Differences In Ireland Scott 1728

Hello all,
Here are three examples of Ireland's 55c Butterwort definitive stamp from 2007. Seemingly, they all catalog as Scott 1728, but there are differences between all three: printing method, height of the "5"s, and length of "Eire".



Stamp #1: This stamp is printed by lithography, the "5" is 2.35mm high, and "Eire" is 8.3mm wide
Stamp #2: This stamp is also printed by lithography, however, the "5" is 2.5mm high, and "Eire" is 8mm wide
Stamp #3: I believe this stamp is printed by photogravure. The edges of the lettering have that characteristic jagged look with photogravure. Lithography gives clean, sharp edges to the letters. The "5"s are 2.5mm high, and "Eire" is 8mm wide.

Is there another catalog that list other varieties of this stamp, Stanley Gibbons, perhaps? Any and all responses will be greatly appreciated.
Regards, Robert

In Michel there are only two varieties for this self-adhesive 55c stamp:

#1763 BA - diecut 11 1/4 (from booklet)
#1763 BC - diecut 12 3/4 (from coil)

Likely the specialized Hibernian catalog of Irish stamps would provide much more details.

Thanks, scb.
Michel and Scott agree there are only two listable varieties for this stamp, based on their die cuts. I didn't measure the die cuts precisely, but I'm pretty sure they are 11 1/4 (Scott says 11x11 1/4).
Robert

They look visibly very much like an Australian production die cuts,
I think Australia did some work for Ireland.
Perhaps Premara
Nothing against Scott ot Michel, but you may need an SG specialised Cat.

If you scanned each individual stamp at higher res I could cut and toggle
to see diff, but your scans are too poor for in depth study.

From wiki:

Since 1984, An Post has issued all Irish postage stamps. Most have been printed by Irish Security Stamp Printing Ltd., though a small number were printed by Harrison and Sons Ltd., (London), Questa, Walsall Security Printing, Prinset Pty Ltd., (Australia) and SNP Cambec (Sprintpak) (Australia).

Here are the stamps re-scanned at 1200 dpi.

Edit: Replaced image to remove Photobucket watermark.

Thanks.
The first immediate difference I can see from your scan
the middle and RHS stamp have that darkish colour paper border
around the vignette.
Obviously 2 different printers or techniques.
But the diecuts are of a similar forme.

Toggling, the diecut shape is identical in all 3
the two different printings are immediately different
in that the end "t" in "butterwort" end up in a different
postions in relation to the blossom.

Either the blossom image is larger or the type is bigger.
/ longer
Stanley Gibbons specialised should give you the printers of each,
or perhaps see if Irish post has a stamp bulletin that discloses
that info.

All three stamps have yellow-green phosphorescent tagging around the borders (also known as 4-bar tagging). The left stamp is minutely more green (or less yellow) and uniform than the center and right stamps.
Robert

Edit:
Yes, I see the difference in the lengths of the vertical inscription. On the left stamp it is almost 23mm long, on the center and right stamps it is almost 24mm long.

FYI
Pinguicula is a carnivorous plant :)

The shorter text issues are from Booklets.

Hmm...
The die cuts on all three stamps measure 11 x 11 1/4. According to Michel and Scott, those are the booklet stamps. The coil stamps are die cut 12 3/4.
Here are some more data: Stamp #1 (left stamp, shorter inscription) is 21x26mm, while stamps #2 & #3 (center and right stamps, longer inscription) are 20x25mm.
Robert

Here is something else to ponder. Stamps 2 & 3 seem to be printed by different methods. They are identical with respect to size, die cuts, vertical inscription length, size of "55" and "Eire"--even the tagging seems identical. But if you look at the sharpness of the lettering, there are differences:



I re-scanned stamps #2 & #3 at 2400 dpi, with one stamp over the other to get the inscriptions near each other. Stamp #2 (left) has sharp delineation of the numbers and letters, whereas stamp #3 (right) has a fuzzy appearance. Under magnification, the fuzziness is caused by the jaggedness of the edges of the letters and numerals. I believe this is the result of printing by photogravure.

Also, on stamp #2 the letters and numerals are gray, while stamp #3 is black.

I looked at back issues of An Post's The Collector, but the technical details for these self-adhesive issues were not provided.

Robert

Edit: Replaced stock Photobucket image with original image.

An Post's Collectors newsletter for Feb 2007 gives technical details for the original issues of the 55c stamp on page 3 (the 55c self-adhesive booklet and box were released on 20th April 2007):

http://www.irishstamps.ie/IrishStam...sIssue16.pdf

The most recent available issues of this stamp have a new printer:

http://www.irishstamps.ie/shop/p-94...ives-vi.aspx

If the colors on the computer can be trusted, the left stamp has a bluer shade of the violet than the right two stamps.

Although the original posts on this thread are now rather old, I thought that the following might be of interest.

With regards to the source of the 55c Butterwort self-adhesive stamps from the Ireland 6th Definitive series, the page below has images taken from 2 recent ebay auctions.

This shows that the length of the text on the right hand side of the stamp with the plant name, is not dependant on the stamp being either roll or booklet issue, but on who printed the stamp.

Thanks for the info. I still have the stamps set aside. Maybe it's time to look at them again.

Robert

Two printers involved for the coils, but who was responsible for the booklet??

The detailed scan do NOT show characteristics of photogravure! Problably all in offset-litho.

I did expect differences between traditionally screened offset-litho, fake stochastical screened and stochastical screened .... The latter two quite often met in Australian stamp products!

There are I think four printings. Tbere are three ...perf 11, 11.5 and 13. The printer is named on the paper around a mint stamp. The 4th is Ashton Potter which has no details at back of stamp