Show Us Your Colour Changelings!

This stamp, from Australia, was only issued in scarlet (1950) and chocolate (1951). I've no idea how this copy ended up looking like this, but I can only assume that some pretty heavy duty chemicals were involved in the transformation:



Does anyone else have any colour changelings they'd like to show off???

Used Edward vii 1/- values often look like the left stamp but are actually supposed to look like the right one. This is also true of the Victoria 1/- value.

I'm not totally convinced this one is a changeling mostly because I have tried to duplicate the effect without success. It is suppose to be on blue paper. there is no mention in Scott of a white paper variety or error.


I soaked this with a batch of Americana stamps, sorted them and mistakenly put it in the pile with the 13c liberty bell issues.

There is absolutely no trace of blue in the paper. I don't own a UV light so I can't check it in that regard.

Hi jimjamtwo,

It is likely to be the chocolate KGVl, described in SG as purple brown, SG237c 14 Oct 1951. Purple dyes and pigments are extremely fugitive and fade fast on prolonged exposure to light. The Scarlet SG234 is more likely to have faded to a pale pink tone.

Terry

I've got this one that is a partial.

Thanks for the information, Terence!

scotzm, I have one of those too (albeit somewhat paler). I wrote to someone knowledgeable about British stamps about it, but he dismissed it as of no importance.

spain_1850, It looks to me like it must be an error. I don't think it would be possible to change blue paper to white without producing a very uneven result. Have you looked at the stamp under UV? This often provides information about what has happened to damaged stamps.

jimjam - No, I don't own a UV light. Always been on my shopping list but never seem to get around to getting one. I also don't think you would be able to remove the blue color of the paper without doing something to the printed image as well. If it is an error, I would think there would have been others show up at some time. Most people I've shown it to just dismiss it as a changeling of either chemical origin or sun fading. Kind of just waiting to see if another one pops up somewhere at sometime. Until then it'll probably just be a curiosity.

That US 28 cent stamp has probably had a
bath in some bleach.

I always thought this one was a different variety ... A changeling it is.

Well, it definitely looks a different colour to me. It could just be a side effect of the toning, but I doubt it.

Another color changeling from France. Probably exposed to sunlight ...

This Canadian KGV arch SC#166 is supposed to be brown.

This squirrel should be brown.
Maybe it goes green in the summer?

Poland Sc184, 20 Mk. value, issued for Polish Upper Silesia in 1922
This is what it should look like, two shades violet & dark violet




And this is the colour changeling


There is no mention of a different colour for the 20 Mk in any of the literature including THE Upper Silesia reference "Handbuch von Abstimmungsgebiet Oberschlesien" so I assume a changeling although how you get a decent red out of violet I don't know. There is another value in the set printed in red but this is quite different

Here is a couple I have in the back of my album. I thought they was interesting enough to keep.