Robert
Murray Stamp Shop, Edinburgh Established 1977 Retail shop,
auctioneers, mail order www.stamp-shop.com
Robert Murray Stamp Shop, Edinburgh
Gallery
The Shrunken Stamp
In our 4 December 2006
auction there was a fascinating little stamp. “Little” is the
important word. I was first shown it a few
weeks before; what seemed like a bantam version of an otherwise ordinary U.K. King George VI 2½d definitive
stamp. At first sight it was interesting, but I was sure that
there was some sensible explanation. However, when I went back to
look at it again, I was increasingly baffled. Every time my mind
hatched a theory, some other aspect of the stamp would disprove
it. The owner decided to offer it in this auction, and once I had
it back in the shop I gave it a more scientific examination. Here
are my findings.
"Shrunken Stamp" (left) and normal stamp (right)
Paper; The paper seems of
normal thickness though perhaps a little softer, and ever so
slightly yellowish. Watermark; The watermark
is normal but smaller – from the lower edge of the crown to the
lower edge of the next crown is 13mm, compared to 14mm in a normal
stamp. Perforation; These measure
on a gauge as 16½x15¾, whereas the normal stamp is 14.7x14.1. The
holes, and the teeth, are that tiny bit smaller than usual.
Otherwise the perforations have the usual attributes of a stamp
torn from a sheet. Fifteen teeth along the top, just like normal. Colour; Very slightly more
yellowish, possibly caused by the very slight hue of the paper. Print; As far as we can
see, all details of the design are identical, down to the
screening dots, but all taken down by that same percentage. Dimensions; Overall size
is 19mmx21mm, compared to the standard 21mmx24.5mm. There is no
distortion of the shape of the stamp. Postmark; Part of a
Christmas slogan cancel, quite normal but smaller (we managed to
find a stamp with a virtually identically-placed postmark)
suggesting again that the reduction has happened after the
application of the cancel.
Having looked at all these
factors, every possibility as to the source of this stamp seemed
unlikely. It was not likely to be a total forgery, as it would be
so difficult to replicate everything so accurately. It certainly
wasn’t a forged printing on genuine paper, as the paper isn’t the
normal size. It couldn’t be a strange one-off fluke, as the owner
actually found four of five similar items at the same time, all
exactly the same size. But how could somebody
shrink it ? If it was easy to shrink by some accident of
handling or storage, surely we would have seen others before this
? (Or we would have seen others with some form of
shrinkage.) One would expect that any chemical or physical process
that caused this much shrinkage would also cause much more damage.
How often does anything shrink accurately and evenly in all
directions ?
Update; 4 December 2006. The stamp sold at £20.
Update; 27 January 2007. We are told that an article in The Stamp Lover (perhaps a
couple of years ago) actually described how this can be done by a
process of boiling, rolling, and pressing. Apparently some have
been offered for sale with the story that they were wartime
paper-saving productions ! (We would be happy to get a copy
of the article . . . . . ) Your comments are welcome !
