigenstrasse, Berne in 1967, and in subsequent years was used to print not just definitive sets, such as landscape scenes, popular customs and signs of the zodiac, but also Europa, portrait and other special stamps. In addition to its own stamps, the PTT Stamp printers also sorted and packaged all stamps printed by Hélio Courvoisier. When production was at its peak, the print works employed more than 60 people.

New computer technologies

In the 1970's, the printing industry too was drastically affected by new technologies. Computers were introduced across the board, and offset printing elbowed out letterpress printing in almost all fields. At the PTT Stamp Printers too, offset printing was used, initially for sheet-printing items such as postcards and the brochure advertising new issues, but later for stamp printing too.

Combined offset with lithography

Like the first intaglio press, the last machine with combined offset with lithography was supplied by Goebel & Co, Darmstadt. From 1985, definitives and more and more special stamps were printed on this machine. Besides Swiss stamps, definitives were also manufactured for Luxembourg, and many special stamps for Luxembourg, the United Nations, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
In 1996, Swiss Post issued its first self-adhesive stamps, which proved extremely popular with customers, generating higher print runs with each passing year. A reduction in overall volumes and the fact that self-adhesive stamps now cover almost 50% of demand caused such a sharp drop in print runs of conventional stamps, that the offset with lithography press could no longer be used to full capacity. In depth analyses preceded last year's decision to close Swiss Post Stamp Printers with effect from the end of June 2002.
Issue: Switzerland, 17 September 2002

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