Scott 4495 Non Profit Bird Coil Variety?

As far as I can tell, only one version of the Non Profit Bird Coil Stamp was issued on 02/11/2011 in both 3K and 10K coils with only one printer involved (APU). The stamp has been assigned Scott #4495.

My question is that the illustration shown in the latest edition of USA Philatelic (top example shown below) versus the actual stamp (bottom example shown below) which I received on a recent piece of mail, differs in both the perforations and the location of the year "2011" in the upper left hand corner of the stamp:



Is this just an error in the USPS illustration of the stamp as it appears in USA Philatelic or is there yet another variety of this stamp that I am not aware of?

While the below image isn't definitive, it suggests there is a strong likelihood that the illustration was in error.

Thanks. One would think the USPS would be more careful with their illustrations; they have done this several times and it has tripped me up more than once.

Another effort at flyspecking Scott 4495:



The stamp on the left is a mint stamp on backing paper as I ordered from USPS SFS; the stamp on the right is on a piece of Non Profit Org. mail I received today.

While the image is pretty much the same, there is a slightly different color hue to the stamps (the mint stamp on left is slightly lighter.)

However, the most obvious thing I see is the date "2011" in the upper left corner. There is a distinct difference in the typeface used, most noticeably in the "2" and the "0" as being slightly different.

Does anyone else see this? Is this a known variety? Does it have to do with the stamp coming from the 3K or 10K coil? I've also heard there was a second plate number used for the stamp...could this be representative of the two different stamps?

Finally found a P2222 plate number coil of this stamp on a piece of junk mail received today ... first one I've seen with the P2222 plate number:

Interesting... Looked through mine and found two PNCs- one p2222 and one p1111.

Actually I did a little flyspecking comparison of the differences between the P1111 and P2222 coils. There are three distinct differences (at least from what I can see):

1. The date "2011" is different. The numerals "2" and "0" seem slightly different and the spacing between the "1"'s are narrower on the P2222 coil.

2. The green background and shading lines seems slightly darker on the P2222 coil as compared to the earlier version.

3. When looking at the plate number, the letter "P" in the prefix looks different (much less white space in the top portion of the "P" on P2222 than P1111).

Do you see any other differences between the two printings?

Here's a comparison side-by-side:

wt1, these two stamps were scanned at the same time. Yet even the white of the paper looks different. Have you checked to see if one is HiBrite by any chance?

The print quality on p1 seems worse.

Is anyone else convinced that wt1 needs to be hired by Amos to work on the next edition of the Scott Catalog? :-)

I think wt1 is correctly showing the need for a 4495a and 4495b variety.

Let me just clarify that the P1111 stamp was a MNH still on original backing paper that I had in my stockbook. The P2222 was just received today on a mailing that happened to be on a grayish colored envelope. So P1111 is post office fresh; P2222 has seen postal use.

By the way, some of the print quality issues may be attributed to my old printer/scanner. I have a new one sitting here that I'm going to install, but I'm waiting to use up all of the ink in the old one first.

I had to revive this older thread since I also noticed some differences, though probably attributable to color misregistration. The first picture are three PNC P222 side-by-side. All are postally used, though not cancelled, of course. The first stamp is relatively normal, so I won't show it in any more detail:



The middle stamp has magenta spots all throughout, top to bottom. I've shown a closeup of the bottom, including the right side where you can see the roller lines from the sorting machine (at least that is what I think I am seeing.) Is this a case of the magenta sprayer not being cleaned thoroughly, or are they using recycled stamp paper now? (I darkened the exposure to better show the magenta spots.)





In my last example, the far right stamp has a noticeable black shift up and to the left (or all of the other colors down, and to the right). This gives an odd illusion to the black shading in the wings and other areas. Note the shadowy area to the left of the features, which I don't see in all of my other examples. It almost looks like a slight "kiss print".





I just thought I would share.

Thank you wt1

And thank you also, Partime. I am following this issue.

Partime, I have three strips of Scott 4392, the 44 cent Star Flag of 2009. The stamp was printed by the Banknote Corporation of America, and all strips from this printer ( PN S111 ) show blue dots, just like your magenta dots. It is not the paper, because on my stamps there is a band of 2mm wide on the right side of the stamp at position 3L ( the 3rd stamp left of the imaginary joint line ) that is much more dotted than the rest of the strip. I asked around at the time, but no one could give me an answer!
There is another peculiarity on these strips; between the 3L and 2L positions the image jumps up a bit ( it is higher by a fraction of a millimeter on 2L )!

Peter

Parttime - the ink is not applied by a "sprayer". These were offset printed, which means the problem (the stray magenta dots) could either be with the plate or the offset blanket steps (two step process, not direct plate to paper one step process).

My P3333 is on hibrite paper while my P1111 & P2222 are on dead paper.