Does anyone know why the centre of this stamp has a dark background? All my other copies of this issue are red and the numeral is on a plain white background. So was there a bicolour issue?
I don't think there was a bicolor issue. All the Dutch "numeral" stamps I have seen from this period are quite clean looking. Even the overprints are remarkable for their crisp look. If the muddied center of this stamp wasn't purposefully done after printing, then the only thing I can imagine to explain the center would be the type of mounting used long ago.
I vote for a later doodle. It certainly has the typical purple color of the indelible pencils of that era - or in this scan, from a blunt Hectograph pencil, which is a nice purple despite how the scan may look here.
But what a strange thing to do - doodle in indelible pencil in the centre area of the stamp. Being such a small area, this would have to have been done under magnification too.
It looks like there is a very fine white line between the grey and the cancel ink: suggests it was applied after cancellation but repelled by the ink. Or very very careful doodling under a microscope! Or maybe a Mach band illusion.
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Posted 08/05/2015 12:02 am
