Blind Embossed Stamped Envelope; Error?

I came across a #10 envelope that has the blind embossed US stamp imprint of a 3 cent Washington stamp -- but with no color printing for the stamp image. The envelope had been printed with a commercial return address but was never mailed or cancelled.

I have no experience with postal stationary; can someone clarify if this failure to print the color qualifies as an error, a possible rarity, or is it simply a rejected freak?

Thanks,

It is called "albino print"

Thanks. Does an albino print version affect the value of issue -- up or down?

The albino print is caused by two sheets of envelope blanks being fed into the press at the same time. Both get the embossing, but only the top one gets inked. Usually sell for a small increase in price over the normal.

I understand completely. It's a misfeed of the printing stock. Thanks for the clarification!

I believe that I have posted this image in this forum sometime before (not sure though), but, for the sake of the topic here, I thought I would insert it again.

This is a Greek postal card. What you cannot see well on the scan is that the stamp image is also on the left of the card and can be felt with the fingers. It is an 'albino' image of the stamp you see on the right.

Chimo

Bujutsu

The vast majority of albinos were created in the manner described by jarnick. However, in 1965 they started using web-fed presses to create embossed envelopes (and stopped using the old technology). With these machines there was no way multiple sheets of paper could be fed into press at the same time, so no more albinos. But, you would occasionally see one. For example, this U550:



These were created from a lack of ink in the printing press. I.e., a "missing color" error, as opposed to a traditional albino.

Then in 2008, the new envelope contractor introduced another envelope manufacturing technology, and once again, albinos from the 2-guys-in-the-press-at-the-same-time were possible. By this time embossing had been left out of the designs, which makes identification of the albino's catalog number difficult, at best.

Thanks for the insights regarding production of stamped envelopes. The whole "albino" cause is clear when color was printed in register with the embossing. For years I worked in advertising and graphic design, so I'm familiar with the steps usually followed to emboss and image after the inks are printed. I guess somewhere there's a collector of albino postal materials.

" . . . somewhere there's a collector of albino postal " stationery.