All Hawaii Scott #75 and #81 stamps were produced from a single plate.
The siderographer had significant problems placing the transfer roll at the correct position on the plate for each entry. Specialists of the issue believe the problems resulted from the plate being too thick, reducing the spacing between the transfer roll and the plate, thereby reducing the siderographer's visibility of the layout lines or position dots.
The siderographer frequently had to reposition the transfer roll after starting an entry at a given position then realizing the entry was out of alignment. At some positions, four, or even five, total entries were made.
Many of the "error transfers," as I like to call them, were a significant distance from the final entries. I use the term error transfers to differentiate from the terms "shifted transfers" or "double transfers," which usually result from the transfer roll shifting during entry, or being over-rocked into a previously-entered position.
Most Hawaii #75s can be easily "plated" to a specific sheet position using error transfers, double transfers, position dots, and plate damage or corrosion as clues.
The position dots normally are in the middle of the W of HAWAII, but for bottom-row positions on each pane, they appear below the bottom of the impression.
The stamps were printed from plates of 200 subjects, divided into four 5 by 10 quadrants (50-stamp panes) with gutters in between.
These error transfers can be a lot of fun to collect and study. They are also common and affordable.
Below is the full design, with some close-up examples of error transfers. The first two positions of the sheet position designation refer to the pane (ex. lower left), the next portion is the position on the pane, and the third is the plate state (1 for early and 2 for late):
Position LL42-1 full stamp:
Position LL42-1 closeup. The extra diagonal line in the W is from the right side of the second A in HAWAII. The arc in the I is from the ornament at upper right!
LR1-1
LL2-1
LL39-1
LR14-1
LR23-1
Posted 10/10/2021 6:36 pm
