Collector’s Corner: Stamp errors
By Medicine Hat News on October 27, 2018.
The term postage stamp error is used to describe any glitch in the intended appearance of the stamp caused by a printing failure. It can be anything from the wrong use of colours to misplaced, inverted or missing design elements. Since postal administrations strictly control every stage of the printing process, most inconsistencies are addressed before the stamps go on sale. As a rule, only a few copies featuring a particular error ever reach the public. Stamps with printing errors are strongly coveted by specialized collectors, with some being valued at thousands of times the regular stamps value. One of the more interesting types of is the inverted error. This occurs when one of the several design elements of the postage stamp is printed upside down. In most cases it happens when passing a stamp sheet through the printing press to get a multicoloured impression. During this process a printing plant worker can easily insert a sheet the wrong way around, causing an invert. Probably the most famous Canadian example of an invert error is the 5-cent St. Lawrence Seaway stamp issued on June 26, 1959. This stamp was issued on the occasion of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The stamp was engraved with two colours, plates of 200 stamps in four panes of 50. The error was a result of the text being inverted when the red colour was being printed. It is believed that two plates (400 stamps) were printed in error out of a total of 49,110,000 stamps printed. The bottom line is that the current catalogue value of the conventional stamp in mint, never hinged condition is 45 cents. The invert error demands a price tag in the vicinity of $12,500. In the photo accompanying this article, the stamp on the left is the invert, while the one on the right is the 45 center. This is only one example of many types of errors in the printing of postage stamps. To learn more about postage errors or stamps in general, why not come out to one jof the Coin and Stamp Club’s regular meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the Victory Lutheran Church. Collector’s Corner is contributed by the Medicine Hat Coin & Stamp Club. For questions or comments about coin or stamp collection email medhatcsc@live.com. 8-7
