1949 Strip Of 5 Kangaroos Showing Stages Of Offset

1949 strip of 5 half-penny kangaroos showing different stages of offset from bottom to top.

Hi Rob

Great images. Nice to see back of the strip.

The term "offset" am not totally use to this term at all so please excuse my ignorance.

Your strip is very impressive but I would call it progressive dry ink stages. Am I wrong?

John,
I believe the accepted terminology here on SCF is "set-off"
see
https://goscf.com/t/54848 br /

You can notice Rob's strip is front and back
not a further print of the strip.

Hi KGV Collector

OFFSET

In making the stamps, sheets of watermarked paper are printed between two rollers, somewhat like a huge mangle used on vintage washing machines. One roller contains the printing plate, made cylindrical, and fitted to its surface; the other steel roller is merely used to press the paper firmly against the inked surface of the plate.

The vertical stamps have what is known as a series of partial offsets. An offset is caused when a printing press is set into motion without any paper fed into it, then the impression of the stamps will be printed on to the pressure roller with wet ink, so both rollers are now printing plates, and the next sheet to go through them will receive a printing on both sides.

Offset


DRY INK

Dry inking is seen only on the front of the stamp, this may be caused by not enough ink added to the plate, or that the ink was not of the correct viscosity (thickness) and the doctor blade removed too much ink in the process.

Dry inking

Hi Rod




I believe the term "set-off" is American, "offset" is the preferred term in Australia. But the meaning behind both I believe is the same.

Thank you for the explanations have learnt something.

Thought that the ink had bled through the paper. Did not know of this type of offset at all. Printed on the back. I can remember seeing this and not knowing.

Off set or Set off, what I find is interesting is that the fugitive ink on the back EXACTLY matches the front image. That is to say that the heavy ink image of Roo's back is in the exact correct space to match the image from the front. Usually, a Off set or Set off would be off by a little vertical or horizontal, but this one is exactly in the right place. Probably good, but just a little odd as it almost looks like overinking seeping through the paper.

Nice find. I'd love one like that in my collection.

Hi Partime

Not all offsets are out of sequence, some are a mirror image from the front, which I will upload soon. Posted are four sets of stamps, the stamps on the left are over-inked in different stages, the stamps on the right are regular stamps. The first stamp at top right is extensively over-inked and how it affected the back, the bottom left stamp shows another type of over-inking which gave the stamp a green tint.

The 1951 green-tinted stamp was originally described as an experimental printing, but it is more likely a result of interrupted printing, the ink used for the first sheets once printing was resumed not being sufficiently thinned to be completely removed from the surface of the plate by the action of the wiper. The green tint only affected the front of the stamp; the back was unaffected, only 30 of this rare variety exist.

I was lucky to get the MUH strip of 5 kangaroos a few years ago, they are seldom seen on the market in progressive strips.

That top left over-inked two pence halfpenny KGVI is a beauty!

Hi fairdinkumstamps

It definitely is, scanning does not give it justice, it's a much deeper red than shown, quite an impressive over-inking.