About the Table I Illustrations

You might well be wondering why the factory stamps depicted in Table I are so clear, particularly since they are normally blurred, blotted or missing letters when you see them on a product. In preparing this booklet, all the photographs or photocopies of the stamps that had been recorded over the years were scanned into a computer and enhanced if necessary. In some instances, light stamps were darkened, missing letters were filled in, and the various coloured backgrounds were all made more uniform. In spite of these minor changes the illustrations are in fact quite accurate as to the style of lettering, and where similar stamps are depicted, the relative size of the lettering and stamps has been maintained.

One thing that could not be done was to depict all the stamps at the same scale. Medalta’s smallest stamp is less than 2 cm. long while the largest is over 10 cm. While it would have been nice to illustrate every stamp at its actual size, it was not possible to do so in a booklet of this size. Hopefully, though, the size will not mislead you, and you will be able to readily identify the stamps on your pieces.