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54. Excess ink on stamps: The examples most often seen are ink splatters, smears of various types, wiping flaws and markings from processing equipment that picked up undried ink from previous stamps and deposited it on trailing stamps. Wiping flaws are often seen on stamps of the 1960s to 1980s. Most evident are very thin, slightly angled lines on intaglio stamps ("hard streaks"), and fatter, blurred lines associated with photogravure printing ("soft streaks"). The latter results from clumping of ink behind the doctor blade that removes excess ink from the design area of the photogravure plate. They are common and command little in the way of a premium, unless unusually large or with more than one color involved. Less often seen, but also less visual and therefore even less valuable in general, are the hard streaks. They come from a flaw in the hard rubber wiper that removes excess ink from the plate surface. That flaw will trail a thin line of solvent-weakened ink until the blade is replaced.
Type 54: A major ink splatter left excess ink on the final product (Scott 804).
Type 54: A faulty wiping blade failed to remove the excess blue ink from the bottom of the plate that tprinted this coil (Scott 2115).
Type 54: Known as wet printing, the paper was too water saturated when the integlio plate applied the ink (Scott 543).
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