US Scott #11A Dramatic Inking Variety - Thoughts?

This was a nice surprise find in a group of 1851-57 3-cent imperforates I acquired. I'd appreciate any thoughts on the cause of the ink streaks. I've seen plenty of over-inked stamps from this series that didn't streak like this.

Imagine pulling a sheet of paper from the printing plate. You might start with a corner and gradually lift the entire sheet up off the plate. But you might start pulling it sideways before it had all been lifted up. Now imagine that the paper was wetter than it should be, so the ink didn't adhere as well as usual. That could cause the streaks we see here.

We frequently see examples of this stamp described as "dry paper" impressions, but never "wet paper". Instead we see examples described as "gummy ink". I have no evidence to support this, but I feel that "gummy ink" and streaking such as this example are due to overly wet paper.

I agree with ttreen. Wet paper that couldn't absorb the ink.

Thanks, guys. Great description, ttreen! I'm setting this aside with some other printing varieties of this issue (dry, under-inked, over-inked, wiped too clean, etc.) for further study and hi-res scanning.

Awesome find CC.