In 1996 Canada issued a booklet for literacy with a jigsaw shaped hole in each stamp
In 1998 USA issued a stamp showing Alfred Hitchcock – his silhouette at the top right is not printed, it is actually a hole in the stamp shaped like his silhouette
In 2001 Luxemburg issued a stamp for Christmas – the “black” star at top left is actually a star shaped hole in the stamp
In 2003 Hong Kong issued a sheet of stamps showing fish – the small “black” fish on every stamp are actually fish shaped holes
In 2004 and 2005 France issued greetings stamps – the “dots” over each “i “ are actually holes
In 2004, Argentina issued stamps with holes showing how their trees are disappearing
In 2004, Leichtenstein issued a set of 3 stamps where each stamp had about 80 holes punched into it so that the stamps looked like lace
And similar again for Leichtenstein 2007 Christmas set
In 2006, Great Britain issued a stamp showing a hungry caterpillar which evidently ate a hole in the stamp
In 2006 Indonesia issued a sheet showing soccer – each stamp contained a die cut soccer player which could be removed to leave a hole shaped like the player
And in 2006 Hungary issued a S/S with a hole in the flag – when Russia invaded Hungary in 1956 and put its own symbol in the Hungarian flag, the resistance cut it out leaving a hole as seen in the S/S
In 2007 United Arab Emirates issued a set of stamps with quite large holes in them
In 2008 Malaysia issued a S/S (which was later reissued for the Jakarta 2008 stamp exhibition) showing a butterfly with holes in its wings – these were die-cut, and when the die-cut bits were removed, it left holes
In 2009 Sweden issued a booklet – one stamp showing a “black” star actually had a star shaped hole in it
In 2009 Aland issued a strip of stamps – the “stars”are all holes
In 2009 Taiwan issued a S/S with holes in the wings of the butterfly
In 2009 Sweden issued another booklet where the “stars” were holes
In 2010 Switzerland issued a stamp showing target shooting, and this time the bullets made holes
And not to be outdone, the Swedes, who seem to like holes in their stamps, issued another booklet, this time with bullet holes from detectives
In 2011 Taiwan again issued a S/S showing butterfly with holes in its wings
And in 2001, Brazil issued an interesting S/S with “black” tree trunks which are actually holes, and a piece of wood stuck to the back of the sheet which can be folded as shown on the sheet
So when you find holes in your stamps, it may not be moths, maybe they were just issued that way.
Remember – no OS perf hole jokes - there is already a thread on that subject ! This thread is about REAL holes – there are many stamps with perforation type holes – Netherlands has issued many of these, too many to show here.
