Questions About The Scotts 1608 Varieties

hello all.

it is me again.

i was sorting more of my kiloware purchase and noticed differences in the scotts 1608 that I have.

all were in reference to the placing of the orange light or the [what I call the backwords s on the stamp [ I call this for my lack of a better descriptions]

here are a scan of the four differences that I have observed.



the enlarged scan




notice from left to right

the 1st stamp has the s touching the orange

the second has the s half way in the white area

the third the s just is touching the white

the forth stamp is not close to touching any parts of the light.

i am not sure if this has ever been talked about before but I found it interesting.

thanks for you interest.

dan

I think that's just mis-registration. The red dot would be on a separate plate so there's bound to be a little floating with slight movement of the plates.

i was not sure but..just never noticed any mention of it before.
i just found it interesting the differences

Looking in a 2008 Scott's Specialized Catalogue, there's no mention of any noticeable variations. I think this sort of shifting happens all the time. Because the white space between the orange (as Scott's call it) and the tan colour is so small, any difference or movement is much more noticeable than if they were farther apart.

I've seen articles on various issues showing this type of shift, though usually older issues.
For example, the circa 1930(?) Red Cross issue, where the red cross floats around the grey stamp.
Also the C3 Jenny airmail, where the airplane has "landed" or is flying out of the frame.

These shifts could add a lot of interest to a page in your album.

Issue with known errors per the 2006 Specialized recognizes #1608a (With Black Omitted) and #1610a engraved with Brown omitted; #1610b Tan, Orange and Brown omitted, #1610c with Brown inverted (the last is the one I'd like to find!)

Although this particular issue has had it's share of "errors", I would agree with the previous posts and suggest that your examples are simply a misregistration and of no significant value as an error, freak or oddity.

For a comparison, I just went to my own stockbook of used stamps for that issue and came up with this. Similar "shifts" are noted here, too:



I suppose if one were interested in "flyspecking" these details, it might make an interesting album page or two showing the variety of shifts that can be found in the issue, but I wouldn't expect it to be of any premium value.

Here are a few more dramatic shifts currently being auctioned on ebay: