Design errors

Various crazy errors

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Useless magnifying glass. What a poor magnifying glass : the size of the stamptweezer has not been magnified ! (UPPER VOLTA - 1980)


Useless magnifying glass. The size of the stamptweeze is almost not increased under the magnifying glass, and the perforation of the stamp is unrealistic. (BULGARIA - 1971)


Useless stamptweeze Useless stamptweeze and stamp with unrealistic perforation (BULGARIA - 1971)


Irrealistic perforations Totally irrealistic perforations, such stamps can never been removed from a sheet without damage. (CZECHOSLOVAKIA - 1967)


Wrong letter. The Black Penny was issued in sheets of 12 by 20 stamps, and has corner letters from AA to LT. Thus the letter W is impossible. (UNITED KINGDOM - 1990)


Money exchange. Stamp showing a reproduction of a earlier stamp issued in 1936. But the currency Cent, for an unknown reason, became Franc. (LUXEMBOURG - 1990)


Wrong date First major stamp error : the original stamp showed POST OFFICE instead of POST PAID. He was however issued in 1848, not in 1847. (MAURITIUS - )


Corrected stamp. POSTA was forgotten on the original stamp, thus it was not obvious that this was a postal stamp. A corrected stamps was issued some years later. (ROMANIA - 1934)


Strange perforation Stamp with a different horizontal (15) and vertical (12) perforation (RUSSIA - 1960)


Wrong letters. Those stamps were originally issued with the corner letters T-P and V-K, both impossible combinations, as the Black Penny stamps only carry letters between A-A and T-L. It appeared that the engraver Vladimir Koval saw the opportunity to make himself and his family famous by using personal initials of himself and family members. New correct stamps were printed and isssued. (RUSSIA - 1990)


Wrong letters. Those stamps were originally issued with the corner letters T-P and V-K, both impossible combinations, as the Black Penny stamps only carry letters between A-A and T-L. It appeared that the engraver Vladimir Koval saw the opportunity to make himself and his family famous by using personal initials of himself and family members. New correct stamps were printed and isssued. (RUSSIA - 1990)


Wrong stamp Centenary of the first Vatican stamp. But instead of the first, the 10th stamp was featured. (VATICAN - 1952)


Wrong logo The postal logo was never put at the front of a Belgian train. (BELGIUM - 1969)


Missing line The current French machine cancellations have fiver lines, not four. (FRANCE - 1997)


Six major errors Souvenir sheet issued for the London International Stamp Exhibition in 1960 with six major errors : the Great Britain 1d. red, the 4d.Cape of Good Hope woodblock, the 9kr. Baden on green paper, the U.S. inverted Jenny airmailstamp, the Seaway invert of Canada and the inverteed Victoria Head of India. (UNITED KINGDOM - 1960)


Too early This stamp issued on October 6th 1990 was already used on a registered letter on October 1st. (SWEDEN - 1990)


Easy to proclame This sheet was issued : ... in recognition of the warm friendships and mutual understanding which stamp collecting promotes among te people ... But after the issue, a conflict about Taiwan occured, and China withdrawned its participation to the stamp exhibition. (CHINA - 1986)


Not existing The stamp printed by thestamp dispenser does not exist. (ALGERIA - 1974)


Non member Liechtenstein is not a member of CEPT being represented for postal affairs by Switzerland, but uses for som issues the common design of the CEPT members. (LIECHTENSTEIN - 1976)


Too small As this magnifier does not enlarge the picture, the magnifier lies on the stamp, and thus has only the size of the stamp itself, and is almost useless. (MEXICO - 1990)


Wrong direction Representation of a stamp of Sardaigne with the nscription BOLLO written from te botton to the top. (MONACO - 1960)


Missing countries In this 'flaming sun' the number of threads are supposed to match the number of coutries in CEPT, 24 at the time the common issue of this stamp was conceived, but before the stamp was issued Jugoslavia and Malta also joined, so there should have been 26 threads (France and Andorra got it right). (MONACO - 1970)


Two missing countries In this 'flaming sun' the number of threads are supposed to match the number of coutries in CEPT, 24 at the time the common issue of this stamp was conceived, but before the stamp was issued Jugoslavia and Malta also joined, so there should have been 26 threads (France and Andorra got it right). (SPAIN - 1970)


Two missing countries In this 'flaming sun' the number of threads are supposed to match the number of coutries in CEPT, 24 at the time the common issue of this stamp was conceived, but before the stamp was issued Jugoslavia and Malta also joined, so there should have been 26 threads (France and Andorra got it right). (ITALY - 1970)


Too small The magnifying glass lies on the stamp, as thus has the same size as the stamp, only 2 cm. (ALGERIA - 1987)


Wrong postmark In the post office of Zele, a postmark with a single circle was only usedfrom December 1878 onwards. In April of that year, a postmark with two circles was in use. (BELGIUM - 1978)


Against the postal rules According to the U.P.U. rules, the value of the stamp had to be written as 2, not TWO. This was corrected, together with the removing of what could be described as an heavy beard. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1908)


Missing country name With an exception for Great Britain, all stamps mustg bear the name of their country. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1920)


Mystery country World Cup Championships team, but without the name of the emitting country. (ANGOLA - 2006)


Wrong picture On the FDC issued to commemorate the death of the astronaut Alan Shepard was inadvertenly placed a picture of Yuri Gargarin. This was of course immediately corrected. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1998)


Second day issue This stamp honouring Dr. Theodore van Karman, was issued in Washington D.C. rather than in Pasadena (CA) where he founded his Institute. The post office of Pasadena reacted with the issue of a 'Second Day Folder' with special obliteration. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1992)


Not the first Stamp issued to honorate Laurence Kosir as the first one to suggest the use of poststamps in 1836. This idea however was alraedy launched by the Swedish Officer Curry Gabriel Treffenberg in 1823. (YUGOSLAVIA - 1948)


Against speculation After this stamp was issued, a few sheets with missing perforation were discovered. To avoid speculation a new issue with non perforated stamps was decided. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1934)


Not yet issued stamp The green 2C Washington stamp was issued on Sept 10 1887. The cancellation date shown on the stamp is June 10, 1886, one year begore the stamp was issued. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1986)


Commemoration Stamps issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a famous error from 1901 : three stamps with an inverted centerpiece. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 2001)


Missing inscription Two attached stamps, on the right one however, the inscription Postes-Postage has been forgotten. (CANADA - 1990)


Strange date The stamps on this cover sent from China to Köln are all cancelled in 1937. But yhe 1.000.000 Y stamps were only issued in 1947, during the post-war inflation period. (CHINA - 1947)


Wrong water mark The water mark 'Crown' showed on this stamp was never used on a coil stamp with two-sided perforation. (SWEDEN - 1990)


Wrong currency As a Danish printer was asked to produce a series of stamps for the Swedish Stockhoms Lokalpost, the mistake that ocured could have been expected : the value was printed in ØRE (Danish) instead of ÖRE (Swedish). The error was corrected. (SWEDEN - 1887)


Impossible value Frama ATM stamp, with 00.00 as face value, which is not possible to order from the machine (what coin do you use for that ?) (DENMARK - 2001)


Wrong title Following the artist's name is an sc (meaning sculpit) indicating engraving. But these stamps are not 'engraved', they are offset. (SWEDEN - 1989)


Wasting Why buy (and pay for) a preprinted postcard, and then cover the preprinted stamp with another valid stamp ? (BELGIUM - 2000)


Wrong value Coil stamp with incomplete black printing, producing a 5c stamp instead of the common 15c. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - )


High density Twelve stamps on a very small surface, not easy to do ! (RUSSIA - 1882)


Too small The size of this magnifying glass is only half the size of a poststamp. (NETHERLANDS - 1979)


Wrong colour The blue color of the 2 pence Mauritius stamp is not correct. (NETHERLANDS - 1994)


Wrong mention Instead of the designer's name, the printing agency put its own on the stamp. This was corrected. (BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS - 1977)


Too late This stamp was used by the Swedish Postal Museum in 1994, although it had already been put out of service in 1961. (SWEDEN - 1994)


Not valid Stamps marked 'SPECIMEN' are not valid for postal use, but were accepted here on a registered mail. (SWEDEN - 1986)


Hidden value The postal value these stamps is almost invisible. (UNITED NATIONS - 1983)


Three days before These stamps were officially issued on March 29th, but this registered letter was already sent on March 26th. (SWEDEN - 1988)


Poor representation Very poor representation of the beautiful first British stamp (ROMANIA - 1990)


Too large Too large stamps, probably made for giant letters. (BELGIUM - 1979)


Wrong stamp Stamp from 1864 (with 4 corner letters) near a postmark of 1852. The 1852 1p stamp had only letters in the lower corners. (JERSEY - 1974)


Forgotten obliteration Special delivery or not, in any case the stamps have to be obliterated. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1954)