Misalignment error - what in the...

Don't rush to jump on me and announce that "the black and green overprints were printed separately". Yes I'm aware of this. But there is something else very peculiar about this error - look carefully. I'm not going to mention it just for kicks. But you'll notice something is definitely not right.

Can anyone please a'splain how this happened:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Are you looking at the other side of the bill where the black ink is not messed up?

 

Ink missing from the lower left "11" and the serial number under the "k"? BTW, what does the "pp C" mean on the holder?

 

Plate Position C. "C3" is the plate position number shown the face of the note, in the left-upper region. It indicates the position of the note on the full sheet before being cut.

 

Are you referring to the left side district numbers which are tilted while those on the right side aren't? How? I'm not sure. Hazarding a guess... The paper was skewed and perhaps folded over on itself prior to printing the district numbers, which was then flattened and the notes trimmed out leaving this curious alignment of district numbers.

 

Precisely. The right side of the black over-print is just fine. The "11"s are in the correct location. However the "11"s on the left, and the black FRB seal are dramatically misaligned. The weird thing is that they're all part of the same printing. If one part is misaligned, the remainder should have the same effect.

Perhaps the printing plate got broken in two, and one piece got shifted.

The black FRB seal and the district numbers are all printed at the same time from the same plate. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think for this explanation to work, the note must have received two applications of the black overprint...

 

Yes, I am aware that they are printed at the same time. That led me to wondered if the paper itself was folded prior to being stamped with the seal+district numbers, then later flattened to show how the print of that element looks so dramatically skewed. For example, fold a sheet of paper at some odd angle, draw a line over the crease then unfold the sheet and you can see the wide gap it leaves between your line when the sheet is laid flat again.

I don't think that's the way this occurred. If it was, would there be one set of correctly aligned elements and a half set of the skewed elements on this note...?

 

Interesting idea. But wouldn't there be a fold on the note, keeping it from a 64 grade? Or is your diagram of an entire sheet, and the fold missed the note entirely?

Also, let's assume it was a fold-over like you diagrammed, is it possible for the left size to rotate the way it has? Your diagram still shows both parts parallel to one another.

 

I agree that the diagram I made is simplistic, but I did imagine the fold to be on the whole sheet. I'm unable to guess how many complex folds could have created such a position of elements. Given that there is a small area of the district seal printed where it should have landed, it could be the sheet wasn't folded and got hit twice. Mine is just a guess, loosely kicking around a possibility. I can't explain the grade given folded paper unless it was ironed out later or just a soft fold, but folds may account for the district number showing faint on the bottom left where it runs into the numberal device in the corner. It's a fun puzzle to think about how it came to be for sure!

 

Could the collar holding the seal and district numbers have simply broken in half? It is printed with a lot of pressure after all.

 

There is no way that bill's paper was folded to create the left ink shift on the same pressdown as the right ink. More likely looking at an obstruction coupled with a secondary transfer - a series of paper misfeeds could be responsible. I like the note...

 

MEC, what do you think this note might be worth to an error collector?

 

Perhaps not this specific note on the whole sheet took a fold, but the greater uncut sheet being stamped by seals and district numbers simultaneously is what I initially imagined. Such that half those district numbers on this note were from another note's position on the sheet. However, I admit it's less likely than a misfed sheet. But how sheets went through misfed could pass through skewed or shuffled and printing continued without the problem being spotted on the press or stack coming out, and the notes not pulled and destroyed before being inspected, cut and sent out of the facility is a mystery.

 

I believe that overprint is the last pass. The left and right sides of the black overprint are printed simultaneously. My thoughts are: If the sheet was folded into such a position to take the rotated overprint at that angle, it couldn't have had the two district numbers printed on the right in the position they are in.

 

That's right, last and simultaneously. Jams do happen and strange alignments result. But I'd like to hear how the misfed may have created this without the sheet being damaged and culled by inspectors, then stacked, cut and sent out.

 

If you look at the fold lines they are nearly parallel. If the two fold lines weren't parallel, then that would cause the ink line to be skewed when the fold was separated.

 

Pretty unique style of error note, tough to say because I have not seen a partially misaligned third print before. Anything I say would be a guess... but if I had to I'd say a healthy three figures...

 

I think maybe this, sort of.

I can't find a good image of the printing of the black overprint, but on this page you can see the thing that prints the green overprint. The two serial registers for each note are mounted separately. *If* the black overprint is set up similarly (which seems likely but I have no idea really), then this note could result from one half of it coming loose. Might also explain why the lower left "11" and the upper edge of the Fed seal are a bit weak, if the whole plate (or die or whatever it's called) for that side of the overprint was flopping loose against the paper. (But in that case, I'm not sure that "misalignment error" is really the best description of what's going on...?)

Mostly unrelated: Error notes with as-made folds can grade Uncirculated. But I don't see any folds in the image (can you see any with the note in hand?), and I don't think folds could explain the positioning of this particular overprint anyway.

 

The " Plate " that gathers the black ink and rolls it onto the paper probably broke and tilted at an angle causing the tilted and underinking on the bottom of the skewed 11 . The plates are made and then attatched to the roll machine itself .

 

I found this in U.S. Error Note Encyclopedia by Stephen M Sullivan.