Rowland Hill's Flaws

On 24 October 1979 Great Britain issued a miniature sheet to commemorate the death centenary of Rowland Hill and promote the London 1980 international stamp exhibition. The 10p premium over face value of the stamps going towards the support of the exhibition.

Miniature sheets were printed in sheets of nine (3 x 3) prior to being perforated and cut to size. With the unaided eye it's just about possible to work out the position on an uncut sheet from which individual miniature sheets came from.

The highlighted miniature sheet below (a composite of all identifying marks) shows what to look for to work out specific miniature sheet positions on an uncut sheet. The miniature sheet positions are numbered 1 to 9 and run from left to right starting with the top row. So position 1 is from the top left of the sheet, position 3 is the top right, position 7 is the bottom left and position 9 is the bottom right. 

Each numbered arrow points to a positional flaw. These are tiny specks or faults – just about visible without magnification – which occur in the same place on every miniature sheet from a specific position on an uncut sheet. For instance, the arrow numbered 1 points to a speck on the second ‘N’ of ‘INTERNATIONAL’. This means that any miniature sheet with such a flaw could only have come from position 1 of an uncut sheet. Likewise, the arrow numbered 4 points to a speck above and to the left of Rowland Hill’s head (10p stamp) – this means only miniature sheets from position 4 of an uncut sheet exhibit that flaw.

So there you have it. Rowland Hill's flaws exposed.

 The flaw location list in full:

1 – second ‘N’ of ‘INTERNATIONAL’
2 – between the 11½p and bell
3 – between buildings on left and jacket (13p)
4 – above and to the left of head (10p)
5 – above buildings (left side of 13p)
6 – between jacket and 10p
7 – close to top of Queen’s head (13p)
8 – underneath Queen’s head (10p)
9 – close to top of Queen’s head (13p) and weak ‘T’ of ‘SHEET’


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