Australian Freak: 1935 KGV Silver Jubilee 3-D Blue

This stamp completely freaks me out.

If you look at the image of the complete stamp below, you'll probably assume, as I did when I first saw the stamp, that the corner of a different stamp has been glued onto the corner of this one. It looks like a very crude effort has been made to repair a torn corner:



But this impression is completely false. There is no join. The surface of the stamp is one seamless whole. If you run your finger over the area where the join seems to be, there is not the least disturbance. In this area, the stamps feels as smooth as any other part of the stamp's surface.

How this could be possible, I have absolutely no idea.

If this is not how the stamp left the printer's office, it is a piece of philatelic illusionism worthy of an appearance on 'Fool Penn & Teller'!

Here's a detail for those who may be intrigued:



Explanations for this mystery are, of course, extremely welcome!

It has to be a smooth repair. No perforating device known to man could produce those overlapping perforations

Do you think, then, that if I soaked it, it would separate into two pieces?

I'd say so. Might take a fair bit of soaking if the repair was as smooth as all that, but it can only be a repair.

I have come across repairs that have fooled me and soaked the hinge off and the corner piece has come away.

Have found my hand held long wave UV light shows up repairs very quickly. So any expensive buys or finds get the UV treatment straight away.

Why would someone have gone to this much trouble? It is not even a good-appearing repair.

Yes!The over lapping perfs at the top look really strange!

Show us the back but I don't think it will pass the duck test.

I've soaked a few oldies that appered just fine only to have them fall apart and that was just with hinges for repair material.