Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 29, 1991 TAG: 9103290168
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
A portion of the 35-cent stamps honoring former New Mexico Sen. Dennis Chavez will be printed at the Canadian Bank Note Co., U.S. Postal Service spokesman Michael O'Hara confirmed.
A second U.S. stamp is also scheduled for the Canadian printer, he said, although the subject of that stamp has not yet been announced.
The Canadian company, which also prints many of that nation's stamps, is doing the work for Stamp Ventures of Fairfax, Va., the successful bidder on a contract to print stamps for the Postal Service.
Stamp Ventures was one of three printing contracts recently awarded by the Postal Service. The others are the U.S. Banknote Co. of New York and KCS Industries of Milwaukee.
The stamps to be printed in Canada are to be done by the intaglio printing process, a system that gives the appearance of an engraving and which is used primarily for money and stamps, O'Hara explained.
Not all stamp printers do intaglio printing, he said.
O'Hara noted that the stamps will be printed on American paper and that the presses were made in the United States.
Federal law requires that government contractors give preference to American materials and businesses and, O'Hara said, this contract meets that requirement because more than two-thirds of the work will be done in the United States.
The government's Bureau of Engraving and Printing has produced most American stamps, although private contractors have also been used over the years.
However, the Postal Service and the bureau have an agreement reducing the number of stamps printed by the bureau over a period of years.
by CNB