MALTA1cNeolithic spiral — 1c postage dueImage unavailable
1993MALTA10cNeolithic spiral — 10c postage dueImage unavailable
Image permission not established
1993 / Archaeology
Neolithic spiral — 10c postage due
Second decimal postage dues · Neolithic spiral
Denomination10c
Issue date1993-01-04
The story behind the issue
Four denominations use a Neolithic spiral motif to record unpaid or underpaid postage. They replace the 1973 lace-design postage dues, withdrawn from sale at the end of 1992.
Technical details
- Issuing authority
- Malta Postal Administration
- Postal purpose
- Postage due
- Currency
- Maltese pound / lira · decimal
- Designer
- Martin Bonavia
- Printer
- Printex Limited, Malta
- Printing process
- Lithography
- Stamp dimensions
- 20 × 16 mm
- Perforation
- 13.8 × 13.6 (contemporary measurement)
- Watermark
- Maltese crosses, sideways
- Paper
- Chalk surfaced
- Gum
- PVA
- Colour
- Yellow and lighter yellow
- Quantity
- Not documented
Sources & verification
Partially verifiedResearch notes: Farrugia’s contemporary study measures perforation as 13.8 × 13.6; De Battista’s later chronology classifies it as 14 comb. The contemporary measurement is retained without treating the rounded classification as a separate type. Farrugia records no special first-day handstamp or official first-day cover for this issue. Farrugia’s contemporary technical table also specifies PVA gum for all four original values.
- J. Farrugia, contemporary Postage Dues 1993 technical table, JMPS 23(3), December 1994, printed p.44 (column X) ↗
- John De Battista, Malta Postage Due Adhesive Stamps, PSM 38(3), p. 8: independently corroborating chronology ↗
Image & attribution
Image permission not established
All four original design/value types. Unchanged reprints, plate/pane numbers, marginal markings, minor shades and errors excluded; no scan reuse rights established.