PHILATELIC ERROR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 574, 4 July 1933, Page 7

PHILATELIC ERROR

LUCKY STAMP GOLLECTOR BUYS NEARLY WHOLE SHEET. A philatelic "error in a million," the printing of th'e King's head on both sides of a sheet of 45 half-penny stamps, recently, has aroused the interest of stamp collectors in every part of Engiand. The stamps were issued to a London suburban post offiee, and six of them were sold before the error was discovered. The purchaser of the seventh however was a lucky collector, who, realising that he had chanced on an error unique . in the Ijjstory of his hobby( promptly bought up the remaining 38. Thev are estimated to be worth at

least £50 in all, and| are now in the possession of Mr. E. D. Bowie, a stamp dealer, of St. Swithin's Lane, London, E.C. "That this particular sheet should he passed for sale is astonishing," said - Mr. Bowie, "for all stamps are examined three or four times by Post Offiee offieials after delivery from the printers, in this case Messrs. Waterlow and Sons. "These unused stamps are valuable, bnt no one can say what the value of the six stamps which were sold and presumably used on correspondence will be. The chance of their turning up is one in 1,000,000; they may be anywhere in the world." Sir Edward Waterlow, managing director of Waterlow and Sons, said: "We print at least 24,000,000 stamps a week of all kinds and have never had snch an accident before. "It appears that the corner of a sheet passing through the .machine was turned over, with' the result that the blanket took'' the ink and the impression. When the next sheet passed through, the. gummed side took the impression off the blanket. The first faulty sheet was detected and thrown out, but the second was passed becaus'e its reverse side was not examined."