Are There Difference Between These Two Strips Of Stamps ?

Opening these two strips USPS packed Pack.. to me looked
light and dark ink. Thought take simultaneous scan sisde by side and compare. Also one of toher strip looks like ink smudge too..
I was popstponing scanning... than thought lest I forget made
note and scanned all strips with documenting image numbers in folder.
Side by side Image....


Ink Smudege....



Row3C2 ,R4C2 ,R5C2 ,R6C2... I see spread of ink direction looks
from bottom to upward...

Second strip Ink Smudge..



R4C2, R5C2,R6C2 in this strip there is significant ink spread,
what do you think..

tikithindi

It's hard to tell from a scan whether or not the ink smudge is a fault of the printing process or if it occurred after the fact.

As far as the color variations are concerned, the Scott Specialized Catalog shows that there are three color varieties for that stamp issue:

Scott 2171 = blue violet (large block tagging)
Scott 2171a = grayish violet (untagged)
Scott 2171b = deep grayish blue (untagged)

No value change, though, regardless of which variety is identified.

Hi wt1,

The strips which I scanned were purchased from Philatelic Center
at Union Station in DC. and were Packaged in Cardboard as shown in the scan bellow as individual under thin Poly plastics. To day
I was opening those. First I notice different in darkness of ink,
than seeing other these two I found were with ink smudge. So I
posted here. these were absolutely dry. I did open about more than
50 of these packages, as I am putting them in to stock sheet, or
glassine page books for further arrangements.





Packages like this..

tikithindi

The color variation looks like the press operator was not paying attention, not checking the density after each set and not adjusting the ink in the reservoir to maintain the correct color.

The smudges look like on-press ink drags where a particle of ink gets caught under the doctor blade and, again, the operator was not paying attention.

Donald

Thanks dlambert1 for the explanation appreciate,learned something
regarding printing process.

tikithindi

Glad I could help, Tikithindi. I spent 32 years in the paper coating and printing industry and had ten gravure presses, with 3-8 ink stations per press, plus two pressure-sensitive paper coaters (like for self-adhesive stamps) and one silicone release paper coater (like the backing sheet for self-adhesive stamps), five slitters, one sheet cutter and one gummer plus an ink preparation room and other equipment for other business, so I have had some exposure.

My company also printed, and still prints, postage stamps, but my involvement was only tangential.

Regards...
Donald

Very Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Hi Donald,

This is why Like love this site (Forum) experienced people
explanation make learning easy. Appreciate.

Cheers
tikikithindi