A Different Unreadable "Spray On" Imprint

Amongst items just purchased from SFS, was a strip of 25 of the 2004 WAG issue of the Eagle Presorted First Class Stamps. Included, of course, was Scott #3848, Prussian Blue Background w/Gold Eagle that looks like this:



Uncommon (to me anyway) is the poor impression on the reverse side of the stamp, which I assume was supposed to be a counting number as the stamps were taken from a 3K coil roll:



While it doesn't impact the stamp itself, it makes you wonder why they (the USPS) even bothers to put a backstamp number on these stamps if they can't be read because of the poor quality imprint.

That series of dots looks more like something intended to be read by a machine rather than a human.

I agree. Why bother to print something on the back of a stamp if its totally unreadable. Personally I doubt it was meant to be read by a machine as the dot placement appears too random and scattered.

IMHO the federal government is just not up to the task of running the mail service any longer.

They can't even balance their checkbook, let-alone run one of the largest employers in the country?

It's really a joke at this point. They ought to sell off their monopoly rights to postbox delivery service and get while the getting is good (IMHO).

If they were wiser they would have gotten out of the government delivery service much earlier like Deutsche Post (DHL) - at least then they might have been able to retain some competitive edge in the market.

Geesh, what happened THERE??