Poste Italiane 50 Cent - King Victor Emmanuel Print Anomaly

I have a small batch of stamps from Italy. About 3 or 4 of these 50c King Victor Emmanuel. This one is not a clean looking print. My picture is a representation of how the stamp looks. I can take a picture of one of the other versions of this stamp if necessary to compare my photos. It really is this messy of a stamp image.

In the coin community, I found a 1941 with a mangled 1. Forum quickly said it was gumball machine damage, and there were a lot of posts about gumball machine damage. I did not include gumball machine damage in my search because I had no idea that was a thing. I almost changed my screen name to gumballrally.

So, what could cause the stamp to look like this? Is this my stamp gumball machine moment? Is there a method of post printing damage that I am unaware of that someone can help me with?

I believe this to be more of a world stamp issue. Please feel free to let me know if a better forum to post.

thanks
kyw

Well, part is that the stamp is way out of focus - hard to tell what you mean. Can you scan it, preferably on a black background ?


Peter

Sorry. Photography is a skill I continually try to improve on.

How about this picture?

thanks
kyw

Looks like damage in the post to me.

The white areas appear to affect both the printed area and the cancellation. That suggests the damage occurred after use and is not related to the printing.

Some matter, probably, stuck to the stamp's surface. When it was removed, the surface was damaged.

It's due to a mix between the printing process and the paper used on this issue. The paper is very glossy and the ink didn't stick all that well to it. When the stamp is flexed the ink tends to crack and flake off. Typically it's considered a fairly major fault and the value is negligible because of that.