Sir Frances Drake's Eyes

Hi all, first post so please be gentle…

I have just restarted my childhood hobby of stamp collecting and while sorting through UK QE2 post decimalisation commemoratives, I came across two versions of the same stamp, the main difference being one looking slightly to their right and one straight ahead. I've looked at several paper catalogues but there is no mention of this variant.

It's more than likely that this has been raised somewhere before but if anyone can shed some light on this issue I would be most grateful. Pictures of the 5p Sir Frances Drake stamps are attached.

My thanks.

This is a minor colour shift. Colour shifts were quite common at the time. It would be impossible to list all minor colour shifts. Would his eyes have fallen on his collar; it would have been listed. It is a nice (colour registration) variety when seen together. When it comes to value, it will make very little difference.

If you look at the map of Europe at the top of the stamp, you will see the righthand stamp is missing the Nouvelle Aquitaine in France. This is due to the upward shift of the blue printing that also causes the variation in the eyes.

The value also appears to be set higher on the righthand stamp, pointing at an upward shift of the black printing as well.

Hope you'll learn a lot here! As you can see, someone already found an answer to your question! This forum is absolutely amazing. You can share, learn, and teach! After a few months here, I found a completely different area and perspective of philately.

CS

Did you know that the verminous Jimmy Page plagiarised Dazed and Confused from Jake Holmes?

No honor amongst thieves and rock & rollers. Thieves smell better though.

Well there is Betty Davis Eyes, by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon in 1974 being sung by the latter but made a hit in 1981 by Kim Carnes.

No such luck for Sir Frances Drake's Eyes he only got an instrumental called Sir Francis Drake by The Youngbloods' in their 1969 Album Elephant Mountain. Jesse Colin Young passed 3-16-25. The song is named after the road they had moved to, Sir Francis Drake Blvd., which was named after SF Drake and extends out to and ends on Drake's Beach (yes that Drake) in Point Reyes National Seashore which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation

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Okay where is the philatelic tie-in?

2006 US Stamp issued for Betty Davis and not just her eyes.

The album cover is just down the road and shows Elephant Mountain (to we locals, Black Mountain to everyone else). The water is called Nicasio Reservoir. It is adjacent to Nicasio Ca the FD location for the US 2021 Star Wars Droids stamps. Nicasio is one of the quite difficult unofficial FD postmarks to find on all other US Star Wars stamps. It is a small one full-time employee office, like the many others nearby which serve and area for which there has never been USPOD or USPS street delivery; rather we all get free PO Boxes.

Actually IMO all of the Star Wars Stamps should have had their Official FDs at Nicasio, the closest Post Office to 3838 Lucas Valley Road, AKA Skywalker Ranch. Home to Skywalker Sound among other things.

Many thanks everyone, particularly NSK - makes perfect sense now.

Well, back to the mammoth sorting of stamps...

You can tell it's a good portrait when the eyes seem to follow you round the room!

Thank you for a very amusing first post.

My copy of the same stamp has a colour shift of the grey-black ink which also affects Sir Francis's eyes, but it's not as amusing as yours: