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 is 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 !
