Need Help Confirming An ID Of Russia 59

Decided to tackle a page of classic Russia stamps in an album I'm stripping to finance my hobby. Most were the cv .20 cent variety till I came across this one. Still doubting my chops, so thought I should see what others thought about it. It is vertically laid paper. Has wmk 168 and am I mistaken, is part of the background printing missing? Could this be 59a? I see some printing there, but shouldn't there be distinct dots? were they applied in a separate run or is this just poorly inked?
Thanks
Greg

It looks just poorly inked.

Thank you.

Greg, if you have a look at the bottom left number 7, you will see the background at the top right of the vignette. It's offset a little but it's there alright. Just a faint printing.

What Catalogue are you employing?
I have it as Sc#50 1889

it's an old 2005 copy. per that edition, 50 is on horizontally laid paper and this is on vertical. What is confusing as well is Scott makes no mention of a wmk, this has 168, Looking around on the net I see it's correct to have this wmk. Scott just doesn't mention it. BTW the shadow of the background visible in the scan is impossible for my eye to detect when it's in front of me even with a loupe I couldn't see it. The scanner's software bumps the contrast I think.

Incorrect. Scott ID this as Wmk 168, you have to follow the advice down from the 1883 stamps.





Then this is Sc#59 (1902) vert laid, CV35c groundwork omitted $300, groundwork inverted $800, imperf $375

Yes, they were printed in a two pass run, the groundwork, and the horizontal lines in the oval, printed separately.
One oft sees the lines perfect on the LHS and outside the oval on the right. (Registration)

The groundwork colour appears to be light damaged / affected.