Indochine Weird Cancel? Or Just Damage?

Hello all Stampmasters,

Have you ever come across a stamp like this?
As you can see in the picture it seems to have an even grid where the ink seems to have somehow been taken off...

Is that a kind of cancellation?

Or just damage?

Looks like the grillé pattern from the paper coming through the design in some way.

Hello'
I think that is a different discoloring.
These stamps with 15c denomination were printed on paper type "batonne"

I refer that to "Quadrille" Paper.

The reason your stamp appears so, LV, is that the design was made with an oily varnish, which appears to have been soaked off.
That creates a puzzle for me, was the design printed on the varnish?
I need a France specialist.



Comments made on my enquiry in 2003........

I was wrong the paper type is quadrille but the stamp type is Groupe no Sage.

The Quadrille printing was an oily varnish applied on the front of the sheet before the stamp was printed .The squares measure 2.6mm.The Quadrille is found on the 15c stamps from 1891 - 4 Dec. 1900.
It looks like by aging and other factors the varnish discolored the surface ink.
In certain printings for France & colonies the paper was very lightly tinted.
Just a theory; perhaps the varnish was not dry and the sheet was printed upon creating a
chemical change in the suface ink over time.
There were over 14 billion 15c stamps printed.Of course many types are found in the course of it's 22 year lifespan.
Nice example from Djibouti:
https://goscf.com/t/13125

Thanks for all the info!

Very interesting appearance, haven't seen that before on any of my quadrille 15c from the colonies.