During the printing of
a stamp, it is possible that bits of dirt or bits of paper get stuck to the
printing plate or to the sheet of paper being printed. This produces accidental
varieties, often in the form of small white or coloured areas. For example, if there
is a scrap of paper on the sheet of paper being printed, then if and when it
falls off it will leave a white space. Accidental paper folds also produce accidental
varieties.
A plate flaw is a fault
of some kind on the printing plate itself and will repeat until someone notices
and corrects it.
I was going through a
stock of Russia 10 ruble imperforates, probably all from one internal
accounting sheet in Moscow, when I noticed a white area on one stamp, top right
after the word MAPKA. The white area extends to the margin. This looked to me
like some accidental variety resulting from something on the paper being
printed. However, when I looked closely, I could see that the yellow frame line
in fact continues through the white area. That suggests that there was not some
bit of rubbish on the paper being printed but some fault on the plate.
Then I looked through
my stamps again and found a second identical example of the fault. Well, that
points towards a plate flaw. Maybe one of my readers will tell me it has
already been noticed and recorded in some specialist handbook which I ought to
know about …. The stamp o the left is a Normal example, the two other copies show the possible Flaw.
Click on Image to Magnify
