Indicia (philately)
marking on a mail piece showing that postage has been prepaid
In philately, indicia are markings on a mail piece (as opposed to an adhesive stamp) showing that postage has been prepaid by the sender. Indicia is the plural of the Latin word indicium, meaning distinguishing marks, signs or identifying marks. The term imprinted stamp is used more or less interchangeably, but some indicia are not imprinted stamps. One example is the handstamp, which can be seen in a photo on this page.
Forms of indicia
Indicia can take a number of forms, including printed designs or handstamps where a stamp would normally be that indicate the pre-payment of postage. Imprinted stamps on postal stationery are indicia.
The term also refers to a meter stamp impression or the part thereof that indicates the value or postal rate.
The public source identifies “Indicia (philately)” as marking on a mail piece showing that postage has been prepaid. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Indicia, philately and marking.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Indicia (philately)”, the useful work is to connect “marking on a mail piece showing that postage has been prepaid” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q352618. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Indicia (philately)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.