Just checked in the Scott USA Specialized catalogue. They do list an error for the booklet pane with the white ("USA 25") omitted. Since it appears that the "USA 25" is the only place this white ink was used, the shift in the "USA 25" would be evidence of poor alignment of this color when printed. If you were to check a bunch of stamps from this issue (any one of the five different lighthouse stamps in the booklet pane), you might see a whole range of shifts in this one color.
I have never been much interested in collecting US postage stamps mainly because of the poor print quality. When I started collecting in the mid-1970s, the US stamps being produced at that time had very poor printing quality. Instead, I became interested in the stamps of other countries because their quality control during stamp production was just so much better.
Here is the missing white (USA 25) error of the stamp shown (Scott 2473):
Interesting that there was white ink. Usually white is the absence of printing, with the background paper showing through.
Hi Ben Franklin;
Also seems odd to spend all those tax dollars on a plate to print white. Probably why our stamps are so poor quality compared to other countries. Quality is not something you fix after the fact. It has to start at the very first step and be carried all thru the design and printing of any project.
Countries who do much better would just have knocked a hole in the green plate shaped like
25
USA
Just like the values on the Machin series.
Just amazed USPS duhhhh....
TuskenRaider
Looking at my Canadian Unitrade Catalog, this sort of error would probably be "important" and worth a premium; so I'm surprised this didn't create a bit more commentary.
Would this possibly be found in the Scotts US Specialized Catalog?
Does the fact that US stamps are printed in such huge numbers, with potentially lots of such "errors" (variations?), minimize the impact on this?
Not thinking I'll pay off my mortgage with it, just interested in the dynamics.
Thanks, Dave.
Thanks Chris. Case closed. I'll hide it in one of my bulk lots of my US Divestiture Program and let somebody find it and get temporarily excited.
Thanks, Dave.
According to the Scott Catalogs:
Errors: Stamps that have some major, consistent, unintentional deviation from the normal are considered errors. Errors include, but are not limited to, missing or wrong colors, wrong paper, wrong watermarks, inverted centers or frames on multicolor printing, inverted or missing surcharges or overprints, double impressions, missing perforations, unintentionally omitted tagging and others. Factually wrong or misspelled information, if it appears on all examples of a stamp, are not considered errors in the true sense of the word. They are errors of design. Inconsistent or randomly appearing items, such as misperfs or color shifts, are classified as freaks.
I looked up the scott # for this stamp on Stamps2Go and found quite a few listed there for sale. What I saw was that the "25 USA" seems to shift from far left edge to a few mm to the right of the left edge. Saw several that were about touching the left edge so I guess this misalignment is not all that uncommon. Still, now that I know about it, I'll have to check my dupes and see if I have one shifted all the way to the left - I think it would make an interesting addition to my album page. Little unusual tidbits like this make an album page interesting!
Dave N.
To see what (if any) views it brought, I listed my Lighthouse on eBay. After reading Dave's comment I went to Stamps2Go and didn't see anything quite as dramatic,,,, nor did I find such a listing on eBay. I did however find this listed for $19 as a "major color shift".
Probably another rookie mistake, but wouldn't this be better described as "off centre left"? I've got lots of stamps with the perforations eating up the picture that I'd like to sell as errors for that kind of price.
Here is one of mine from that lighthouse set;
...and here is the official listing in my 2014 Scott U.S. Specialized, regarding this issue;
In other words - a complete booklet with all stamps having the white ("USA 25") omitted is valued at $80 (2 yrs. ago)
I have no idea what the value is for a postally used single.
Dave,
I looked through my stock of about 100 of these stamps and found 9 that look like your left stamp that has the base of the white 2 shifted left touching the white border.
Many others were close to touching and others looked like your other stamp, shifted to the right.
I would say this is not an error, just poor print quality that has the 25 jumping all over the stamp.
Thanks for posting this, as I was not aware of this before.
Linus
Randy, too bad it's not on cover. It is easy to forge a cancel, so that will always hinder valuation of a used stamp. On cover, however, would be choice and probably scarce.
Some where along the way the conversation went to two different stamps. The original stamp was from a booklet pane, Scott's 24747. The booklet is listed in scotts without the white as 2474b catalog price $75 for the set. I bought mine easily on ebay for under $40 (can't remember the exact price).
The second stamp with the white shifted is Scott's 3788a, Cape Lookout. It is from a pane of 20. The stamp is found only in the first row of the pane. The other four rows have the stamp printed correctly. Scott's values the stamp at $4.00, not much of a premium, BUT values the pane at $37.00. Most panes from that time are valued between $15-$20.
Nether stamps are rare but they, both listed in Scott's, these are errors. As was posted "Errors: Stamps that have some major, consistent, unintentional deviation from the normal are considered errors."
Hope this helps.
Keith
The Cape Hatteras stamp is a freak / oddity. It is a black ink color shift. It is found with the black ink shifted in various amounts and direction. In my opinion the selling price is way too high. Unfortunately too many stamps from that period have ink shifting problems. Did I day unfortunately. Actually I love these stamps and have built a great collection of these freaks, no oddity, no freaks. Aren't freaks and oddities the same thing. Can't we just use one term to describe them all, oddity.
Keith
"The second stamp with the white shifted is Scott's 3788a, Cape Lookout."
There was no picture but I thought Linus mentioned the stamp (white shift). The white shift only occurred on 3788 and the stamp that started the topic, missing white is on 2474.
Keith
I believe that the "shift" being referred to in the original and subsequent posts was in reference to misregistration of the white "25 USA" on the Scott 2473 shown in the initial post.
Interesting find among a dozen or so of these.
The one on the left has the 25 USA shifted significantly to the left. When you look at the left arm and green men on the platform of the oil rig, and the boat radar ball at top and window at bottom, they are all aligned perfectly. Obviously then, the denomination is printed separately and there was an obvious shift.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Dave.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Just checked in the Scott USA Specialized catalogue. They do list an error for the booklet pane with the white ("USA 25") omitted. Since it appears that the "USA 25" is the only place this white ink was used, the shift in the "USA 25" would be evidence of poor alignment of this color when printed. If you were to check a bunch of stamps from this issue (any one of the five different lighthouse stamps in the booklet pane), you might see a whole range of shifts in this one color.
I have never been much interested in collecting US postage stamps mainly because of the poor print quality. When I started collecting in the mid-1970s, the US stamps being produced at that time had very poor printing quality. Instead, I became interested in the stamps of other countries because their quality control during stamp production was just so much better.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Here is the missing white (USA 25) error of the stamp shown (Scott 2473):
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Interesting that there was white ink. Usually white is the absence of printing, with the background paper showing through.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Hi Ben Franklin;
Also seems odd to spend all those tax dollars on a plate to print white. Probably why our stamps are so poor quality compared to other countries. Quality is not something you fix after the fact. It has to start at the very first step and be carried all thru the design and printing of any project.
Countries who do much better would just have knocked a hole in the green plate shaped like
25
USA
Just like the values on the Machin series.
Just amazed USPS duhhhh....
TuskenRaider
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Looking at my Canadian Unitrade Catalog, this sort of error would probably be "important" and worth a premium; so I'm surprised this didn't create a bit more commentary.
Would this possibly be found in the Scotts US Specialized Catalog?
Does the fact that US stamps are printed in such huge numbers, with potentially lots of such "errors" (variations?), minimize the impact on this?
Not thinking I'll pay off my mortgage with it, just interested in the dynamics.
Thanks, Dave.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Thanks Chris. Case closed. I'll hide it in one of my bulk lots of my US Divestiture Program and let somebody find it and get temporarily excited.
Thanks, Dave.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
According to the Scott Catalogs:
Errors: Stamps that have some major, consistent, unintentional deviation from the normal are considered errors. Errors include, but are not limited to, missing or wrong colors, wrong paper, wrong watermarks, inverted centers or frames on multicolor printing, inverted or missing surcharges or overprints, double impressions, missing perforations, unintentionally omitted tagging and others. Factually wrong or misspelled information, if it appears on all examples of a stamp, are not considered errors in the true sense of the word. They are errors of design. Inconsistent or randomly appearing items, such as misperfs or color shifts, are classified as freaks.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
I looked up the scott # for this stamp on Stamps2Go and found quite a few listed there for sale. What I saw was that the "25 USA" seems to shift from far left edge to a few mm to the right of the left edge. Saw several that were about touching the left edge so I guess this misalignment is not all that uncommon. Still, now that I know about it, I'll have to check my dupes and see if I have one shifted all the way to the left - I think it would make an interesting addition to my album page. Little unusual tidbits like this make an album page interesting!
Dave N.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
To see what (if any) views it brought, I listed my Lighthouse on eBay. After reading Dave's comment I went to Stamps2Go and didn't see anything quite as dramatic,,,, nor did I find such a listing on eBay. I did however find this listed for $19 as a "major color shift".
Probably another rookie mistake, but wouldn't this be better described as "off centre left"? I've got lots of stamps with the perforations eating up the picture that I'd like to sell as errors for that kind of price.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Here is one of mine from that lighthouse set;
...and here is the official listing in my 2014 Scott U.S. Specialized, regarding this issue;
In other words - a complete booklet with all stamps having the white ("USA 25") omitted is valued at $80 (2 yrs. ago)
I have no idea what the value is for a postally used single.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Dave,
I looked through my stock of about 100 of these stamps and found 9 that look like your left stamp that has the base of the white 2 shifted left touching the white border.
Many others were close to touching and others looked like your other stamp, shifted to the right.
I would say this is not an error, just poor print quality that has the 25 jumping all over the stamp.
Thanks for posting this, as I was not aware of this before.
Linus
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Randy, too bad it's not on cover. It is easy to forge a cancel, so that will always hinder valuation of a used stamp. On cover, however, would be choice and probably scarce.
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
Some where along the way the conversation went to two different stamps. The original stamp was from a booklet pane, Scott's 24747. The booklet is listed in scotts without the white as 2474b catalog price $75 for the set. I bought mine easily on ebay for under $40 (can't remember the exact price).
The second stamp with the white shifted is Scott's 3788a, Cape Lookout. It is from a pane of 20. The stamp is found only in the first row of the pane. The other four rows have the stamp printed correctly. Scott's values the stamp at $4.00, not much of a premium, BUT values the pane at $37.00. Most panes from that time are valued between $15-$20.
Nether stamps are rare but they, both listed in Scott's, these are errors. As was posted "Errors: Stamps that have some major, consistent, unintentional deviation from the normal are considered errors."
Hope this helps.
Keith
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
The Cape Hatteras stamp is a freak / oddity. It is a black ink color shift. It is found with the black ink shifted in various amounts and direction. In my opinion the selling price is way too high. Unfortunately too many stamps from that period have ink shifting problems. Did I day unfortunately. Actually I love these stamps and have built a great collection of these freaks, no oddity, no freaks. Aren't freaks and oddities the same thing. Can't we just use one term to describe them all, oddity.
Keith
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
"The second stamp with the white shifted is Scott's 3788a, Cape Lookout."
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
There was no picture but I thought Linus mentioned the stamp (white shift). The white shift only occurred on 3788 and the stamp that started the topic, missing white is on 2474.
Keith
re: 1990 Lighthouse: Is this a known error?
I believe that the "shift" being referred to in the original and subsequent posts was in reference to misregistration of the white "25 USA" on the Scott 2473 shown in the initial post.