Yosemite National Park

Hi
This stamp has white blotches. I have examined it with a ten x lens and a gemmological Microscope. It is not skinned, it is not paint or foreign material on the stamp. Perhaps something feel on the paper whilst it was being printed any ideas?
Regards,
Horamakhet

Your image is not very clear, and has quite a bit of glare. Given that the blotches are not related to one color, I can only think that perhaps some bleaching agent was splashed on the stamps.

That stamp (Scott C141) is printed correctly. It's supposed to give the illusion of fog on the water. The copy I have is exactly the same, as shown below:

Hi Wt1

Sorry about the scan cropping the perforations. But mine has white colouring. I have examined under a 10x lens, a gemmological microscope, and a UV light, which would show up any bleaching. All come up negative. The white is part of the design, be it is definately different and also it is a lighter colour than yours. No it has not been exposed to the sunlight.
Regards,
Horamakhet

Hi

Hopefully this is a better scan. This is the actual colour also.
As said before I have examined with UV, Microscopes and lens

There is no sign of tampering

Regards,
Horamakhet

Hello Horamkhet,

It seems to me that the white stuff is not part of the stamp. It looks like it got onto the stamp after the stamp was used. Looking at the cancel, the white stuff is on top of the cancel so it must have got onto the stamps after the stamp was used/cancelled. For instance, look at the ring of the cancel by where the two uprigt arms of the letter "U" in "USA". A white splotch is on top of the cancel ring. Also on the "Sep 19 2006" you can see that the white stuff is ontop of the cancellation date.

What do you think?

Dave N.
<><

Dave N.

I agree with old try guy looks like its on top of the cancel.

is there a chance you soaked them in city tap water, once or twice a year I get a flyer in the mail that the city will be cleaning the pipes. then for about 3-5 days they increase the chlorine levels very high. your stamp almost looks like it was contaminated in chlorine when it was soaked off?

this is the only thing I can think of right now, without having been there for the process, espically with the cancel having the dots as well.

I would take your gemmological microscope and look closely at the cancel spots.

Hi Oldtryguy and Edwin.

I took your advise. I re-examined the stamp under the microscope but it still seems consistent with happening during printing. UV light would generally show up bleaches like chlorine and I am in Australia so not sure what they do with the cleaning of pipes.

I usually use filtered water that I boil if I am going to soak stamps of the paper, and it was like this before I soaked it off. It came from an Opp Shop (Thrift Shop in the USA?) parcels.
My Wife bought them for me with about four other packets and there were about 100 stamps in each packet. I examined the stamp before I soaked it off, and it was "AS IS", as I always look at the postmark inks in case they run, as sum do. ( I have some USA stamps that were given to me and you can see how the die from the postmark has bled when soaked off the paper.
The paper is woven paper, I can not explain why the cancellation has not taken, but that too shows no evidence of tampering. I even went as high as 10X x 4 which is very high with a stereo microscope, and I would only use that magnification when examining gems and antiquities. ( I am an Archaeologist as well as a Gemmologist.So I tend to scrutinize things minutely, but that does not mean I did not miss something. )
The only other thing is the colour, as said the colour is as depicted on the scan and it is much lighter than the scan by WT1. I can not explain it, but I am still open to all answers.

Regards
Horamakhet