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What's a Printer Error?Red Rose used Walker Press to print millions of cards. Somewhere along the way, the printer made a few goofs. It's just human nature. Sometimes the goof is big (affecting thousands of sets of cards) and sometimes it only affects a few. Usually the goof gets caught at the printers and gets destroyed, end of story. Sometimes the goof does not get caught and winds up in the boxes and into the hands of tea drinkers and finally, into the hands of collectors like us.Is a Printer Error collectable?An error by the printer can be large (like the Rolland-Roland error in series 2) or can only affect a very few cards. If the error is large enough, then more than one or two people can collect it and it has value. If only a few are affected then typically it is not considered collectable because there aren't enough spark interest and raise value. What Does a Small Goof Look Like?
Don has this card, someone else in Canada also has one. That card has the #17 penned on it. Since I have published this page, I have seen one eBay auction and have heard from at least three people that they have this unusual variation as well. Since this error is quite noticeable and about six have ever been spotted (all being #17), all with the same characteristic three dots, it seems likely that the error was caught and corrected fairly quickly and it seems unlikely more than thirty or forty exist like this. I am hedging my previous bet of only a few since we have seen six to date. I still feel strongly this was caught quickly and although there are a few out there, I bet they do not even represent one tenth of one percent of a single run. Previously I said that collectors were not scurrying to their cards to look for similar ones but it does now seem like it might be worth the trip. They will still be difficult to collect as the numbers are so low. I guess that just gives us a good challenge, eh?
Wouldn't you like to have strolled through the printer's every time they were ready to print off a new set of cards? How about calculating how many cards got printed by Walker? Do you think it is more than 100,000? How about 500,000? Over a million? Hmmm, which guess is closer? Remember, keep your eyes peeled, even on the common cards. You never know what rare find may be lurking around the corner... just waiting for you to discover it. Thanks to the collection of Mrs. R. B. Ramsey for the image on the right. Thanks again to Don. Keep 'em coming. |
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Thanks to Don Scanlan again. He gives us
a glimpse at a mistake done at the printers where the card number appears to
have been omitted. Compare the two Canadian Animals of North America card
number 17s. Look where the No. 17 is supposed to be on the lower card. You can
make out what appear to be three dots (one over the A and two over the N in
ANIMALS). Another website points out that one could transpose the No. 17 over
the dots. Could it be that the stamp with the number got dislodged for a few
sheets? Possibly. Maybe the stamp was dirty and not transferring the ink well.
It is an interesting footnote in the process of printing up tea cards at
Walker Press.