Test Your EFO Knowledge: 2021 Issues

These stamps depict Spain's Scott C56 and varieties thereof. It's complicated...

A note in the Scott Catalogue says: This set was privately produced. Their promoters presented a certain quantity of these labels to the Spanish Postal Authorities who placed them on sale, and allowed them to be used on mail for three days, retaining the money obtained from the sale.

They qualify as postage stamps, because they were accepted by Spanish postal authorities as valid postage when used on mail.

It is not the only Spamish stamp set produced using this approach.

Varro Tyler, in an article in the May-June 1993 issue of Topical Time wrote: As was the case with a number of other flamboyant issues of the period, this one was privately printed in Madrid and financed privately by another printer and a stamp dealer in that city. The stamps were supplied free of charge to the government, which placed them on sale for three days only and retained the proceeds. The producers retained the balance of the original printing order of 250,000 copies of each value and were permitted to sell them to collectors, as well as to reprint them indefinitely.

Because the plates were privately owned, the producers could (and did) print any kind of errors they wished. While one is always loathe to say that a philatelic item does not exist, all of the printings I have seen from the dual plates are not genuine stamps but reprints...

There you go: Errors made to order. Nevertheless, they are not necessarily easy to come by and they certainly have their aficionados.

The story featuring these stamps appeared in the January-March 2013 issue of The EFO Collector.

December 6^th, 2021

These stamps from Great Britain were part of their 1969 Cathedrals issue.

Top row:
Left stamp is a normal example.
Right stamp has its denomination (black ink) hiding behind the Cathedral.

Middle row:
Left stamp is a normal example.
Center stamp has the black ink (denomination as well as arrow in margin marking the centerline of the pane) shifted down.
Right stamp has a greater black ink shift.

Bottom row:
Figure depicts the reverse of a stamp with brown offset.

The story featuring these stamps appeared in the October-December 2013 issue of The EFO Collector.

August 27^th, 2021

These are postal stationery envelopes. Postal stationery includes items such as envelopes and postal cards with the indicium printed (or, often misprinted). Additional types of postal stationery are aerogrammes (airletters), newspaper wrappers, registry envelopes, etc. The stamp printed directly on the item is called the indicium.

Envelopes, in particular, are complex to manufacture. Not only needs the indicium to be printed at the correct location, but after the printing process, the large sheets of paper making up several envelopes need to be cut apart correctly and the envelopes need to be folded correctly. Also, the gum must be applied correctly at the flaps.

In the first example, there is a pre-printing paper crease going through the location where the indicium was printed. Actually the whole envelope was cut to shape and folded properly, but then the crease could be undone, showing the indicium with the crease (inset) and the whole envelope has now a distorted shape.

The second envelope went through the printing equipment twice, causing two impressions of both the indicium and the corner card. The resulting envelope has a normal shape, except that it must have been miscut, as neither indicium and corner card is properly aligned with the finished envelope.

Because of the production complexities, postal stationery items are a very fertile EFO collecting area. Some items are quite expensive, for example, items in William Weiss' exhibit of U.S. postal card errors, but many are not as expensive. There are albino items (where the indicium has no color, due to completely missing color, but it's location can be determined because of the slight depression caused by the printing equipment) that are quite affordable and just as much fun to collect. For example, the following item was offered at the EFOCC Auction 158 as lot 158 with a starting price of $8.00. It is a 22¢ airletter, unfolded, with the cutting inverted. It is a Scott-listed variety.