Varieties of Marcel Cachin

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The 1959 Soviet postage stamp “Marcel Cachin” was issued to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the birth of the French political figure Marcel Cachin (1869–1958). The stamp depicts a portrait of Cachin set against a brownish-ochre background; its face value is 60 kopecks. The stamp’s perforation is comb-style (12½ × 12), and the print run was set at 2,000,000 copies.

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The design is marked by compositional restraint: the portrait occupies the central area, framed by inscriptions “1869” and “1958,” along with the name “Marcel Cachin.” The stamp’s artist was Y. Grzheshevich, and it was produced using intaglio printing. The issue was part of a series devoted to figures of the international labor movement, one of the thematic directions of Soviet postal issuing at the time.

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This stamp is of interest as an illustration of the cultural and political connections the USSR sought to assert with foreign communist figures in the postwar era. Reflecting the Soviet philatelic view of the global workers’ movement, it simultaneously serves as a tribute to Cachin’s personality and a period artifact. Thanks to its well-known subject and moderate print run, it appears frequently in catalogs and on philatelic marketplaces (both in individual stamps and in block formats).

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A distinct variety known as the Marcel Cachin variety is noted by a spot on the upper frame of the stamp. This minor printing anomaly appears above the portrait area, disrupting the otherwise clean border line. Collectors sometimes distinguish this variety Marcel Cachin type as a point of interest, especially when comparing multiple specimens of the same issue. Although it does not radically alter the design, the presence of such a spot gives that particular copy a subtle uniqueness within the series.

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Postage stamp specification:

• Design: Yu. Hrzheshkevich

• Print: Intaglio

• Raster: Square

• Perforation: Comb 12½ : 12

• Circulation: 2 000 000 pcs

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Confirmed varieties of the stamp of Marcel Cachin

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1. dot in the 3rd "С" in "СССР"

2. spots on the upper frame