Strange Die-Cuts On Scott 3431 (Hattie Caraway)

While perusing my stamps, I ran across the 2001 Hattie Caraway issue (Scott 3431) in the Distinguished Americans series. This stamp is die-cut gauge 11. Caraway was also issued in 2000 die-cut gauge 11.5x11 (Scott 3432). I find it a bit interesting that Scott lists the 2000 Caraway after the 2001. I thought that they usually try to keep their catalogue numbers in some semblance of chronological order. But that is of no matter.



What grabbed my attention were the strange die-cuts on this stamp. It was issued during my hiatus (1992-2007) from collecting. Eventually I returned to the hobby and immediately commenced filling my 15-year hole. But, as a result, I am not too familiar with some of the stamps of that particular era and have few if any duplicates of those stamps. I do know that the die-cuts on my 3432 appear normal. Are these die-cuts as unusual as they seem to me? Or was this a fairly common occurrence at the time?
The long sloping die-cuts at the top of the stamp first caught my eye, but the sharp thorn-like die-cut in the bottom left corner seems even stranger. Will start looking for a "normal" copy and move this one to my "freaks" group.

John, I believe this resulted from the die cutting done a little too high


Peter

The vertical and horizontal die cutting are supposed to intersect at the midpoint of the long slope. So in this case the vertical and horizontal die cuts are misaligned. Either the horizontal is too high or the vertical is too low. I'd vote for the vertical being low as the stamp is well centered. Not sure how this happened as I thought that the vertical and horizontal die cutting was done all at once from the same die cutting mat. The pointed shape at the bottom is the complement to the long shape at the top.