Errors and Varieties
Also called misprints, freaks.
Period: 1840 onward
The category everyone hopes to find and the one most often misidentified. There is a real distinction between a catalogued error, a printing freak and ordinary damage, and it decides whether something is worth a great deal or nothing.
What you are looking at
Stamps with something wrong — a missing colour, an inverted centre, an imperforate edge, a doubled impression.
What to check
- A true error is a consistent, repeatable production fault — a missing colour throughout a sheet, an inverted centre, a wrong watermark. These are catalogued.
- A freak is a one-off production accident — a paper fold, an ink smear, a shifted perforation. Collectable, but far less valuable.
- Damage is not an error. Creases, tears, thins and offset ink from stacking are damage.
- A missing colour must be genuinely absent, not faded. Chemical removal of colour is a known fraud.
- Anything valuable needs expertisation, because this is the most heavily faked area in the hobby.
What it is worth
Genuine catalogued errors can be worth a great deal and are also the most faked category in philately. No significant error should change hands without a certificate from a recognised expertising body.
Confused with
Colour that has faded from light exposure is not a missing colour. Under UV and against a known example the difference is usually clear.
Questions about this
How do you identify errors and varieties?
A true error is a consistent, repeatable production fault — a missing colour throughout a sheet, an inverted centre, a wrong watermark. These are catalogued. A freak is a one-off production accident — a paper fold, an ink smear, a shifted perforation. Collectable, but far less valuable.
Are errors and varieties valuable?
Genuine catalogued errors can be worth a great deal and are also the most faked category in philately. No significant error should change hands without a certificate from a recognised expertising body.