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55. Excess ink between stamps: Beyond heavily printed and smeared joint lines, the freak to look for is joint lines where they shouldn't be. This is a unique property of Huck Press intaglio-printed stamps of the 1960s and 1970s that sometimes lead people to think they have a great unlisted rarity. Several curved printing plates were needed to make up a full circular printing sleeve. If the printing plates were fitted together perfectly, no joint line would show. If, however, any gap existed between the plates, it would pick up ink and deposit it between the designs. These lines were random, incomplete, and sometimes had mixtures of the colors of the stamps. They are collectible but do not receive catalog recognition. Because they are so prevalent in Huck printing, they don't as a rule have extra value. The exception is when they are strong and visual, but even then the extra value is modest.
Type 55: These flag definitives are Huck Press printed, meaning that the printing sleeve was made up of several plates two subjects wide. If ink got between the plates, a joint line printed. Because such lines were irregular and unpredictable, they are not catalogue listed.
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