Gregory Peck Stamp (And Minor Variety?)

Anyone pickup the new Gregory Peck Stamp at the post office today?

I found it interesting that I stopped by one small post office to pickup a copy and the sheet was wrinkled, so I asked the clerk if they had a better copy. They looked at their entire shipment and they were all wrinkled, commenting that their last standing order was terribly damaged in shipment and this stamp was one so affected. The stamps were fine as individual stamps for postage, but not in the condition a collector would expect them to be (so I had to get a "collectible" version of the sheet at another post office.)

At least it is good to know that we consumers are not the only ones that get damaged goods in shipment. The post office does, too!

Anyway, here's my copy ... one of the few modern stamps I can think of that appears only in black and white:

As I said earlier, I bought these stamps at two different post offices. The plate positions are LL and LR. Take at look at stamp #15 of each sheet and notice the blurred image in the left stamp as compared to the right stamp. It seems to me there may be a minor variety here, although probably not enough to make it worth anything more than face value ... still interesting though:

The two stamps look quite different.
Maybe it's late and I'm tired, but the year at top left looks different too on both stamps. Is that correct or are my eyes deceiving me?

Londonbus1...probably tired, off to bed.

I'm assuming these 2 stamps came from different panes, yes?

If you look at the collar and shoulder of the left stamp, you can see that one of the grayshades is shifted, while in the right stamp it is well registered. That's what it looks like to me.

I re-scanned these at 600 dpi. Here's the side-by-side examples again:

Yes, they did come from two different panes (at two different post offices) ... the "blurred" one from LL plate position; the "normal" one from LR plate position.



Also note the date in relation to the upper perfs and the bottom portion of the printed design on the blurred variety. Definitely shows some grayscale mis-registration.

If the "blurred" example may be considered a collectible variety, I can probably get more ... just not sure if it's significant enough to be considered anything special.

Thank you for taking the time to scan/upload the bigger pics. Yes, the misregistration is now very clear.

I have to admit, I really enjoyed his movies -- and I'm not much of a movie fan.

Yes it is rare to see a single coloured stamp issued nowadays.
Is black actually a colour?

Anyway I always enjoyed watching Peck, he was a great actor and
well deserving of a stamp. Loved him as Captain Ahab in
Moby Dick.

From what I can tell on the scan it's a poorly printed stamp.
When is Avery Dennison finally going get the hang of
printing photogravure stamps?

Am I missing something? Are you saying there is a misregistration of a single color? How is that possible. I can see if there are two colors, one being out of sync with the other color. Or is this indeed a two color stamp? One black and the other grey.

If you look at the bottom of the blurred stamp, you can see the grey background over which the black has been printed.

A very neat variation. Side by side the difference is glaringly obvious.

Although it looks like a single colour, if you look closely at the stamp with a loupe, you'll probably find the background plate is actually a second colour. I don't have one of these in front of me, but looking at the scan of the plate shift, my guess is that this is what is called a duotone, two colours, probably black and a second colour to give that slight sepia look.
The second colour would give the stamp the 'warm' look that you wouldn't get with straight black.

You're both right rohumpy & James, according to this USPS announcement
two colours, black & grey were used.

http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bullet...nfo_009.html

well, I scooted (literally, on my scooter), down to the post office. I got the sheet, but alas, it was not the mis-registered one. Drat.

Thought some might be interested in this update. I went back to the same post office I purchased the original stamps from, went to the same clerk and purchased another sheet of Gregory Peck stamps, same plate position and everything (so presumably from the same package of stamps.)

I then scanned and blew up the image the same way as the first one I previously posted and you will note that while the image is still a bit blurred, the "color" misregistration is much less pronounced, so it seems as though it is correcting itself as the printing run has proceeded.

Here's the side-by-side comparison of the first "misregistration" I purchased on Thursday and the second one I just purchased Friday ... you can still see the image as slightly blurred, a little fuzzy around the collar and the lettering but the "misregistration" seen at the very bottom of the first stamp seems as if it has gone ... or at least is going away ... as the printing run progresses: