Does Anyone Know Of A Different Paper Variety For The #502 3c Ty.ii Perf 11?

I was just flipping through an old Precancel lot, when I saw this stamp. It is printed on very thick paper, with very little bend. There is a definite vertical pattern impressed in the paper; it's almost grooved. The gum is shiny. As you can see, the overprinting ink didn't take to the surface very well...

Scott 530 Type IV offset printing.

I don't see any joining of the PO...

There is separation at the PO, but irrespective of the variety: save for the Blue Paper issue this is one, weird paper stock!

The lower hair in the lock of two hairs to the right of Washington's ear is longer. This is a type IV (or type II) characteristic. While the image is too small, it contains enough detail to show clearly when viewed at 175% in the browser. Paper used printing offset stamps is often thicker or more porous than paper used to print engraved stamps. There is nothing unusual here, except perhaps the local precancel.

That is some ugly paper. I found a very heavily inked 525 that had much thicker paper than normal too though we didn't get into the paper thickness in that post. I had wondered whether the stamp itself was legit. I can't measure the thickness but giving it the flick test it's quite noticeable.

https://goscf.com/t/66705

Thanks, guys!! On mine, the Ty.II points are covered by the overprint. Another difference I found between the II and IV is the engraving of the pony tail: in the space, the top row of dots are elongated on the II-this stamp has stubby dots

Type III and type IV stamps are not engraved. The offset method was used to print the stamps from thin metal plates. The plates had a light sensitive coating that was etched after laying a negative of the sheet of stamps on the plate and exposing it to light. A large view camera would have been used to photograph an imperforate sheet of stamps on film to create a negative.

The stamp is a type IV offset printing, not an engraved type II. The word "engraving" does not apply to offset stamps. See the section "Distinguishing Offset Stamps" from Stamp Smarter:

http://stampsmarter.com/learning/Ma...methods.html