Centro de hoja or Center of the sheet is a kind of
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the ...
s where there are intersecting
gutters between four panes of stamps.
[Littrell, Robert; ''Centros de Hoja or Center of the Sheets''; The Cuban Philatelist, Vol.XX, Whole No. 55; 2009.] The horizontal and vertical blank gutters divide the sheet into quadrants of 25 stamps each. The center four or sixteen stamps on a sheet of 100 stamps are collected similar to how
plate block
A plate block is a block of stamps from the edge of the sheet which shows the ''plate'' or ''cylinder'' from which the stamps were printed.
Background
The numbering of printing plates has long been a part of quality control in the printing proc ...
s of four stamps are collected in the United States. The first ''centro de hoja'' were the
imperforate
For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other.
Methods of separation include:
# perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes
# rouletting: small horizontal and ver ...
Cuban patriots issues of 1926. These had the unique distinctions of being from sheets of 400 rather than 100 and the "gutters" consisted of nothing more than two intersecting lines drawn through the center of the sheet.
[Garcia-Frutos, Silvia; ''Cuban Center Gutter Blocks''; The Cuban Philatelist, Vol. X, Whole No. 30, October, 1998.] The last was produced with the three bicentennial of coffee issues of 1952.
[Edifil; ''Catálogo Especializado de Sellos de Cuba'', Tomo I (1855-1958), 2nd Ed.; Madrid, 2002 (in Spanish). ] Some people classify the Christmas issues of 1960
as centros de hoja, but since they have no gutters others call them ''special format'' stamps.
A little over half of the regular issues, special delivery and
airmail stamp
An airmail stamp is a postage stamp intended to pay either an airmail fee that is charged in addition to the surface rate, or the full airmail rate, for an item of mail to be transported by air.
Airmail stamps should not be confused with airma ...
s issued between the years 1926 and 1952 were produced with intersecting gutters, giving rise to the collection of ''centros de hoja''. Some issues can be quite rare. There were only 200
imperforate
For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other.
Methods of separation include:
# perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes
# rouletting: small horizontal and ver ...
sheets issued in 1936 for each of the fourteen stamps issued to celebrate the opening of the free port of
Matanzas
Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...
.
Some of the "writers and artists" series of 1937 sold fewer that 180 sheets.
There were only 250 sheets printed of the one peso "death of Maceo" stamp in 1948 and the one peso Fernando Figueredo
overprint
An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or ticket after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative pur ...
of 1952.
Other issues can be plentiful and readily available to collectors.
References
External links
The Centros de Hoja Collection of Robert Littrell{{italic title
Philatelic terminology
Postage stamps of Cuba