Scott 1564 - Color Changeling Or Red Omitted Error?

I'll admit this is not the greatest specimen, but does the left stamp look as if it has a true red color omitted error or do I merely chalk it up to just be faded (i.e. color "changeling")?

wt1, You've helped me so much already I feel I need to give a little payback. I have a large plate block of this stamp, colors are black blue red yellow and a tan. It looks like what is showing on the left is an underlay color of tan with the red missing. Hope this helps a little.

It looks like its been out in the sun for a week.

It kind of looked that way to me, too (although I didn't do it). It was part of a collection of used stamps, so I just kept it as a conversation piece.

Actually, it may be a bit difficult to see in the scan, but if you focus on the lower right side of the portrait, it looks as if the yellow color has migrated onto the white border of the stamp, which is why I questioned whether this was a true fading issue or possibly a color omitted error.

Thanks to the both of you for your comments.

The red would normally have been printed overtop of the yellow(tanish) colors which it certainly looks as though its been omitted. If faded it would be an orangish hue not that extreme and the other colors are all there . I'd chalk that one up to more than just a conversation pc.

So, how do you get it officially declared as an error, so you can put it up for auction?

Forget the auction..just give it to me. I think I have an sase around here somewhere I could send you. :)

I agree with Chasa -- some sort of color changeling, either faded or bleached during the soak...

I say that because it looks like ALL the colors are weaker in intensity, although the red is most affected. More obvious if you compare the black hats/boots and parts of the lettering, but it does look like all the colors are affected. Even the slogan cancel is weaker, although that may just be a coincidence. Just an opinion.

The stamp may be soaked and possibly a bit washed out in other colors but there is no signs of red at all. You can even see the slight misalignment of the yellow but there are 0 traces of red which makes it look more washed out as well. I know red bleeds when soaked (been there and screwed up a bunch) but it would show if that were the case.

Note the condition of the paper in the top
right corner. I wonder if the stamp has
been in bleech and lost the red.

I don't think that can be determined with certainty from the current picture resolution. It could even be severely underinked. The expertizer will examine it with a magnifier and a microscope.

Eaglebub7 posted a partial picture of a normal plate block. If you look at the marginal markings, each color has 3 test patterns in accordance to the array density. Above the red plate number 36017, you can see the highest intensity blue bar. To the right of that are 2 lower intensity blue bars. That bar to the left of the blue bar, it's actually the lowest intensity red bar. It hardly looks red at all, huh? On my plate block, I actually had to get my 6x magnifier out to make sure it is red (my eyes are in poor condition, but maybe you can see right away). There are actually 2 more bars to the left of that (not shown), of higher red intensity and those can be readily discerned as red.

The misregistration of the yellow has NOTHING to do with any presence or absence of red ink. It is an independent event.



Depends on the ink used; not all red inks were made equal. Some types of red ink will bleed, others will simply bleach out, and yet others are completely unaffected even if you left in the water for several days. This is also true of purple and green as well. For example, the purple US 15c Edith Wharton stamp is known to bleed if you soak it more than necessary (you don't even have to use warm water). And yet, there are plenty of other purple US stamps that are completely unaffected by hours of soaking.

Again, it is merely my opinion that this is more likely a color changeling, based on the other color differences between the 2 stamps and the somewhat beat-up/worn condition of the left stamp. Better way is to look at the stamp under magnification.

Best wishes, of course -- it would be great if it were a red missing error.

As I said at the outset, the stamp is damaged (creased, etc.) so it's probably not worth much of anything even if it is a "red omitted" error versus a "color changeling". Nevertheless, here are a couple of close ups of the same stamp if it helps to better evaluate it:



(Note the yellow migration into the white border that I referred to earlier in this thread.)

Wt1, thanks for posting the higher res pictures. But it's still hard to see a sharp color screen.

Actually, the yellow shifted to the right makes evaluation more difficult, as the dot pattern will be different from a normal stamp. Had there been a lot of red on the left side, then it might be useful as we could further isolate the red dots.

Normally, the places you want to look are spots where there is a well spaced red dot pattern (i.e., not dark red, but very light red) and not much other colors. In this picture, an ideal spot would be faces, because low density red is often used for the lips and to contribute to the fleshtones. I have circled 2 heads that might be useful. Look at the normal stamp under the magnifier, and you should be able to see widely-spaced red dots as part of the fleshtone, and particularly for the lips of the person lying down. If it is a color changeling, it will not longer be red, but the dot pattern will STILL be there. Normally you will be looking for the dot pattern, not the color (remember, this is photogravure). What complicates matters is the misregistered yellow. There is likely tan/yellow for the fleshtones. If the yellow is shifted, the background dots will be messed up a little. Ugh... Maybe try looking at the white hair of the face circled in the background, there are actually a few red dots in his hair. Not an expert, so that's the most I can do to help (or mess you up ).

I don't think this helps much, but here's 1200 dpi close ups of the two faces you circled:

Wt1 I know you want to know about the red and I am no help on the issue, by I for one thank you for this post as I am learning a lot from this one. Dot patterns and hair and color for fleshtones etc. Thanks to khj for all the information: expert or not.

Thanks, Wt1!

The leftover array of dots on the 2 faces are not at the same angle as the red dots on the normal stamp. That's a very good sign -- except that I don't know how much of affect the misregistered yellow will have on the background color array.

BTW, do you have a short-wave UV lamp? If so, check the tagging. If the taggant is mostly gone, then all bets are off.

Again, I've pretty much reached the limit of how I can help. The high res pics definitely make it more promising.