Canada 1 cent Admiral

[MikeC99]

I was sorting through my Canadian Admiral stamps and upon examining this MNH pair of Scott #105 Admirals, I noticed black specks on the face of both stamps. I am at a loss to explain how the black specks came to be on the stamps so does anyone else have an explanation that they can share with me?
Mike

[khj]

I have a guess, but would need additional information:

-- does it only occur on inked areas or also on uninked areas (I see a few specks on the white lettering and margin, but not sure if that is just a scanning artifact or it's the same "black" stuff); it's OK if it extends a little bit into uninked areas, but what I'm looking for is that it essentially follows the pattern of inked areas with only a barely perceptible encroachment into uninked areas.

-- does it only occur on your orange 1c Admiral?

-- when you look at the back, and also when you look through the back holding up to a light, do you see the black specs (I want to know if if goes all the way through, or is only on the surface of the ink).

-- does it smear when you gently rub it? (you may not want to do this unless the stamp is "expendable")

I've only seen something similar twice, and that is the basis for my above questions:

1. once toner leaked out when I was rotating a cartridge and some of it landed on stamps sitting on my table; needless to say, the toner smears when you rub it

2. I've seen exactly one orange stamp that had very fine black spots/lines, caused by sulfur contamination (the contaminant source must have been a powder or liquid spray, don't ask me how it got on there); most of the time when the stamp is sulfurette, the blackening is not so well-defined since it is usually caused by a well-mixed airborne pollutant (e.g., cigarette smoke). The peroxide vapor treatment is the fastest way to prove this, but this is chemically altering the stamp -- although many would argue that this is a widely accepted stamp restoration procedure.

[MikeC99]

khj , I'll answer each of your questions below:

-- does it only occur on inked areas or also on uninked areas (I see a few specks on the white lettering and margin, but not sure if that is just a scanning artifact or it's the same "black" stuff); it's OK if it extends a little bit into uninked areas, but what I'm looking for is that it essentially follows the pattern of inked areas with only a barely perceptible encroachment into uninked areas.

As far as I can tell, the black specks appear on the inked areas of the stamp with some specks just on the edge of the design.

-- does it only occur on your orange 1c Admiral?

I also got several other denominations of Admiral stamps from the same source but none contain the black specks. I don't believe that there were other 1 cent Admirals in this lot.

-- when you look at the back, and also when you look through the back holding up to a light, do you see the black specs (I want to know if if goes all the way through, or is only on the surface of the ink).

When I look at the back while holding it in front of a strong light, I can see through the back to the front where a couple of black spots exist on the front of the stamp. The spots are only on the front of the stamp and don't appear on the back (see image below).


-- does it smear when you gently rub it? (you may not want to do this unless the stamp is "expendable")

When I rub the front of the stamp, none of the specks rub off or smear.

Mike

[MikeC99]

khj, I continued my research on Canadian Admirals and found the following interesting website: www.rpsc.org/Library/admiral/admiral.htm

Under Index in the left margin, click on Flaws. It states the following: "Numerous flaws in the form of extraneous dots, dashes, lines, and small discolourations may be found in almost every value of the Admiral Issue".

This may explain the presence of the black specks on the pair of Admirals shown in the original post.

Mike

[khj]

Great info, MikeC99!

I quickly glanced at some duplicates I recently acquired and see similar black discoloration on a few coil versions of the stamp. I'll try to find the time to scan and upload this week.

[Deleted]

Oct 2, 2016 22:55:09 GMT -5 MikeC99 said:

khj , I continued my research on Canadian Admirals and found the following interesting website: www.rpsc.org/Library/admiral/admiral.htm

Mike

MikeC99 Thanks for posting that link. I have added it to the Canada links in Philatelic Internet Resources.