Stamps with borders

Though I collect postage stamps, I know very little about them and my collection of just over 13,000 is very modest and juvenile compared to those of real enthusiasts and experts. Whatever I say on here about stamps is likely to be inaccurate and wide open to criticism. That's fine .... I'm a hobbyist not an expert. 

That disclaimer out of the way, I often find I am drawn as much to the periphery of stamp collecting, as I am to the stamps themselves. For example, a couple of years ago I posted about "Cinderella" stamps and other non-postal issues, which are interesting in themselves.

This post is about the borders that surround the sheets of stamps. Until recently I thought the borders were mostly plain and served no other purpose than providing a Colour Swatch. But then I came across some German stamps with highly decorated borders. Though the patterns and decoration on the borders is usually very repetitive, I found some stamps where the borders were far from repetitive. 

Take the commemorative stamps of illustrious composer Carl Orff, issued in 1995 to celebrate 100 years since his birth. All around the border of the sheet is a musical score. Viewed as a complete sheet, the musical legend would be continuous and complete, but when separated each individual stamp is more unique with it's border attached than it would be without it.

Another example is the 1994 issue commemorating 500-years since the birth of Hans Sachs, a master of poetry and song. The border here is of Court Jesters climbing through Vines, with some titles printed along the top and bottom borders.

Though I have many examples of these decorative borders, in the main they are just individual stamps. The nearest I have to a complete border is with the 1996 issue marking 450-years since the death of Martin Luther.

For me, these unique borders add another dimension to the stamps they adorn. I don't buy mint condition unused sheets of stamps, which seems like the only way to see complete borders. But to discover these gems unseparated and stuck onto envelopes and parcels, is quite magical. Given how many people discard stamp borders without a thought, it raises the question, how many stamps with borders still attached actually get posted and survive to become part of someone's collection.