We are of course all familiar with errors on stamps such as shifts, missing colors and the most famous, the Inverts. I was reading an old Stamps Weekly (19 Feb 1966) magazine about a fellow who searched for and collected stamps with factual errors in the printed design, ‘Topical Sleuthing’ by Dr. Micha Theiner. He notes that approximately 30 stamps to that time had been re-issued with corrections after being spotted by the public, but many more went unnoticed and distributed without correction. Here are three examples from the article. Newfoundland #62 – The portrait is not of Cabot but of his son. Italy #709 - Simplon Tunnel which connects Italy and Switzerland. Tunnel is electric but shows a steam locomotive. “ France #330 and #331 – ‘A source of numberous jokes and much ridicule…’ Speech on the Method versus Discourse on Method. Oh, the many highways and byways of philately! Fifty years has passed since this article so I imagine with the great proliferation of stamps there must be many new such errors to be found by a wannabe philatelic Sherlock Holmes.
