User:Gwillhickers/The Giori Printing Press

Soon after World War II, a new device revolutionized multicolor engraving around the world. The Giori press—named for its inventor, Gualtiero Giori—permitted two-color or even three-color engraving from a single plate, in one pass through the press. The secret was in the rubber inking rollers. The surfaces were precisely cut, applying each ink selectively to parts of the same plate.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing bought its first Giori press in 1955, and the first U.S. stamps printed on the press were issued two years later.

The development of the Giori Press followed World War II and was first used to print postage stamps in Argentina in 1949. It is said to have also been used for some stamps of West Germany, Jugoslavia and Finland. Since its introduction at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at Washington it has been used to produce many multicolored postage stamps; including Flag Stamp, the Champions of Liberty series and others. The Giori press has sounded the death knell to inverted centers of stamps printed in two colors. This was sharply brought to public attention in 1959 when the United States and Canada issued the now famous St. Lawrence Seaway commemorative stamp. The designs of the two stamps was as close to being identical as possible. The stamps were printed in two colors - red and blue. The Canadian "Seaway" stamp was printed in the usual way from two separate plates and shortly the world was electrified at the discovery of an inverted "center," the first major error ever to have been discovered on a Canadian postage stamp. Naturally collectors everywhere searched their collections in hope of finding one of these prizes. And for a while many searched vainly for a United States "Seaway" stamp with a similar inverted center. Such a search was hopeless for the United States "Seaway" stamps had been printed on the Giori press and on products of this press inverted centers are impossible.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington acquired one of these presses in 1957 and promptly put it to work printing the now famous "Flag Stamp." The small miracle of printing a design in multiple colors from a single plate with a single impression is achieved from a very simple principle. The plate itself is inked in as many colors as may be desired. Each color being applied to only that portion of the plate which is required to print that color. In other words the ink rollers are themselves printing plates which "print" their ink onto the plate which in turn will do the actual printing on paper.