A souvenir sheet is essentially one or more postage stamps incorporated into a decorative surrounding design. In terms of purpose, souvenir sheets differ from ordinary stamp issues, as they are produced primarily for collectors rather than for everyday postal use.
The surrounding margin of a souvenir sheet is closed, meaning that the perforations of the stamps do not extend to the outer edge of the sheet. There are, however, imperforate souvenir sheets as well (1940 Artists, 1950 Bem, 1959 Haydn–Schiller), and many other souvenir sheets were also issued in imperforate versions.
When several stamps appear in a souvenir sheet, they are usually different from one another. If the same stamp design is repeated several times, the item is generally considered a miniature sheet, although stamp catalogues are not always entirely consistent in their classification.
The world’s first souvenir sheet was issued in Luxembourg in 1923 to mark the birth of Princess Elisabeth. Great Britain held out the longest, issuing its first souvenir sheet only in 1978.
Hungary’s first souvenir sheet was issued on 6 May 1934 at the suggestion of the First Hungarian Association of Stamp Collectors (L.E.H.E.), on the occasion of the 2nd National Stamp Exhibition held to commemorate the association’s 50th anniversary. The overall design of the souvenir sheet was created by Zoltán Egry, while the portrait of Franz Liszt in the centre was designed by Sándor Légrády.
Souvenir sheets are generally issued in smaller quantities than ordinary stamps, and their themes are often linked to a related stamp set. They can be used to frank postal items, but this is relatively uncommon, as their selling price is usually higher than the actual postal rate. In most cases, covers bearing souvenir sheets are philatelic in nature. Because souvenir sheets can be quite large, they do not always fit conveniently on an envelope, and there have been cases where the stamp was removed from the sheet and used separately for postage. Stamp catalogues usually list stamps detached from souvenir sheets separately.
The 1966 Paintings stamp set and the thematically related souvenir sheet