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Showing posts with the label extra spire variety

Constant Plate Flaws on the 1967-1973 Centennial Issue

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Today's post will delve into some of the more prominent constant plate flaws and varieties that are known to collectors of this issue. I will attempt to provide a high resolution scan of each flaw where I can, describe the flaw and provide its location as to plate and sheet position. In instances where I do not have an example, and cannot find an image, I will provide a description, and will add an image later, when one becomes available.

1c Northern Lights and Dogsled Team - Airplane in Sky


This variety is found on selected 25c booklets printed by the BABN that contained the 1c, 6c and 8c stamps, that were first issued on December 30, 1971. It is constant in the sense, that it is always found on the same stamp when it occurs: the 1c stamp from the middle row of the booklet. It is quite a prominent variety, being visible to the naked eye, without a magnifying glass. However, it is not found on every example of the 25c booklets that were printed, but only on a few printings. It con…

Plate Characteristics and Plate Flaws on the 1967-1973 Centennial Issue

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Today, I will start my discussion of the final, physical characteristic of the stamps from this issue: the plate characteristics and flaws. Today's post will be an overview of the different plate characteristics and flaws, followed by a detailed discussion of plate characteristics. Then I will deal with the specifics of plate flaws in more detail through some additional posts over the next few weeks.

At the broadest level there are three aspects of interest: plate characteristics, freaks and plate flaws. Plate characteristics are those properties of the printing itself that are intentional and by design. They are, consequently generally present on every stamp in the print run, and distinguish one printing from another, or one group of printings from another. Plate flaws on the other hand are anomalies in the stamp design that occur on a limited number of stamps in each sheet. Those which occur randomly in the printing are dubbed "non-constant", while those that occur on…