Scott #648 - Different Types...?

Hi guys ...I was looking at one of my Scott #648 stamps and compared it to another Scott #648...I noticed that some parts of the stamp where the YELLOW arrows point are filled in as compared to the stamp on the left..And not filled in where the RED arrow points to...Has anyone got another to check to see if it is something not to worry about..?

Wert. Be Worried. Be Very Worried!

Actually, an interesting stamp. I have (3) copies, and all (3) have different shading in the areas that you noted. Per Unitrade, the colors are supposed to be Violet, Red and Blue. I'm assuming that it is a light blue at the bottom, so I guess the problems are with the Violet.

All of my copies are used. The first one seems normal. The second one is a very light "Ghost Print", type 648ii. I can't quite figure out whether the third is normal or an even lighter Ghost Print.

The First Stamp is actually the most puzzling. It has violet markings in the various areas that you noted, but I have included a Face Shot that shows two distinctive shades of violet in several areas. My other two stamps have only one shade of violet in this area.







The second stamp is most like a 648ii, but also has the violet spots in the areas you noted. (Damaged bottom left ... bummer.) Slightly different than the first stamp, though.





The third stamp is a little odd. It doesn't have ANY of the small violet areas filled in.





Here is the Face Shot on the last stamp. Notice that it is all one uniform color ... not two different shades of violet as in the first stamp.

I have some the same as the above, some that have other areas shaded or not shaded and some that have only one-half of the arm shaded, but none that are completely unshaded. Perhaps the apparent blue ink spill has covered Partime's violet shading.

WOW. This blows my mind that they are still making this big a goof ups still in 1974. I have a glassine of these bad boys that have at least 40+ so after I get all my recent buys bagged and tagged I'll have to add this to my todo list. Super cool find everyone.

It is all in the violet. The recesses are not always completely inked, sometimes just giving the idea of a shadow! Or another shade of violet...

This type of recess can be seen in most of the Machin Castles of the UK! And also in the King Baldwin stamps of Belgium [design Elstrom]. It is possibly also a combination of recess and highly coated paper!

This seems very similar to the "pale face" error that I have seen many times online for this stamp, although it is not listed in Unitrade. See the recent ebay auction [url"http://www.ebay.com/itm/400208540746"]400208540746[/url] from "Canada Stamps" for an example. Here is their image.

Scottamer...Welcome to the forum

And yes, you are correct.

Several areas are affected - see the yellow lines - and it all depends on the type of paper [coated!] used for this reel-fed recess [in combination with photogravure]... You cannot point any particular area where it will be found :)

Some lines lack a lot of ink! And make you think there is a second shade involved!

Yes Galeoptix...But on my stamp (s) there is obvious shading in certain areas...Dont know why some have some and others dont...

It is a feature of bad printing of these reel-fed presses on coated paper!

Probably the design was not engraved at all but just etched and not thoroughly ....

You can see this phenomenon also on the 1972 mid-values in recess + photogravure like the 15c Mountain sheep, where the mountain was at certain spots that bad that the printers had to add an extra photogravure cloud ...