Anyone ever encounter one of these before? Saw one on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-1-LOO...218647?hash=item33f693e117:g:2yUAAOSw15ZbujrL I couldn't blow up the image and can't figure out what I'm looking at
The same SN or a different one, though? On LEPE the serials on a sheet are only 100 apart, and the faint serial behind the ...8101 looks like it could easily be ...8001 or ...8201. The sheet could have made light contact with the *wrong* numbering head on its way through the press.
Interesting they go for about $22 in Gem (the 2013 series). Like @Numbers said the original post looks like it could have 2 different serial numbers. This should be worth significantly more if the TPG could confirm this. If I could have gotten the note for $22, I'd ask for a second opinion and pay a reholdering fee for sure.
Okay, if we've got similar smudging on the A2 and B2 notes of the same sheet, then I don't think the numbering cylinders are to blame at all--it'd be too big a coincidence for two different cylinders in two different positions to be "loose" at the same time. Both notes have serials ending in 01, so both would have been the top note of their respective straps. I think some not-quite-dry serial number ink rubbed off on some piece of machinery involved in the cutting-and-strapping operation, and was then transferred to the next strap going by. In general it's not unusual to see a mildly smudged overprint on the top note of a strap, precisely because that note can come into contact with various things as the sheets are being cut and the notes packaged. The fairly well-formed ghost serial on the ...8101 note *is* a bit unusual, but if it's just a particularly neat example of the typical top-of-strap smudging, then I'd be inclined to value it rather *less* than $22. If there was really a problem with a loose numbering head, I'd expect it to affect all the notes printed in that same position: ...8101, 02, 03, and so forth, not ...8001.
