Errors of petroleum stamps:

Perforation errors: it is always difficult to distinguish true errors
from trial or proof printing or printers' waste, especially for
fully imperforate stamps. For this issue, known proofs were
produced on poor-quality paper and this example on the
paper used for the stamp printing may be a genuine error.

Partially imperforate stamps, in which a single
row of horizontal or vertical perforations
are missing, typically are true errors as
in these two examples from the
former Soviet Union.

Missing color errors can be spectacular. This Soviet example (right)
lacks both the blue and red color imprints, leaving only the
yellow and plack parts of the design. The correctly
printed stamp is shown on the left.

This is another example of a missing color error, this time on a
1948 Paraguayan stamp depicting the tanker "Paraguari".
The example on the left is the normal stamp, the one
on the right lacks the red imprint.

Additional runs through printing presses to surcharge or overprint stamps
can also produce dramatic errors. This surcharged Qatari stamp block clearly
shows one such error due to slippage of the pane in the printing press.

You can also see some examples of errors on United States petro-stamps
as well as on postal stationery.

© Peter A. Scholle, 2000

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