Common Stamp Faults

Dave Chupp leads a dog-breeding company in Nappanee, Indiana, as manager and owner. Providing a loving environment for dogs, he ensures they are properly socialized and healthy. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Dave Chupp collects stamps.

Stamp faults include such mistakes as bad printing and misplaced colors. While these may decrease the value of a stamp, certain rare and appealing mistakes may actually increase the value. Following are a few common stamp faults that collectors may encounter:

- Missing color: Sometimes, one or more colors are missing from a stamp. More often seen among modern stamps due to the minimal amount of color used in older designs, this fault results from a stage being skipped in the coloring process.

- Color shift: One of the most widely seen stamp faults, color shifts result in a double impression due to misalignment of the printing plates. This type of fault, which may be either subtle or easily noticeable, does not often increase value because of its commonality.

- Invert error: Most often seen in stamps with multicolored impressions, invert errors occur when at least one design element prints upside-down. Inverted center stamps have the center design inverted, while inverted frame stamps have the frame upside-down.

- Perforation shift: Perforation shifts, typically seen in older stamps, result in the stamp design being slightly off-center. Major shifts that cause a stamp design to be nearly cut in half may increase value, since these stamps are often destroyed after printing.