Love Stamp Issues

OK, two problems here. The first is that the "2" in 20 cents has a red smear. Not too odd, but I have two identical. Is this common?

Of more interest is the shading in the bottom two hearts. On all of my other copies, the blue and purple heart are just like all of the others in that they appear to have a speckled appearance. In one of my stamps, they are definitely "cleaner" without any of the speckles. I hope the images do them justice.

The stamps:



The odd "2":



The speckled and the solid hearts (only the bottom two -- blue and purple). The speckled version is what I consider "normal":



Solid hearts:

It looks like there is a lot of running ink issues with these prints. May be from the printer. It would be interesting to compare a mint copy to get a base line comparison. This would rule out wear from the sorting machines and handling.

I think 2 different printing processes were used on each stamp. This is what makes the one on the right look "grainier" than the one on the left. But I don't know enough about modern printing processes for stamps to be able to know what they are. But this probably explains both issues.


-IBFS

Its just the terrible quality control of the printers and the USPS does nothing about it. They accept garbage. Think new Jenny.

Doug