Major Design Error On Titanic Uncut Press Sheet

Someone fell asleep at the calculator- If the full sheet has 3 errors plus extras wouldn't logical math dictate the sheet be worth more than 3 seperate errors? Maybe it will be adjusted in 2014 . As with first year of OX press sheet having issues it spiked quite high and I believe 15000 were done. Guess this is another tube to sit in the pile for now.
Whats a fair price for framing - I see Michaels always has 50% off sales and I have a local artist gallery ( Ron Suchiu) that does framing but just never got around to having stamps or artwork custom framed.

This is an UNCUT PRESS SHEET, which means that the printer pulls them out before sending them to the cutter. If that is the case 3 in every 12 souvenir sheets should have this error. But that is NOT the case. Only the uncut press sheet has it, which means the press sheet MUST be a deliberate special printing and there must have existed press sheets without the error.
OR
somebody at the printers sat at the end of the line removing all the souvenir sheet errors!

As suggested by "sak", there were two versions of the Titanic uncut press sheet ... the 'philatelic' version (with the error) and the 'production' version as used to prepare the individual souvenir sheets.

Not the first time Canada Post has sold an uncut press sheet that was made up specifically for collectors.

Now that is interesting to me - that there may be two versions of a printing. You mention that it was not the first time, studystamps. Would you suggest other examples, please?

I don't think there are two printings. This is what Canada Post said on their Facebook page on 15 May 2012:

If you purchased a Titanic uncut press sheet, you may have noticed that the bottom left hand corners of three souvenir sheets (the three on the top right hand of the uncut sheet) are missing the colour dots/stars that identify the ink colours on the stamp. This is a computer error that occurred when the files were prepared and not a printing error. The missing dots are only on the uncut press sheets that contain 12 souvenir sheets. Since this is a limited edition uncut press sheet, with 5,000 printed, in total 15,000 souvenir sheets are without the dots. While we strive for perfection in the development of our stamp products, it's a complicated process and things do happen from time to time.

Si vous avez acheté une feuille non coupée du Titanic, vous avez sans doute remarqué que, sur le coin en bas à la gauche de 3 des blocs-feuillets (les 3 qui sont situés dans le coin supérieur droit de la feuille non coupée) qu'il manque des points de couleur ou étoiles qui identifient les couleurs d'encre sur les le timbre. Il s'agit d'une erreur informatique qui a eu lieu lorsque les dossiers ont été préparés et non une erreur d'impression. Les points manquants ne sont que sur les planches non coupées qui contiennent 12 blocs-feuillets. Comme il s'agit d'une planche non coupée à tirage limité, seulement 5.000 imprimés, au total 15.000 blocs-feuillets sont sans les points. Alors que nous nous efforçons pour la perfection dans le développement de nos produits philatéliques, c'est un processus compliqué et il y a des choses qui se passent de temps en temps.

Before anyone cries total foul although its possible, it is not uncommon for a printer to do a specified run and of 25000 then do the exact same for 10,000 with new plates pf course just days later. We used to run comic books first run of 5000 copies then a week later do a second for more or less. It all depends on demand and CP could just as easily run another 10,000 if they needed them. Also depending on how much of the process is done on the main press the regular SS could have been set way differently then just the full press sheets. For the computer design to be off it still had to be plated then ran so I am sure it was a full second or first run.

Re: Titanic

If you compare a single souvenir sheet sold at any post office to the 'same' souvenir sheet seen on the uncut press sheet sold by Canada Post you will see a subtle printing difference along the top of the pane ... clearly there was a 'philatelic' uncut press sheet (qty. 5,000) vs. a production-run press sheet used to print the 300,000 souvenir sheets sold singly.

I suspect the production-run press sheet had 20 souvenir sheets per sheet (compared to only 12 on the 'philatelic' version).

The July-August 2012 Corgi Times (page 7) illustrated and discussed a corner fold error found on a Titanic souvenir sheet. The additional printing markings seen on the corner fold are not present on the 'philatelic' uncut press sheet. More evidence that Canada Post is specifically producing collector-oriented uncut press sheets that are different from the regular production-run press sheets.

Re: Other 'philatelic' uncut press sheets

I would suggest that most (perhaps every?) Lunar New Year uncut press sheets had a different, 'philatelic' version.

Certainly the following souvenir sheets (issued with a tab containing a UPC barcode) had a different press sheet compared to the 'philatelic' version sold to collectors (where there are no UPC barcodes present):

* 2003 Year of the Ram
* 2004 Year of the Monkey
* 2005 Year of the Rooster

Thanks. Most enlightening. I notice that the advertisement for the uncut press sheet that appears on the back of the international booklet has the sheet with the three missing dots.
I would suppose, studystamps, that the printer would want to maximize the number of sheets on a pane for a regular production run. (Think of all the wasted scrap paper. Same with the New Year sheets)
But, in my humble opinion, it seems a little fake to offer a "press sheet" that isn't really a sheet off the press, but another designed product. It's hard to explain. A tete-beche or a "gutter product" or an uncut coil sheet seem like natural (albeit special) items that one would find in the press room by the grace of the printer. The Titanic sheet is then a deliberately created product.
Lastly, it is an infuriating product for, although it is beautiful and very interesting, it cannot be properly displayed or presented as a collectable. There have been 37 press sheets. One would need an art gallery to do justice to them. So they sit in an ever-increasing stack in the corner. Heaven forbid that one is taken out of its tube and protective tissue paper, and unfurled for a brief moment, risking tears or stains. I tried to have the New Year sheets framed. It began to cost a lot of money and the wife would not agree to hang them after a while. Quite frustrating!

Have to agree with sak in regards to what can you really do with them. That said I have about 15 that sit in their tubes. I finally got a year of the OX (first series) that had some damage and when I tried fixing the damage it made it worse. That is the only one I'm missing from that first lunar series. The snowbirds signed seems to have great value although I have no idea what it catalogs for now. I swore I wasn't going to buy any others and when studystamps broke the news on the Titanic I jumped and bought 2.
I'm sure the CAN POST printers run a pretty tight ship as far as items going out the back door or even ending up in an accesable dumpster but it is far from uncommon to get material out of the shops. When I was a printer we did a run of OHL hockey cards (Ontario Hockel League) when Eric Lindros was slatted to be the next phenom in hockey and I still have a few dozen uncut sheets from back then in the attic. Had he lived up to the hype I would have been sittin on a gold mine.

RE: Titanic souvenir sheet/uncut press sheet...

I believe there are two different press runs - going from outlet to outlet, I noticed that the cutting of the single sheets could be higher - showing more of the latitude/longitude numbers (this is not possible on the numbers on the uncut press sheet.
The rarest item is an uncut gutter pair that is horizontal - left one with stoplights and right one without stoplights.

(I just joined today)

Welcome Stampsource,

Welcome stampsource - I like the name that maybe means after 50 post we will have a new "stampsource".
Studystamps- With no upc bar code on the 2003-4-5 lunar press sheets would that mean those were actual regular press sheets from the main SS run? I'm not going to dig mine out but curious if there are any noteable differences between those and the others issues with UPC especially in the margins. I recal many of the full sheets we used to print only had basic crosshair registration marks not the full color spectrum you see now on the edges.