A Plate Number Difference On A US 3796

a us 3796 with plate number a little different from the other copies I have.

it may be nothing but interesting.

i first noticed that there was no red 3 in the right stamps plate number and then upon scanning I can see a yellow 3 in its place [maybe a little raised.]

and there is a small shift in the stamp.
noticed the yellow line on the extreme right of the stamp.
it is just another misalignment in the printing of the stamp but I am not sure about the color difference of the red 3

this most likely is nothing but as always it is a conversation item.

That surely is interesting. I'm no expert, but perhaps they tweaked the color a bit, replacing the magenta with a shade of yellow. Or the magenta color simply ran out, and some sort of residue was there to print on the paper. All my examples are like yours on the left.

Regards, Robert

I think it's worthy to note that in the first (normal) stamp, the first "3" (in tan) is close to the "S" and is pretty near aligned with the "C" in "CLASS"; in the second example the first "3" (in tan) is centered between where the first two digits are in the first example, making that first "3" pretty near aligned with the "L" in "CLASS". However, if it were intentional that the red "3" was to be omitted in the second example, I would think it would be documented by now, but I have yet to find any reference to it.

By the way, the second stamp does have somewhat of a color mis-registration, but as we have documented with other modern issues, it's more or less a "freak" and it is unlikely to command any additional value. The missing red plate number, though, may be another matter entirely.