Help With A French Stamp - 1974

Hi everyone. I would appreciate if you could help me with this french stamp from 1974, probably a Mi 1891/Sc 1405. From my point of view there's a comma missing in the value, instead of 2,00, there is a 200. Does any catalogue say something about it? Comments welcome.

Difficult to tell from your scan, but I think I see some ink from the cancel on the 2 and the first 0. Have you looked at it under magnification? perhaps postmark ink is masking the comma?

You seem to be correct that a comma is in order
but I would agree with jamesw that there is ink on the neck of the 2 and bottom of the first 0

Comma or not comma ?

Thanks for the comments. Here is the scan enlarged. it doesn't seem the ink from the cancel. It's like the comma was overprinted. there are some lines crossing over the comma and the colors seem to match.

At first glance, Jose's enlarged image seems to show an engraving "repair" in the area of the comma. But why would that be done when it makes the comma virtually invisible?

That said, the first "0" seems to have a piece of cancel at bottom right, lending evidence to the missing comma hiding underneath part of the cancel.

It is a used stamp, all bets are off. Could be a scrap covered by a cancel, could be a kid with a pencil, could be all kinds of post-production things.

For someone to make the claim that it an error, they typically would need to verify with the existence of mint copies.
Don

Agreed.

Again thanks for the comments. That's why I've asked for help. I was wondering if there was something documented. I would love to find a printing error but first it's important to doubt.

Just over the spot where there should be a comma or at least a dot (in the poorer examples) you have cross hatching lines.You also have traces of ink in the numerals '2' & '0'.The traces of ink all have the same color.There can be two explanations.
1) The original matrice was retouched for some reason.(error in the retouch and subsequent cross hatching that obscured the comma.Very curious if it was done).
2) Some clever penny trickster added some cross hatching and spots on the '2' & '0'.Same ink used for the cancel;so the cancel is bogus also.

In any event you would have to find another one with the same flaws before cosidering constant flaw varieties.

Thanks, Perf12. It's true, I guess I'll have to find other ones with flaws to compare. Hope someone else have one of these. Anyway for those who can wait 30 years or more, this stamp is a great investment. Buy it now before it gets pricey.... Just kidding.

There is no mention of this possible error in the French catalogue Maury (Maury 1810).
My example has a very clear comma,the cancel is well away from this area with no apparent splatter elsewhere on the stamp.



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