Pakistan Error Rerun

OK. Now it's obvious I'm a newbie! Perhaps the quirks are worked out now but here's the question again. Can anyone supply details on this doubled printing error from Pakistan that I ran across in some kiloware? In the limited array of reference material available to me, I can find no mention of what looks to be a fairly interesting item in my "Whatsit?" file.

backroads,
it would be preferable to keep all relevant posts
under the same thread, otherwise we shall end up with
thousands threads with similar pertinence,

Other than that a great find!
looks really interesting and cancelled to boot.

Point well taken, Rod222. It's a learning curve and I appreciate suggestions. Never make the same mistake twice, just dream up new ones.

Peter

It looks like an offset. That is, ink transferred from one stamp to another when it was piled on top of another, however momentarily.

Very nice. Probably not listed as a constant variety. You would have to look in an oddities type of catalogue for it most likely.

Sought after by some collectors, any errors, freaks or oddities.

Puzzler - Isn't an offset ussually found on the gummed side of the stamp, and usually, though not always, under the gum? I thought this was normally an error occuring when the stamps were piled face to back, not as this one would have to have been, face to face. Good suggestion though and I shall have to see whether magnification tells me the impression is overprinting the face and frame lines or is the first thing on the sheet.

I said that because I have seen, on a 2010 Canada marine life booklet (see pictures in the thread on SCF here: https://goscf.com/t/8204&whichpage=21#93089 ), a reverse offset on the front as well as a true offset on the back.

I am not sure what causes the reverse offset or any offset on the front. Over inking of the plates or rollers (?) or certain types of ink more prone to have certain properties than others? I would like to know but I think a printer would have to chime in and tell us.

I am beginning to lose resolution, but it does look as if the ghost is under the stamp image and its frame. There is definitely less precision in the ghost which would imply that it is an offset. Not sure but if the black on the portait (glasses, hairlines, frame, etc.) was done on a second run through the presses, then the gray underlying could still have been printed over the woman's portrait. If so, it's a true printing error, not an offset. HELP!!

As good as the members are here,
I would be seeking out specialist Pakistani
collectors.
Looks very interesting.

If the stamp was unused, I would have dismissed it as printer's waste. As it seems to have passed through the mails, could it have been an unauthorised leakage from the printer?

I agree with Rod, though. Best to ask a Pakistan expert. You might try A.I. Siddiqi, http://www.pakistanphilately.com/main.htm who publishes an online catalogue for Pakistan. (It doesn't mention this stamp, though; I looked.)

I have done as you suggested and used the website (thanks for the address) to forward the question to a couple of people. When I hear back, I shall post the results here.

Right-side Up, note the word Pioneers (multiple)


Original upside-down


The other impressions are of the other stamps on the sheetlet, all printed together as a set on a sheet of stamps. None of the impressions are even the same guy, one is a woman. None have a bow tie on. Very collectible by one who specializes in this set or in errors. Just describe it correctly.

Originally in the previous post I started to say that the images were reversed. But then I got thinking and went looking online.

This is the 1990 sheetlet with the first stamp on it middle right.


Then the upper left characters and our guy again.


You can see that our guy has had a transfer of ink from another sheet onto him, just slid sideways and down a bit. Very cool.

You didn't need a Pakistani expert, you needed an offset expert. (apprentice in training).

Nice work Puzzler!

A couple of points to ponder while we await the Pakistani expert reply.

In a simple offset (ink transferred from one stamp to another stamp), the transferred image will be a mirror image regardless of whether the offset appears on the front side or the back side. In the used EFO, the "other" image(s) is not a mirror image, but merely rotated 180 degrees.

The only way you can get the SAME (not mirror) image is by transferring the original image to an intermediary and then from that intermediary to another stamp. As an example for US stamps, that's how tagging ghosts are formed, where the moist tagging mat serves as the intermediary. And then to have the stamp sheet put in upside-down during that second transfer, is truly an added bonus!

I don't know the print order/process for the stamp, but the simplest way to get an identical (but upside-down) image is for the printer to accidentally feed the pane through the press a 2nd time in the wrong orientation for that color. That would be considered a true "error" and would have a real good premium.

It should be really really interesting what the Pakistani expert says...

In any case, GREAT FIND!

k

I did receive a reply, from two individuals, including the author of the on-line catalogue referred to by tonymaq. Did not get any new information to add to what members have already given me except that it is an error and it is not listed. One comment from a reply did say that errors, not as dramatic as this, but printing errors just the same were quite common in Pakistani stamps. There is no way of ever knowing if this was let into the Postal System accidentally or deliberately, but if it were deliberate and if it were used deliberately to obtain a postmark, I do wonder why it ended up in kiloware. And are there 8 other stamps from the sheet floating around out there - somewhere? Intriguing thought but I am not sure where to go from here to find out. Thanks to everyone for the information.