Broken Oval Variety On U318 Envelope?

Hi!

Does anyone know if this is a variety or just a one-off freak due to any number of reasons?

Thank you.

There are numerous die varieties for this series of envelopes. The expert on these is Thomas Galloway who, hopefully, will comment.

The variety in the OP is a printing variety, and not a die variety.

The "break" in the outer ribbon line is a result of the die becoming filled (at that spot) and to the point of holding ink, which then acts like part of the design.

If you could see envelopes printed before the one in the OP, you would see a progression as the die filled up. If you could see the envelopes printed after the OP's, then you would see more and more area filled in until: (a) the crud that was filling the ribbon line popped free or (b) the operator cleaned the die, which would also remove the crud.

Thank you very much, Thomas.