Wurttemberg Postal Stationery, 3 Kreuzer, Pinkish, Impression On Back?

Hi,

I found this Wurttemberg Postal Stationery cut square (on the left in the attached pictures), and thought it was kind of odd looking.

In pictures, I have the cut square in question, and what I think a normal one looks like.

In this first picture, you can see the "front" I guess? I say that because that's the side that has the cancel. I guess the printed words are a cancel too? I saw covers online that had those words across the corners but I don't know what it is/what it's for. I think it says "POST-COUVERT DREI KREUZER". The front seems to have a mirror impression (everything is reversed) of the right cut square, and has a faint pinkish tinge in the imprinted area.


In the second picture, you can see the other side in comparison to the front of the correct cut square. You can see the frame upraised, and the numeral "3" in the center is now correctly oriented and is upraised (I think how it should be). There does not seem to be any hint of color on this side.


Does anyone know what this is? Is it listed somewhere?
Thanks!

The printed text is not a cancel
"Post-couvert" means something like "postal envelope" and "drei (3) Kreuzer" is a price reminder

This item has come up before:
https://goscf.com/t/71436

Other German States also used this POST-COUVERT on their postal stationary reprints also . Hamburg issues .

Thanks for the responses!

I looked at the link. It says, "Your Wurttemberg item is a cutout from stationery and is a setoff. Here is what an entire envelope with the setoff looks like (not my image):"

I'm probably mistaken, but can someone explain more about it being a setoff? I thought a setoff just happened during printing process, when stamps sheets (or I suppose postal stationery in this case) was stacked on top of each other before the ink was fully dry. This results in a mirror image from the ink transference.

This would explain the faint pinkish mirror image on one side of the cut square, but what about the embossed parts (frame and numeral)? Those wouldn't be from setoff, right?

I guess I'm not sure how postal stationery is printed. Does the printing/embossing happen before or after the envelope is folded? If it happens after it is folded, maybe that could explain the colorless embossing? The embossing was strong enough to impress though the front of the envelope and and leave embossing on the back part of the envelope?

If all that's true, I guess that means it's not a cut square after all, with the ink being from a different envelope and the embossing being from the front of the envelope.

Thanks for the input!

The setoff on your stamp isn't of the stamp image itself, but the cancellation. Your stamp is an albino, with the embossing correctly applied to the original envelope but the ink was never applied. On the back side of the stamp is the printed words that say it's a reprint. On the back side is ink from the cancellation of a different envelope where yours was set on it before the ink was dry. That puts a portion of the ink for the other envelope on the back of yours, making it look like the cancel was applied to the back. When ink is transferred from one item to another in this way it's called a setoff. Your second image, with the hinge remnant, if of the front of the item showing embossing but no pink.