Need Help With Odd-Colored 1976 Phone Centennial Stamp

Hello -

I'm new to this forum, and I hope somebody out there can help me. I have a 1976 telephone centennial stamp that I've always been curious about. Instead of the normal beige color, it's distinctly light pink. Attached is an image of it next to a normal stamp. Have any of you seen a stamp like this? Thank you in advance!

John Clem
Freeman, South Dakota

First, welcome to the Stamp Collecting Forum!

As for the stamp you have scanned, there are no known errors for that issue that would have produced the example illustrated. (The only known error is with the colors purple and black omitted, which is obviously not applicable to your stamp.)

My best guess is that someone inadvertently damaged the stamp in the process of soaking it off the paper backing. This can often occur if (a) it was soaked in chemicals other than water (i.e. bleach or certain cleaners); (b) if was soaked with other stamps, particularly those red in color; (c) possibly the envelope that it was soaked off of could have been red or pink and the color for the envelope penetrated the stamp; or (d) the other possibility is that it was exposed to direct sunlight for an extended period of time which could result in the appearance of the faded background color.

In any case, I doubt it would be considered anything more than an "oddity" and would not carry any special value. The stamp does, however, contain a nice period slogan cancel for the Colorado State Centennial in 1976, so you may want to hold onto it for that reason alone.

There are numerous color errors on this stamp, but they all have to do with the ink, not the paper. If I read the catalogue correctly, the paper is supposed to be tan.

Based on what little information I have, I would surmise that this stamp was soaked in a detergent that bleached the paper ... most likely in an attempt to bleach out the ink and forge one of the known printing errors.

My opinion is that you have a filler, not an error. Sorry :(

Brian

You beat me to the punch, WT!

WT and Brian - thanks for your responses, much appreciated! Your explanation seems plausible enough to me, although I wonder why the bleaching (or whatever happened) affected only the paper and not the ink. I wish I could remember how I came across the stamp in the first place, but it's been many years...

By the way, look for future posts from me. I recently came across an old stamp album that my father-in-law inherited from his father-in-law, which contains some fairly interesting stamps. Nothing terribly valuable, but it does have a nearly complete set of 1870 National Bank Notes, as well as some other higher-denomination pre-1900 stamps, a complete set of federal duck stamps, at least one interesting Postage Due, and some other interesting items. Unfortunately, most are used and in not very good condition.

We look forward to seeing them. And welcome to SCF :)

I hope someone can answer this question as I'm interested to know as well. I know that the paper is dyed tan. What's the difference between dye and ink? Perhaps one is water based and the other solvent based?