Booklet Collecting

My collecting interest are commemorative stamp booklets and especially the varieties in their cover designs. To explain, below are pictures of two well known examples.

Finland 1992 Remarkable Women has a scarce narrow booklet variation, where stamp pane has been cut short and when the booklet is folded in the middle, cover image fits just and just to the space that is left.
It is unknown why the narrow variation was manufactured. In the back cover of the booklet can be found the exact measures of the booklet in millimeters, and the narrow variation does not fit the description.
Possibly the narrow batch was an error?



France 1970 Red Cross booklet has two variations of the Croix Rouge text. Below is the more scarce 27 mm wide cover text. It would be interesting know why the font was changed. Most of the booklets of this type have 32 mm wide Croix Rouge text.


Is there more examples of accidents or variations like this in commemorative booklets of the world? I leave definitive and vending machine booklets out of my collection because all sorts of cover variations are so commonplace in them.

Welcome collector

Interesting booklets you have scanned.

I collect Canadian, German and Belgian booklets and find some of those quite interesting too.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Thank you.

Any variations or oddities in your booklet collecting area? Many times variations, that are not connected to different perforations etc in stamps, are left out from general catalogues.

Interesting information but what is the value of the errors compared to the normal booklet?

Very interesting.

Probably only to specialist collectors of booklets, and there are a few of them about, lurking in the shruberies.

Below are pictures of the more common France 1970 Red Cross booklet which has wider and bolder font in Rouge Croix text. Variation with narrow text can fetch around 4 times higher price in egay than the common version. I think the Yvert price for the narrow text is 90 Euros.



Finland 1992 Remarkable Women normal and narrow variations. Peculiarly, exact measurements of the booklet covers in millimeters are printed on the back of the booklet. The normal version has exactly the same width. There is no logical reason why the print would have produced the narrow variation as it does not match the announced measurements so it must be an error.
Narrow variation has sold in the region of 4 times the price of the normal booklet.




There seems to be collectors, like myself, who are interested in the appearance of the booklets as well, not just stamps inside them.

Thank you for letting me know the price but what is the reasoning for the narrow spacing? Was it different printers or a mistake at a printer? I am now curious about these two error booklets so sorry about all my questions.

Valid questions. And my answers are just guesses.

It would be possible that French postal administration did for a start two printings of the 1970 booklet. Narrow and bold texts might have been then compared and decided to print the majority of the booklets with bold text. So, it would be a design experiment.

Finland 1992 booklet's narrow variation seems to be an error by the printers adjusting machinery. This conclusion can be done on the basis that the narrow booklet covers do not match the measures announced in the back cover of the booklet. Wider version is an exact match for the measurements. Also, when the booklet was folded in the middle, the rim of the hat in the cover picture hardly fits into the space.

It would be interesting to know are the other similar experiments or errors in other countries booklets.

We have done it sometimes but it says on the stamps "For Testing Purposes Only". Guesses are the beginnings of learning the truth behind errors or printing methods like this so if you find out any more about other booklets like these please show me as I would love to know about them.