Scott No: 899-906
Serial number: S62
Values in set: 8
Date of issue: March 30, 1966
Denomination: 78 fen
Designer: Liu Shuoren
Engraver: Kong Shaohui, Gao Pinzhang, Sun Hongnian
Size of stamps:
36.5*26mm for Value 1, 3, 5, 7;
26*36.5mm for Value 2, 4, 6, 8
Perforation: 11.5*11
Sheet composition:
50(5*10) for Value 1, 3, 5, 7;
50(10*5) for Value 2, 4, 6, 8
Printing process: Engraving and photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

S62 "New Industrial Products" special stamps were issued on March 30, 1966. The set consists of 8 stamps, printed by photogravure combined with engraving, designed by Liu Shuoren, engraved by Sun Hongnian, Kong Shaohui, and Gao Pinzhang, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. The four horizontal stamps measure 40 mm × 30 mm, perforation gauge 11 × 11.5, 50 stamps per sheet (5 × 10); the four vertical stamps measure 30 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11.5 × 11, 50 stamps per sheet (10 × 5). The face values are 4 fen, 8 fen, 8 fen, 8 fen, 8 fen, 10 fen, 10 fen, and 22 fen, with a total face value of 0.78 yuan for the set; the circulations are 3 million, 5 million, 5 million, 5 million, 5 million, 2 million, 2 million, and 1.3 million copies respectively.

Theme of the Set

In the 1960s, a wave of technological innovation and technological revolution swept the country. In the fields of machinery manufacturing, precision instruments, electric power, heavy equipment, and nuclear physics equipment, China successively achieved independent research and development, breaking foreign technological blockades. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued this special set, selecting eight representative major domestically made industrial equipment items of the time, covering multiple categories such as electric power, precision machine tools, heavy forging, and scientific research instruments. It concentrated on displaying the achievements of China's independent development of industry and overcoming technical difficulties, and highlighting the construction line of self-reliance. This set is an important industrial-themed work from the late period of the old special stamps; shortly after its issuance, the special stamp series came to an end.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Mobile Transformer

The main subject of the design is a large mobile transformer loaded on a railway flatcar, developed by the Shenyang Transformer Factory. The large transformer uses a railway transport structure, convenient for rapid transport to industrial and mining sites and power stations for emergency use, and is an important achievement in the localization of electric power equipment at the time. The background color is warm yellow, and the engraved lines finely depict the bushings and tank structure, embodying the weightiness of large electric power equipment.

Electron Microscope

The design shows researchers operating an electron microscope. The electron microscope is high-end precision scientific research equipment capable of magnifications far exceeding optical microscopes, serving frontier research in materials, biology, medicine, and other fields, and representing the breakthrough in domestic precision optics and vacuum technology at the time.

Copying Lathe

The copying lathe relies on a template to automatically reproduce the contour of a workpiece, suitable for batch processing complex curved-surface parts and greatly reducing the processing difficulty of precision components; it is widely used in military and mechanical parts production. The design focuses on the main body of the machine tool, highlighting core structures such as the guideways and tool post.

Vertical Lathe

The vertical lathe is suitable for processing heavy disc-type workpieces with large diameters and relatively low heights and is the core equipment of heavy machinery manufacturing. Compared with the horizontal lathe, it can carry workpieces of enormous size and is indispensable processing equipment for heavy industry enterprises.

Gear Grinding Machine

The gear grinding machine is used for the fine machining of precision gears to ensure gear transmission accuracy; precision gears are key basic components of the transmission systems of machine tools, ships, and military equipment. The successful development of this equipment marked a step up in domestic processing capability for high-end transmission components.

Open-Die Forging Hydraulic Press

The open-die forging hydraulic press relies on enormous pressure to forge large blanks, used to produce large shafts and forgings. It is the "mother machine" of heavy industry, providing forging support for metallurgy, military industry, and large power equipment, and symbolizing the power of heavy industry.

Double-Column Milling Machine

The double-column milling machine is used for milling planes and grooves of large components, with strong rigidity and a large processing range, suitable for processing large parts such as frames and bases of heavy machinery, and is the main machine tool of large machining workshops.

Electrostatic Accelerator

The electrostatic accelerator is nuclear physics research equipment used for particle acceleration and nuclear physics experiments, serving atomic energy scientific research, and representing an important advance in the localization of supporting equipment for China's nuclear research at the time. It is also the stamp with the highest face value and the smallest circulation in the set.

Artistic Design Features

The set alternates horizontal and vertical stamp formats, four horizontal and four vertical, with a varied rhythm. It uniformly adopts the photogravure-plus-engraving process: the engraved plates are responsible for the equipment outlines and structural lines, with hard, delicate lines and clearly layered machine parts; the photogravure plates lay down solid-color backgrounds, with each stamp using a different background color—yellow, red, green, blue, purple, and other solid colors distinguishing different equipment, visually clear and bright without confusion.

The design follows a realistic approach, adding no superfluous decoration, taking the industrial equipment itself as the visual subject, focusing on objectively presenting the equipment's form and highlighting the sense of power of industrial technology itself. The engraving division of labor is detailed, with different engravers responsible for different stamp formats, and the engraving is steady and precise. Among the whole set, the 22-fen electrostatic accelerator has a circulation of only 1.3 million copies; in addition, the high denominations were mostly used for international mail, with large consumption, making it the key stamp of the entire set.

Genuine stamps are distinguished by the tactile relief of the engraved lines: under a magnifying glass the machine-part lines are clear and continuous. Forgeries are mostly offset-printed, with only dot patterns and none of the line relief unique to engraved intaglio, and the equipment details easily become blurred and lost.