<P> The Bureau of Engraving and Printing officially took over production of postage stamps for the United States government in July 1894 . Paper currency was later produced on hand presses around 1918, utilizing plates capable of printing four notes per sheet . </P> <P> The Bureau of Engraving and Printing officially took over production of postage stamps for the United States government in July 1894 . The first of the works printed by the BEP was placed on sale on July 18, 1894, and by the end of the first year of stamp production, the BEP had printed and delivered more than 2.1 billion stamps . The United States Postal Service switched purely to private postage stamp printers in 2005, ending 111 years of production by the Bureau . Starting in 2011 the United States Postal Service in - housed all postage stamp printing services . </P> <P> Plate capacity on power presses increased from four to eight notes per sheet in 1918 in order to meet greatly expanded production requirements related to World War I. With the dramatic redesign of currency in 1929--the first major change since paper currency was first issued in 1861--note design was not only standardized but note size was also significantly reduced . Due to this reduction in size, the Bureau was able to convert from eight - note printing plates to twelve - note plates . The redesign effort came about for several reasons, chief among them a reduction in paper costs and improved counterfeit deterrence through better public recognition of currency features . </P> <P> A further increase in the number of notes per sheet was realized in 1952 after breakthrough developments in the production of non-offset inks . Beginning in 1943, the BEP experimented with new inks that dried faster, therefore obviating the need to place tissues between sheets to prevent ink from offsetting to other sheets . The faster drying ink also enabled printed sheets of backs to be kept damp until the faces were printed, thereby reducing distortion caused by wetting, drying, and re-wetting of the paper (sheets needed to be dampened before each printing). </P>

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