5d. missing colour?

Material relating to the philately of the reign of Edward VII.
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jimusedcontrols
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5d. missing colour?

Post by jimusedcontrols »

Image

hallo everyone,

we wre recently shown this stamp a group member had got in a collection. Everyone first thought it must just be washed out or otherwise processed. However even under a microscope there was no sign of tampering.
I have not seen any mention of missing blue in any literature. Any thoughts?

Regards
James
Seahorse
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Post by Seahorse »

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I too have such a stamp, which turned up in a "job lot"

It is unfranked (but lacks original gum), badly creased, but otherwise whole. I too was puzzled, as the usual effect of water damage on this issue is to wash out the purple and leave the blue relatively unchanged.

Here is the stamp in question alongside a typical water-damaged specimen.
Seahorse
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Post by Seahorse »

If you look closely, there are faint impressions of the tablet - I wondered if it was an absence of ink on the roller rather than a washout?
asmodeus
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Post by asmodeus »

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A friend from me has got this stamp. I have no idea- it is not washed out....
asmodeus
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Post by asmodeus »

Image

Remnants of the blue? See red arrows
Seahorse
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Post by Seahorse »

Another explanation might be that exposure to UV light (ie strong sunlight) has bleached out the colour.

Some dyes are more susceptible to such bleaching than others.

Somebody somewhere must have conducted experiments on those lines.
gah
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Post by gah »

Regular household bleach will create the *exact same* effects. You can either bleach the entire stamp or you can take a cotton bud, small artists brush or dropper and apply bleach to small areas to make a particular colour vanish such as the value table or make the value vanish etc.

I conducted my own experiments with some damaged examples of these some years ago after seeing these items offered on ebay like the ones above and it was so easy that even a child could produce them. Try it yourself and you will see exactly what I mean.

This means that items like this should be treated with suspicion.

Hope this helps even if a year later.
Mike Jackson
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Post by Mike Jackson »

Image Image

Here's a part-missing value tablet on a KEVII 5d. I guess this was caused by unwanted paper (or similar) on the plate at the time of printing.

Mike
Mike Jackson
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Post by Mike Jackson »

You'll notice in my previous post that King Edward VII has a rather feminine hairstyle!
gah
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Post by gah »

Here are the results of some of my personal experiments with household bleach.

You will see what is possible and how easy it is. These supposed varieties should of course be avoided at auctions.

Bleaching stamps is nothing new, Sperati was doing it many years ago.
Attachments
1387_1.jpg
1387_2.jpg
gah
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Post by gah »

Are you sure that isn't a blue crayon mark from a registered item Mike? The colour doesn't quite seem to match.
Mike Jackson
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Post by Mike Jackson »

There ARE blue crayon marks on the stamp, but I was referring to the left-hand value tablet which is partly missing. Or am I partly missing something?!
gah
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Post by gah »

Ah ok I though that you were trying to say that the missing part of the value tablet and blue line were caused by paper on the plate, I misunderstood I guess and thought that you were inferring that the blue lines were caused from that as well.

The stamp shown could well have been bleached too, sometimes if heavy handed you can see a lighter area on the back where the bleach soaked through the paper. The problem with these is that they are so simple to create it would be near impossible to detect a genuine error, many are fooled because there is a postmark over the area that is removed and refuse to believe that the ink can be removed even though beneath the postmark.

The scans I posted will largely demonstrate this point.

Best Wishes
jimusedcontrols
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Post by jimusedcontrols »

all quite fascinating and thanks for the input. I had the stamp looked at by a couple of people during the Festival in London and the comments were very similar. The stamp passed on to another friend who collects Levant as an oddity.
all the best
James
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