Burelage (), also burelé, is a French term referring to an intricate network of fine lines, dots or other designs printed over or as the background of some

postage Postage may refer to: *Mail, or post, a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels *Postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to ...

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, ...

s to prevent

counterfeiting A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

. In English the word is sometimes spelled with an accent on the first "e" as burélage, although the accent does not appear in the French spelling and its origin is unclear. Burelage most commonly appears as a form of

underprint An underprint is anything printed underneath the main design of a stamp, banknote or similar item. Underprinting is used as a security measure to prevent forgery, or the cleaning of a postmark from a used stamp. Mackay, James. ''Stamp Collecting: ...

ing. Early uses of burelage on postage stamps include the first issue of the stamps of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

from 1851, and stamps issued by the City of Hanover beginning in 1855. Stamp varieties may be distinguished in catalogs based on the presence or absence of burelage as well as variations in the burelage itself, such as the size of network, orientation on the stamp, color, or method of printing.Scott Catalogue, Denmark, nos. 1-2 note (first printing from copper plate ecess printed later printing typographed). Although burelage is usually unobtrusive, some of the Mexico Exporta stamps (see below) had burelage printed over the stamp which is dark enough to obscure the stamp image.

Examples of burelage

File:Stamp Danish West Indies 1866 3c.jpg,

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies () or Danish Virgin Islands () or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with , Saint John () with , Saint Croix with , and Water Island. The islands of St ...

stamp, 1866, with wavy burelage visible on margins and corners File:Rusconsularstamp.jpg,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

consular A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

stamp File:Yugoslavia3+2din1945.jpg,

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

stamp, 1945, with Yugoslavian

overprint An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a Postage stamp, postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or Ticket (admission), ticket after it has been Printing, printed. Post offices most often use ...

References

{{italic title Philatelic terminology

Examples of burelage

See also

References