GB Victoria Three Half Pence Lake-Red With Missing"B" Error?

Hi,I have just found another one GB 1870 queen victoria three half pence lake-red stamp with character "B" missing at the bottom right column only,the rest of three columns are normal with the character "B" or "S" in it.I was shocked to see it to be honest becouse never had any GB victoria old stamp with any missing character from what I know.I believe this variety is absolutely RARE.It is not listed in SG and SCOTT catalogues for sure.Probably this is the first time you see something like this in your whole life.Please check it out and let me know what you think about it.Hope to hear from you soon.

Looks more like it has been scraped off.

Looks to me like under-inking or fading on the right hand side of the stamp over the whole lattice-work area. I'm guessing that the stamp was once in an album that came into contact with humidity, and, over time, the color transferred from the stamp to the album page opposite; I have seen this before with old collections that weren't stored right, where the album paper is foxed badly.

Tom [and WpgLwr are] is likely right. If not scraped off, then simply faded into oblivion. The whole right side of the stamp is faded. I specialize in GB, and I wouldn't pay more than a few dimes for it at most -- primarily as a conversation piece as a fake/forgery/altered stamp. Otherwise, it is merely a space filler.

[EDIT: sorry, I hadn't noticed WpgLwr's post above mine when I was typing. I have edited my post to give him credit for mentioning the underinking/fading before I did.]

I will have to check my SG specialized, but there is another Victorian stamp with a missing check letter, so it is possible. I do not recall this as being a recognized variety though.

Except for some trial or experimental engraving of the corner check letters, they were added to the printing plate by using a punch. There is a tremendous variety of errors in the check letters.

That would be the first imperforate penny red, position B-A, where the lower right A is missing. It occurs on plate #77.

Just to re-point out what rohumpy mentioned, it is the printing plate that is punched, not each individual stamp. The alphabets (fonts) used on each of the plates, damage, and re-entries/repairs are well-documented, even by each individual position of each plate. Not only that, in the early 2-corner letter issues, even the changes in the rays of the top corner ornaments are well-documented (used to help ID the actual printing plate). One good thing about the British -- they did a good job of documented changes to the plate during the printing run.

Even if the stamp shown is genuinely missing the "B", which I doubt, the advanced color loss on the right side would mean no expert would ever certify it.

Below is a souvenir from the 1960 London International Stamp Exhibition. The top left stamp is a reproduction of the imperforate penny red with missing "A" in the lower right corner.

Khj,Is this a genuine souvenir miniature sheet?I guess all of them must be world rarities.Does the top left stamp with missing "A" in the lower right corner is really existance on penny red stamp?How about penny black,two pence blue,three half pence red and half penny red stamp?Any missing character on this issue?

What I showed was a cinderella printed by Harrison for the 1960 London International Stamp Exhibition. The stamps are reproductions, and the souvenir has no postal validity. It has been the tradition over the years to produce a souvenir sheet showing various known stamp rarities at the London exhibition. Some of them are quite breath-taking.

The penny red with the missing "A" is known as the "B blank" error. It occurs ONLY on plate #77, and was not noticed by the printer until 9 months after the plate was registered. The "A" was then added, and the new plate is known as #77b. The actual stamp was not discovered by collectors until 50 years later. It is quite rare. I don't know how many have been found, but I believe there are only 2 known examples that are still on cover. I don't collect covers, but I do collect scans! Below is the only cover that is still privately owned.

Interestingly, the B-A position from the corrected plate #77b also has a significant premium (but it MUST be from plate #77b). It is nowhere close to being as rare as the "B blank", but the nostalgia value keeps the price in the US$100s of dollars range!

Regarding the 3 halfpence stamp, the only known lettering error for that issue is the "OP-PC" error in which and O was punched into the plate instead of a C. Because this error was not discovered by the printer, it was never corrected. Therefore ALL stamps of that position from plate #1 have that error.

Regarding missing letter errors, the "B blank" is the only one that I am aware of. There are numerous punching flaws/inverts... for the penny black/red and 2 penny blue. But I know of no other missing letter error. I only recently started specializing in GB (about 5 years ago) and I have not gone through the SG GB Specialised Volume 1 in that great of a detail. I'm sure Rohumpy and the others will chime in if there is another that has been documented.

I just noticed that WpgLwr mentioned the underinking/fading possibility before I did. I have edited my original post to credit him with that observation. Sorry for not seeing that earlier.