Does anyone have a notion to the relative abundance extant between the 1966 1st and 2nd printings? In other words how many of the 1st printing were actually released? When the 2nd printing was issued were the remaining 1st printing stocks destroyed, and so are the ones we see now from the 1st printing issued very early on? Was issuance of the 1st printing stocks ceased, until the 2nd printing arrived? There is probably no record of this, but someone may have heard, and verbal history has validity. Barbour's book is clear on the short time frame of release between these two printings and why the second one was accomplished, but he does not address whether or not the 1st printing stamps continued to be issued once the decision was made to reprint. Was a moratorium placed on issuing any stamps until the arrival of the 2nd printing? Dave, do you have any verbal knowledge of this from conversations with "old-timers"? Steve Altic.
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Well Steve, you bring up an interesting question I will be covering in the catalog. There is a recent 2nd printing and it was not due to demand. On this year's issue of the Aviation stamps, the printer made a huge mistake. More than half of the stamps were printed on the gum side. I discovered it after the press sheets were cut down into single sheets and a batch was returned from being die-cut.
So, I pointed out the error and they replaced the errors with a 2nd run. I have not sold any of them as I was disappointed with the colors. Beth Gregerson and I were there tweaking and approving the colors of the first printing, but not the second.. The error stamps will have a letter after the catalog number. I'm not sure if I will give the 2nd printing their own catalog numbers like the 1966 stamps or a letter after them. Any thoughts on which way to go?
Dave Gill
Happy New Year's Eve, Steve. I have not heard of any quantities issued and all of the possible people with that knowledge have passed away. I'm not even positively sure the reason for the second printing. Were sales greater than anticipated and therefor a 2nd run was needed and Dr. Frackelton had them darken the green & blue stamps. Or were there plenty of the 1st printing but was not pleased with them, or received negative comments regarding how pale they looked and ordered a 2nd run? I have yet to come across any production numbers of any of the 1966-1989 or 2005-2010 stamps and/or covers. Once the 2nd printing came out I would have guessed they boxed up the 1st printing and sent out the darker 2nd printing. Later, once there was a demand for the 1st printing stamps, I think they were unboxed and sold to collectors. I will write to John Wells to see if he has any additional knowledge. I sure wish I could speak with Tim Barbour about doing a joint venture on the next book.
Dave Gill