Canada Official O262 - Damage Or Error?

I was reading through another unrelated thread, Centennial Issue, and noticed some scans of ink smudges made during printing. This reminded me of another stamp, purchased recently.

First, I will state that this stamp was purchased on the assumption that it was damaged, quite badly, by a paper crease, and I paid less than a dollar for it because I wanted to include it in some work I am doing with Canadian Official Perfins. In the ebay photo, the presumed crease was very visible with no other significant problems, so it was mine. Since receiving it, I haven't really examined the stamp carefully.

Here are the first scans, Front and Back, so you can see the entire
stamp.






First hint that something odd is going on is that there is absolutely no physical sign of a crease. No visible rippling in the paper, no tactile indication of a fold. I shrugged and thought that someone has put a lot of effort into ironing out a crease and that I have never, ever, seen that good a job before.

Now, close up, with magnification. I just did this today and still could find no physical evidence, other than appearance, that the stamp had been creased. Further, the ink in the area looks "smeared" even though I cannot see any paper damage. Ink extends even outside the design area. It resembles very closely the smudges shown in photos in that Centennial issue thread.







Finally, the back in this area still shows no rippling of the paper and perfs still retain fibers and, in one spot, a perf remnant in the margin which seems to preclude any massive manipulation as in a repair.




Until I know better, I am still going to call this a "damaged" stamp rather than a printing error, but I really would like opinions from members. Also any suggestions as to what I could check further to identify what I have.

Does the paper looks scratched instead of creased ? There seems to be some bleeding of the words "postes" and "Canada".

Coriandre... Doesn't appear to be a crease, because there is no indication of that on the back of the stamp...I would say it is scratches.

I did use higher magnification to look at the paper itself but, unfortunately, this is the best I can do on a scan. The ink itself seems to be smeared or smudged slightly as if somethings had been dragged down the paper surface very soon after the sheet had gone through the presses and before the ink on the sheet was completely dry. There is no sign of paper damage.

I am still at a loss to know what this "damage" actually represents.

I am no expert backroads...It could be as simple as this stamp was on the top sheet of many sheets removed be the printer of some sort of removal machine that damaged the top sheet only and that MAY be what we are seeing.

Maybe it has been rubbed (without scratching) during the delivery process.

Could that be possible?

Look at the stamps in this link. Could it be something similar ?
http://www.saskatoonstamp.com/catal...dge+or+Smear