Accidental printing flaws on  ISGC1482

The two stamps illustrated herewith show two spectacular printing flaws, well visible on this rather dark stamp.  David Jickling reports having examined over 600 copies of this stamp, which appears to have been rather sloppily produced, as a certain proportion of the copies he looked at have small white dots in the upper left corner and many copies are also roughly perforated.  The copy with the largest white spot was listed in The Postage Stamps of Guatemala as follows:

ISGC1482a   “light spot near bottom right corner”. 

 A more adequate description would have been “white spot”.  This flaw was reported in El Quetzal #277 for March 1994, to find out whether it was a constant or just an accidental flaw.  Since then, only one other copy found with a sizeable white spot, which is smaller and near the middle of the stamp, hardly justifying a special catalogue listing for such “varieties”.

 These two accidental flaws could have had different origins:  

-          a speck of foreign matter might have fallen or existed on the paper and received the printing,  and upon drying or perforation this foreign matter fell or was rubbed off, creating unique colorless flaws

-          a bit of foreign matter may have affected  the lithographic printing process, and moved around a given stamp before disappearing.  In this case, other copies might exist.

 We would be happy to hear whether other collectors have noted these “white spot” flaws, which would accredit one of the above theories or provide even another explanation…

 djickling@yahoo.com                                                                                                         Cecile Gruson