Errors, Freaks and Oddities

By John M. Hotchner

Introduction

Errors

1. Imperforate (Perforations, roulettes or die cutting)

• Totally imperforate.
• Imperforate in one direction - horizontally or vertically. But remember that a coil that is imperforate in one direction is fully imperforate.
• Imperforate between two or more stamps, or between a stamp and its margin.

Freaks

Type 51: The "slime hole" was caused by inadequately mixed chemicals in the paper-making process.

Linn's Article by John Hotchner




52. Non-error grill varieties: In this category are split grills, sometimes combined with a subsequently placed normal grill. Worth derives from the value of the basic stamp with an additional amount based on how unusual the variation is.


Type 52: A Scott 93 with a 9x13 split grill which can be seen when looking at the back of the stamp on the right.


53. Unprinted areas in the stamp design: Printing gaps have a multitude of causes. Among them are problems resulting from water content at the time that the paper was moistened before intaglio printing, inadequate ink on the plate, cleaning solvent dissipating the ink, foreign matter on the paper such as hairs and bugs, a disengaged plate, a weak spot on an impression roller, problems with paper coating and bubbles in the ink. Most are minor and have more interest than cash value.


Type 53: A weak spot in the suspension roller left a strategically-placed "snowball" in Lockwood's face (Scott 2178).


Type 53: Inadequately wetted down paper prior to intaglio printing left this stamp with a light impression from inadequately adhering ink (Scott 565).


Type 53: Foreign matter, such as the insect that landed on this stamp, results in unprinted areas in the stamp design (Scott 319g).


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).


55. Excess ink between stamps: Beyond heavily printed and smeared joint lines, the freak to look for is joint lines where they shouldn't be. This is a unique property of Huck Press intaglio-printed stamps of the 1960s and 1970s that sometimes lead people to think they have a great unlisted rarity. Several curved printing plates were needed to make up a full circular printing sleeve. If the printing plates were fitted together perfectly, no joint line would show. If, however, any gap existed between the plates, it would pick up ink and deposit it between the designs. These lines were random, incomplete, and sometimes had mixtures of the colors of the stamps. They are collectible but do not receive catalog recognition. Because they are so prevalent in Huck printing, they don't as a rule have extra value. The exception is when they are strong and visual, but even then the extra value is modest.




Type 55: These flag definitives are Huck Press printed, meaning that the printing sleeve was made up of several plates two subjects wide. If ink got between the plates, a joint line printed. Because such lines were irregular and unpredictable, they are not catalogue listed.


56. Color variations: Stamp designs used over long periods of time often can be found with differing shade varieties of their basic colors. The properties of the ink components can change, as can the quality and properties of the paper purchased by the printer. Those factors can affect the printed colors. New printing equipment, using the same plates and ink, also can result in shade and color-intensity differences. Unless pronounced, these shades are relegated to minor status and, though avidly collected by many, have little additional value.

The advent of photogravure printing in the late 1960s brought a whole new class of color varieties. Gravure is based on the sequential printing of four basic colors in carefully planned dot patterns, one on top of the other, to produce the impression to the human eye of every color of the rainbow. It produces much more colorful stamps. But it also causes collectors to notice shade differences more than ever before because a small difference in the inking of one color plate often has a dynamic effect on the final colors produced. Expertizers frequently see photogravure stamps submitted as missing-color candidates, when they are only a light print of one of the four basic colors. Thus, there is a range of normal for most photogravure stamps, and a stamp has extra value only if it falls outside that range.

Another group of color variations evolved from the Giori process, in which up to three colors are printed from a single plate. The ink is in wells that are one above the other at one end of the press. An inking-in roller takes the ink from its trough and applies it to its discrete portion of the plate. The excess ink is wiped off, and the stamps are printed. With such a complicated piece of equipment, many things can go wrong. Ink from one trough can fall into the trough below, leaving spots of the wrong color in the middle of the correct color. If a spill is large, an entire color can be changed as the two inks mix. If the wiping of the plate is not done carefully, one ink color can be wiped into the area of another. This is called an "ink bleed" or "contamination." If the inking-in roller is not properly aligned with the plate, design elements may appear partially the wrong color, depending upon how much the roller and plate are out of alignment. The alignment problem can be horizontal or vertical.


Type 56: Light and dark background blue colors are due to differences in ink application (Scott 1548).


Type 56: Four different shade varieties of the Presidential 4¢ Madison (Scott 808) that was produced over 16 years. It is characteristic of the Presidential series that color changed over time as production equipment and ink formulations changed.


Type 56: This is an example of the Giori misaligned inking in roller phenomenon, leaving the Flag severely discolored (Scott 1895).


57. Tagging varieties: Tagging should be viewed as just another ink, although a colorless one. Because it is colorless, values of varieties tend to be modest, but a collector can have a lot of fun with an ultraviolet light and a pile of modern U.S. stamps. Examples to be found will include those with partial tagging, light and heavy tagging, blotchy tagging, misplaced tagging, and differing sizes of tagging blocks and bars. One class of tagging flaw is visible. Called a "tagging ghost," it is most often associated with plate numbers. It happens when a sheet of stamps that has not completely dried passes through the offset press that adds the tagging. The tagging roller picks up ink from the sheet and deposits it on the next sheet passing through. Up to three ghost numbers on a single sheet are known. The entire design also can be ghosted, although that is rarely seen. Ghost plate number blocks are relatively common and usually go for two to three times their face value.


Type 57: As can be seen in this photograph, tagging blocks have shifted horizontally (Scott 2219).


Type 57: This block of Scott Scott 1538-41 has a triple plate number.


Type 57: An extreme tagging ghost such as this on a multiple of the 1971 21¢ airmail (Scott C81) only could have happened as a result of a misfed sheet.



Keywords: Huck press, intaglio press, Cottrell press, web nine color intaglio press, Conlon, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Sanders, BP&P, Stark, phosphorescent, fluorescent, ultraviolet.


58. Printing on reverse: Stamps printed on early sheetfed presses are sometimes found with the reversed image of at least part of the stamp on the reverse. This was usually caused by placing a sheet on top of a wet sheet. If done before gumming, the impression of the sheet was transferred to the back of the sheet above. Most are light representations of the design, and value is modest.


Type 58: This copy of Scott 548 has an off-center impression on the back.


59. Doubled impressions: When paper passes twice through a press and the second pass is unintended, it is an error. But a variety exists that mimics the error, called a "kiss print," in which the plate stutters. The second impression produced is usually light, often inconsistent and not complete. These are common on the offset-printed Washington Heads of 1918-20 but have little value compared to the true double print. They are considerably more scarce on other issues, but the value is still not much more than the value of the stamp itself unless visually dramatic.

Doubling is also found on modem offset printed stamps when two or more offset colors are printed. The second offset roller can pick up wet ink printed from the first offset roller and print it on the following sheet. Because it should print exactly on top of the same offset color, this phenomenon would usually not be noticed. But if the next sheet is a hair off register, the second imprint will be visible.

A more frequently seen variety is what have come to be called "phantom" plate numbers - most often on web-printed Presidential-era plate margin strips. They are very light but easily seen second impressions of plate numbers and other marginal markings, but in the wrong location on the margin. The cause is the mechanism that cleans the roller that regulates the edge of the web. If the mechanism failed, or was in process of being adjusted, the roller picked up a bit of wet ink and deposited it where it didn't belong on the next revolution. Value for an affected margin block is in the $20 range, more for a larger piece or for multiples with little-used denominations or higher face values.


Type 59: The pronounced doubling in the left-hand stamp (Scott 498) is an example of a pulled (or kiss) print, not a double impression error. It occurred when the ink was pulled or dragged from its proper place by the paper moving under the plate.


60. Color misregistrations: By definition, this phenomenon involves stamps printed in two or more colors. Causes and effects are varied, from simple misregistration of a second color printed on a second pass, to misregistrations several stamps in length on modern web presses. Simple freak misregistrations between colors can be startling. Value depends upon the degree of misregistration, the colors involved and whether misregistration is a consistent problem on the issue involved. For instance, it is hard to find a precisely registered 1975 10¢ D.W. Griffith stamp. A high percentage are flawed.


Type 60: These are examples of color misregistration from different eras and different equipment (Left to right: Scott 2285b, 1432, 294, 294).


61. Overprint and precancel problems: Stamps on which new information has been added in the form of words, values or precancels are a fertile field for the specialist. Some variations have been described in the Errors section, but there are plenty of freaks: misplaced and partial prints, stretched and compressed prints, flaws in the letters or numbers, missing periods or letters, and light and heavy impressions. Values vary widely according to the value of the basic stamp, how common the variety is, and how visually impressive the variety is.


Type 61: "Pitcher" in the center stamps is streched (Scott 646).


Type 61: These precancels and the Shangai overprint show misalignment and the 5¢ Kansas City precancel has a thick bottom bar (Left to right: Scott 1054, 804, K17, 810).



Type 61: Scott Canal Zone 91c is a variation of Scott Canal Zone 91, with the overprint shifted vertically such that overprint reads "ZONE CANAL" instead of "CANAL ZONE". This stamp is an overprint of Scott 623.


Type 61: Two precancel varieties for Scott 1384a: The left stamp shows no trace of precancel on front. The right stamp's precancel is reversed and shifted lower.

The July-September 2004 issue of The EFO Collector (Vol. 23, No. 6, pp. 24) contains an article by Stan Goldfarb that describes many varieties of Scott 1384, including many precancel varieties, and is profusely illustrated.



62. Gum varieties: At one end of the spectrum in this category is partially missing gum, which has correspondingly little value. On the other end are gum inclusions, or tiny objects, such as hairs or insects, that get stuck in the gum or under the gum as it is applied. The more interesting the inclusion, the greater the value.



Type 62: A fly was caught on the gum of this block (Scott 976) during the production process. This was in the era when the Bureau of Engraving and Printing had no air conditioning, so during the summer the windows were open and anything might fly in.


Type 62: A vertical gum skip leaves a small ungummed line (Scott 995).

Oddities

63. Essays, proofs and specimens: Essays are defined as design trials. Proofs are printed versions of an approved design to test the design itself, the printing equipment, or one or more possible colors for the issued stamp. Specimens are specially printed versions of the issued stamp, usually marked as such for purposes of record or display. All are scarce, having been produced in small quantities, and most have significant value.


Type 63: A specimen overprint appears on the 1¢ Franklin Navy Department Official (Scott O35S).


Type 63: A proof of the 1¢ Franklin Treasury Department Official (Scott O72P).


Type 63: Essay for Presidential Series by August Dietz.










64. Plate varieties: Also called sometimes plate flaws, included in this category are double transfers (what our British and Canadian friends call "re-entries"), position dots, plate cracks, die flaws, relief breaks, worn plates, plate damage and repairs. Also included is any physical alteration to the plate, intentional or not, resulting in a nonuniform stamp that can be identified and matched to a specific location on a plate. While mostly collected in the United States on intaglio-printed stamps, plate varieties can be found associated with other types of printing. The values of these items relate to the basic stamp and the visual degree of the plate variety.


Type 64: A dropped transfer occurred on plate 16065, position U.R. 52 of Scott 569.


65. Design errors: Faulty research in designing a stamp can result in an issued stamp that contains an error, an inherent contradiction or misinformation. This can be in the stamp's design, in a backprint or in a marginal inscription. Since all issued stamps will contain the same error, they have no special value.


Type 65: Which is the proper flag design for the Iowa flag? (Left: Scott 1661, right: Scott 942)


Type 65: The U.S. 1991 52¢ Hubert Humphrey stamp (Scott 2189) at left was printed with the wrong dates ("1964 to 1968") for Humphrey's term as vice president. The stamp was printed a second time with the correct dates, "1965 to 1969."


66. Counterfeits, fakes and intentionally created varieties: While some shun "created" and altered stamps, there are a lot of collectors who find them fascinating, if only as reference material for use in expertizing the genuine stamps. Some of the better examples in this category have significant value, especially counterfeits that have seen postal use. Chemically altered stamps, on the other hand, have little value. Stamps on which the colors have been altered by chemicals or by prolonged exposure to light are called changelings and are considered curiosities.


Type 66: Friend Wayne Youngblood has a little fun poking fun at the 4¢ make up rate stamp of 1991 (Scott 2521).


Type 66: How to make a "white" Old North Church? Dip the stamp in a common household product, and it will remove the blue coloring of the paper (originally, Scott 1603).


Type 66: Experiments with various chemicals left several different versions of the 1¢ Presidential of 1938 (Scott 804).


Type 66: The copy of Scott 815a on the right is a counterfeit.





67. Rotary coil end strips: When coil rolls were made by hand, a leader and end strip were added to the roll with information about the face value and the number of stamps included. They are usually collected attached to stamps from the roll, and have little additional value.



Type 67: An example of a rotary coil end strip (Scott 1055).


68. Flat-plate coil paste-ups: The first coils, before rotary printing, were made by pasting sheets together. Side margins were pasted underneath the bottom stamp of the next sheet. The most interesting of these are paste-ups that show a plate number. A premium is paid for these items.


69. Private perforations: In the era of imperforate stamps, people sometimes used oddly punched holes, sawing machine holes or rudimentary roulettes to ease separation. Most have significant value. Before government-issued coil stamps were widely used, vending and affixing machine manufacturers purchased imperforate sheets of stamps from the Post Office Department and applied their own methods for separating stamps. They used holes, slots or slits between the stamps. Private perforations are very desirable items on cover, in vending booklets and as mint strips.


Type 69: Schermack Type III slots were used in coil dispensing machines in the early days of coil production (Scott 408).


Type 69: Mact-O-Meter Type II slots used on Scott 371.


Type 69: Brinkerhoff Type I slots used on Scott 320.


Type 69: These are so-called "Wilson Roulettes". Click here for additional information on "Wilson Roulettes".


Type 69: Scott 9, design type II, position 84R3, with rough sewing machine perforations unofficially added (pictured at 400% of original size)..







70. Semi-official separations: Included in this category are items like the Kansas City Roulettes, done with rouletting wheels by the Kansas City Post Office when it became necessary to sell to the public a quantity of leftover imperforate l¢ and 2¢ Washington Heads in 1914. A block of these is in the $75-$100 range.


Type 70: Kansas City roulette used on Scott 408.


Type 70: Scott 11, position 66R4, perforated at 12 1/2 on a flat bed perforator - the so-called "Chicago Perf" - prepared by Chicago dentist Elijah W. Hadley, who tried without success to sell the process to the Post Office Department. Hadley eventually used his samples on mail, with no objection from the Chicago Post Office, which had recommended Hadley's process favorably to Washington.







71. Bisects: These are stamps that have been cut in half to use only part of their face value to mail a letter. While the great majority of them have no official standing, many have been used and accepted when the stamps of proper rate have not been available. If it can be shown that a bisect on cover was permitted by postal authorities, it can have significant value. Others have only curiosity value.


Type 71: An unofficial bisect (Scott C25) which pays the 3¢ first class rate. Probably slipped through the system without being noticed.


Type 71: Bisects were used in St. Paul, Minn., when the third-class rate was increased to 1-1/2¢ on April 15, 1925. Stamps were bisected by scissors or halved by perforators. The bisects were accepted by the local postmaster, but not authorized by Washington. The bisect used here is half of Scott 614.


72. Spacing and sheet layout varieties: In the first third of the 20th century, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing experimented with different vertical spacing between stamps to try to cut down on waste from inaccurate perforating. Spacing varieties can be identified by measuring the margin or by the presence of special plate numbers and other markings, such as different types of stars. Position pieces can have significant value.





73. Other experiments: Many experiments have been conducted over the years that have resulted in the issuance of unusual stamps. Examples are Banknote double papers and other varieties aimed at reducing the removal of cancellations, blue and clay papers in the Washington Heads to control paper shrinkage, and Silkote paper on the 1954 2¢ Jefferson to improve the printed impression. All exist in limited quantities and have significant additional value.


Type 73: This cover shows a postal use of Scott 359 printed on blue, high rag content, experimental paper. The objective was to control shrinkage and reduce poor registration of perforations. The experiment was a failure.


74. Test stamps, coils and booklets: Officially prepared for testing production or dispensing equipment, these "stamps" can be in one of several designs, but blank booklet panes and coils also have been produced. Some of this material is extremely scarce and sells for hundreds of dollars, but much is fairly common. It is listed in the Scott Specialized Catalogue.


Type 74: A linerless self-adhesive test stamp strip.





Type 74: This exploded booklet shows test stamps printed in coil format, but cut into booklet panes.


Type 74: Test coils have been prepared for testing production and dispensing equipment.


Type 74: Self-adhesive test stamp booklets.


75. Printer's waste: Every printing operation has waste, and the vast majority of it is destroyed. What reaches the public often is material that was sold for scrap or was on the way to destruction when someone appropriated it to try to make a profit. Even though it is tainted as far as collectors are concerned, it is still desirable and often has significant value.


Type 75: Incomplete production, such as this imperf, engraved black missing Scott 2541, is easily identified as printer's waste, probably stolen.





76. Different perforations on stamps of the same design: The use of random pieces of perforating equipment to complete printed stamps has a long and honorable history. After all, the printer usually cares only that the stamps are finished and salable. How that happens is the problem of the technicians. As an example, the American Banknote Co. prepared three different versions of the 1979 John Paul Jones stamp (perfs 12x12,11x12 and 11x11), and didn't think to tell the Postal Service. There are about 35 U.S. issues that exist with two or more different perforations but don't receive separate major catalog recognition. Most have no premium, but the John Paul Jones perf 12 by 12 and a few others have significant value.



Type 76: The top stamp (Scott 2723A) has 22 horizontal perforations, whereas the bottom stamp (Scott 2723) has 20.


Type 76: The 1979 John Paul Jones stamp was issued with three different perforation measurements. Above are shown copies with perforations, from left to right, 12x12 (Scott 1789B), 11x12 (Scott 1789) and 11x11 (Scott 1789A). The 12x12 is rare with under 150 reported examples.


77. Local precancel varieties: Most precanceling was done at the local level, and the quality control was hardly equivalent to that of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Varieties abound, including inverts, partial prints, doubled and tripled impressions, misspellings and misregistrations. For the most part, they have little value, and then only to specialists who know how to evaluate their relative scarcity.


Type 77: Some of the variations that can be found on local precancels. From left to right: Scott J68, 566, 803, 560.


78. Perfin varieties: Perforated initials, or perfins, are applied to stamps as a security measure to keep employees or unauthorized persons from using them. All are done locally and varieties include doubled, impressed from the back or front, pairs with one missing, and others. Values are greater among specialists.


Type 78: The perfins are missing on the bottom pair of this 1/2¢ Nathan Hale block (Scott 653).


79. Cancellation and meter varieties: Inverted date and time slugs are common, as are smeared and inverted cancels or meter impressions, and other varieties. These mostly have curiosity value.


Type 79: These two PVIs show that for a period of at least 9 days, the Merrimack, NH, post office loaded the PVI blank stock upside down.


Type 79: A partial first impression of this meter prompted the user to redo it so as to show the postage paid.


Type 79: The date slugs for the July 20, 1860, cancel were inverted when put into the hand stamp.


80. Pre-first-day cancels: These used to be the exception rather than the rule and occurred only when a postal clerk didn't notice the release date. It now is common for stamps to be used before their first day, Linn's periodically publishes an updated list of current issues and invites readers to find the earliest usages. Unless one finds the earliest pre-FDC date, the values are minor.


Type 80: This cover shows a prerelease of the 7¢ airmail stamp (Scott C51). The cover is postmarked July 29, 1958. The stamp's first day of issue was July 31, 1958.


81. Cinderellas: There are thousands of fantasy stamps and stamplike creations. Among the most interesting are those created to mimic genuine stamps for use in movies and advertising.



Type 81: A movie stamp cinderella (left) modeled on the U.S. Parcel Post issue of 1913 (right) features a mail train.


82. Unissued stamps: At times, stamps have been produced but not issued for a variery of reasons. For example, the unissued "H" stamp was likely sold over the counter by a postal clerk who did not follow instructions.


Type 82: The unissued "H" stamp (Not listed in Scott).






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