Columbian 3 Cent Boat Size

Hi. As far as I know (and I have loads to learn) I have not come across this topic before. I do know with the Pan-Americans there are slow trains/fast trains for example.. But has anyone any information about Big boats/small boats (or the like) when it comes to the 3 cent Columbian? I was just going through my stamps when I noticed these..the boat on the right is huge compared to the one on the left.

Boats look to be the same size to me. I think the postmarks are distorting perspective.

I'm intrigued, but skeptical. Illusion? Never heard of this variation.

Hi. But no, look how close the boat on the left is to the bottom frame line.

Here is the same stamp on its own and again beside a different stamp than before

Great optical illusion! The heavy cork cancel (blob) on the left stamp draws your eye into its boundaries, making the ship look smaller. The cancel on the right stamp frames the ship, and draws your eye out to its boundaries, making the ship look bigger.

The new photos help. I agree with Rhett ... I believe the ink from the cancellation is distorting the eye's view of the boat. The cancel covers the area where the keel meets the water. For whatever reason, there appears to be an attempt by our brains to add part of the inked-in area to the boat, extending the keel & making the boat seem larger.

I didn't play with the scale but you can still tell the boats are the same size.

The Pan-Americans used two printing passes, so you can get 'fast/slow' type of things. This stamp was one pass, impossible to see the same thing.

Guys, thanks. I stand corrected. I have just measured it up. Cant trust my own eyes it seems.

Wow. Thanks, that is very cool.

Don, brilliant as usual!

51Studebaker - what tool(s) did you use to create this effect? This would be very helpful in explaining or just studying color or size difference in stamps.

It must be the scan...but the bottom edge of the colored portion of the stamp is virtually on the same line. So, look at the top edge. And measuring the pictures on my large screen desktop also shows differences in size.

I was first clued into this looking at the motion of 51Studebakers tool. The top and bottom edges don't change at all (hold a ruler to the screen as it changes and you'll see) but the location of the numbers and writing jumps up and down. Go figure.

Caper,
It appears that the image was taken with a digital camera and the camera angle was not perfectly perpendicular to the stamps. This gives them a bit of a skew top to bottom. I used Adobe Photoshop to crop and layer the images and then use Jasc Animation Shop to animate them.
Don

Thanks Don

Paul