Library

Cinderellas

Dispensing

History of stamps

Postage due

Postage stamp

Souvenir sheets (miniature sheet)

Stamp collecting

Test stamps

Souvenir sheets (miniature sheet)

A souvenir sheet or miniature sheet is a small group of postage stamps still attached in the sheet where they were printed. They may be either regular issues that just happen to be printed in small groups (typical of many early stamps), or special issues often commemorating some event, such as a national anniversary, philatelic exhibition, or government program. The number of stamps ranges from one to about 25; larger sheets of stamps are simply called "sheets" with no qualifier.

The stamps on the sheet may be perforated in the usual way, or imperforate. The margins or selvage of the sheet may have additional printing, ranging from a simple statement of the occasion being commemorated, up to a full picture of which the stamp(s) are just a small part.

Both the stamps and the entire sheet are valid for mailing, although they are almost always sold above face value and kept in mint collection by collectors; a handful of usages may be found as philatelic covers.

Luxembourg apparently issued the first souvenir sheet in 1923, a single one franc stamp, not otherwise available, inset in a larger blank sheet. The purpose was to honor the birth of a princess. However, somewhat similar issues by that country go back to the royal coronation of 1906. The United States issued its first one in 1926, and produced a series in the 1930s, and has issued others over the years. Since 1955 the United Nations has occasionally produced them.

While some of the earliest souvenir sheets are valuable (for instance the US White Plains sheet of 1926 is worth hundreds of dollars), modern ones are typically produced in considerable quantities, and have no special value.