No Stamp of Approval for Engravers’ Personal Touch

The number of U.S. postage stamp issues found to have secret markings was reported to have climbed to three as the Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced Tuesday that it is pursuing a detailed examination of all recent stamps.

Linn’s Stamp News reported that a Swedish government engraver worked his name into the grass depicted on a stamp designed to honor World War I veterans. Czeslaw Slania was recruited to engrave the stamp for the United States, the weekly newspaper of stamp collecting said.

Bureau of Engraving and Printing spokesman Larry Zenker said Tuesday that he could not confirm the report.

A detailed analysis of stamps printed by the bureau since 1980 is under way, Zenker said, but no results are yet available. He said the review is expected to take about 90 days.

The bureau did issue a statement, however, announcing the study after two other incidents were disclosed.

In the most recent case, bureau engraver Thomas Hipschen was found to have placed his name on the hand stamp pictured on a 1986 postage stamp issued to honor the hobby of stamp collecting.

Earlier it had been disclosed that engraver Kenneth Kipperman had secretly placed a Star of David in the beard of Bernard Revel, a Jewish educator who is pictured on the $1 postage stamp.

Kipperman was removed from engraving duties after a recent incident in which he reportedly threatened to bomb the future site of the Holocaust Museum, near the bureau offices. He underwent psychiatric evaluation and was returned to administrative duties.

Bureau engravers are not allowed to sign their work and placing such marks on stamps is unauthorized. The bureau did not say if any disciplinary action is being taken against Hipschen.

None of the marks secretly placed on the U.S. stamps is easily seen and the stamps will not be recalled, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Lou Eberhardt said.