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The 24¢ Interior Double Impression |
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Alan Campbell |
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Chronicle, Vol. 49, No. 4, November, 1977 |
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In 1974, when I moved to San Diego and took my first job in an architectural office, I was introduced to a co-worker, Mr. Roman Beck. A trilingual, intensely private man whose family was expelled from the Sudetenland after the war, Mr. Beck was an omnivorous stamp collector, with catholic tastes regarding condition. His favorite among all his collections was Falkland Islands, because while living in Montreal, he had discovered the famous 6p H. M. S. Glasgow "wrong boat" error (Scott #151a) in a mint set of new issues. His account of this discovery - in which the shock of recognition was so passionately described it might have happened days, not years, before - triggered fond boyhood memories of pouring over my father's collection, hoping to detect grill points on his 12¢ and 24¢ Bank Note stamps. I began collecting stamps again, accompanying Mr. Beck to the meeting of several local clubs. Over the years, we remained friends, often driving together up to the shows in Anaheim. With his diverse collecting interests, Roman was usually able to find something to make the trip worthwhile, but on those rare occasions when he couldn't, he was stoical. After all, he had already enjoyed the philatelic equivalent of making a hole-in-one, and to expect to score one again would be to defy the gods. On the verge of retiring from his architectural practice last fall, Mr. Beck suddenly became ill and passed away. Now, each time I drive to a stamp show alone, intending to carry on the patient search, I feel his presence in the car with me. This article is dedicated to the memory of Roman Beck. |
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In Figure 1, we illustrate the discovery copy of the 24¢ Interior double impression - 144k-jpg (reconstruction 104k-gif), along side a normal plate proof on card for comparison. The first impression, strong but incomplete, consists of the right 20% of the stamp. The second impression is complete but slightly weaker on the right side, where a portion of the reservoir of ink in the engraved lines was expended in making the first impression. It is shifted .5 mm. south, a staggering 2 mm. east, and is slightly skewed. This stamp is from the right side of the sheet, and judging by the tall top and even taller bottom margins, probably from position 100. Quite uncharacteristically for a hard paper Continental printing, all but two perforations on the right side are occluded, and on this side alone the selvage was trimmed off with scissors. |
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This 24¢ Interior double impression is considerably more dramatic visually than the fuzzy-looking 3¢ Treasury double impression described in a previous article.1 It is of the same basic type as the unique 90¢ Navy double impression now in the exhibit collection of Robert L. Markovits. In struggling to explain how the 90¢ Navy double impression (also a right sheet margin single) might have occurred, I theorized that the plate must have been fed into the press sideways. Just after printing was started, the printer detected a bubble in the paper or an error in alignment, quickly backed the plate out, repositioned the stamp paper, and reprinted the sheet. This same logic is all I can offer to account for how the 24¢ Interior double impression might have been produced. |
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Following this explanation, the sheet in question would have had ten stamps with partial double impressions on the right hand side. Since the discovery copy was postally used, and assuming the rest of the sheet was also, the odds of any of the other nine double impressions having survived are greatly reduced. The 90¢ Navy double impression was also used, and just as none of the other nine copies from the error side of that sheet have been found, there is a strong possibility that the 24¢ Interior double impression will also prove to be unique. |
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The direction of offset on official double impressions must reflect the direction in which the plates were fed into the press. The 24¢ Interior and 90¢ Navy double impressions, both shifted horizontally, are from 100-subject plates, fed sideways on the press bed under the impression cylinder; whereas the 3¢ Treasury and 3¢ War, both shifted vertically, are from 200-subject plates, fed top to bottom under the impression cylinder. In all four cases, the plate was positioned on the press bed with the leading edge being the side of greater dimension. |
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This stamp was found unidentified in a remainder lot. As my visions is no longer acute, there is no telling how many plate and printing varieties have passed through my hands undetected in my fifteen years of collecting official stamps, yet the 24¢ Interior literally jumped off the page at me. It is mystifying that such an arresting variety, with two stars and two shields in the right hand corners of the stamp, could have apparently gone undetected for over one hundred twenty years, and I feel profoundly lucky that it was still there for me to spot. I feel that I have now experienced the same thrill of discovery - always a strong motivational factor in our hobby - which my friend Roman Beck had the privilege to enjoy so many years ago. |
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Figure Captions - 24¢ Interior Double Impression |
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1. 24¢ Interior double impression and normal plate proof. |
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e-mail: alan campbell |
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copyright © 2000-04 fran adams |
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