Marilyn Monroe Stamp Error

I recently had a Marilyn Monroe stamp Scott# 2967 evaluated by The Philatelic Foundation, and was surprised with their evaluation.

When the Philatelic Foundation opinion states "Mostly missing due to chemicals...." are they implying I chemically altered the stamp?

I also have a Marilyn Monroe pane of 20 with almost the same color error which I have not submited to The Philatelic Foundation for evaluation.

My question is should I re-submit the single stamp along with the pane of 20 to The Philatelic Foundation for re-evaluation to show that the error isn't due to being "chemically altered"?

Or should I seek the opinion from another stamp evaluation company?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Crystal

Are they from the same source? Is there still some red on the pane? In order to be an error there would have to be no red present at all. A drop of red will result in the same chemically altered result. Maybe sun exposure.

Unfortunately the single stamp isn't from the same source as the pane of 20.

Would the Marilyn Monroe pane of 20 constitute as a color error?

I've never seen a Marilyn stamp with yellow lips!

Crystal

If under strong magnification there is a 100 percent red missing it may be an error if not due to sun/chemical exposure.

They are not implying that you altered the stamp, but someone did.

Did you buy these from the Post Office this way? If not, someone or some thing caused the red to fade. To me it looks more like sunlight fade. As mentioned before, often the red ink fades in the sunlight a lot faster than other colors. In order for the PF to specifically say chemical exposure, they must have seen some evidence or residue of such.

This brings to mind the Copernicus stamp 1488a where the orange sun is frequently bleached out with chemicals (though while retaining full original gum). Here is an example PF certificate where they hedged the description somewhat by saying the color was removed "due to exposure to a natural or artificial source".


In other cases they have explained that they detected that the chemical alteration affected the tagging as well as bleaching the orange.


It's your money if you want to submit the entire sheet of Marilyn Monroe. It likely won't change their opinion.

Can you post a close-up scan of the plate number from one of the corners of the sheet? That should be an easy place with magnification to see whether there is any trace of the red ink where the red plate number should be.

"Mostly" means, "no all." All missing is required for a color missing error. Chemicals (includes the sunlight) used to remove an ink color, mostly or all is an "altered" stamp with value no greater than any other badly damage stamp of the issue. Who does an altering is beyond the score of an expert committee as well as when it was altered.

All the plate numbers appear to have been affected by whatever affected the red.

Maybe someone had the pane framed/mounted on a wall with light exposure.

Or the sheet was displayed in the window of a stamp or other shop.