Itally Scott 221 - Apparently Missing Light Shade Of Purple

On the left is a copy of Scottt #221 I found in a lot that I'm working through, with faded, or missing, color shade. A normal copy is shown on the right for comparison. The left copy appears to be missing the lighter shade of purple behind "PostItaliana", also within the fasces left and right, and in the face. I don't see any trace of ink in those areas under magnification. Is this due to a printing issue of some kind, or something else?

Looking at several pictures of the basic stamp (1929) and later overprints (1940 - 1944), there was great variety in the shading of these lighter areas.

NSK - Thanks. I can see how there could be alot of variation. Did any of the pictures you saw look as if the shading is totally missing? This one looks alot like the shading isn't even present.

Yes, stamps in this issue vary largely in shade. This stamp and the 30c (same design) can often be found with the lower background pale or washed out looking. A pic of 4 of mine below, hopefully you can see the shading from lighter to darker.

Sassone mentions a couple printings, and that "very variable colours, with poor contrasts in the shadows and tending towards dark shades" are typical of later printings.

~Greg

gmot - thanks for the additional information. Apparently my example is just a more extreme version of the printing variations of this issue. Will mount it as such on the page with the more "normal" one (seems as though variations are the real norm on this issue).

Thanks much to both you and NSK for weighing in on my question .