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Errors, Freaks & Oddities  (EFOs)

• Colors Omitted

• Colors Shifted

• Perforations Omitted (Imperforate)

•  Perforations Shifted

• Offsets

• Others

• Multiple EFOs per issue

EFO Catalog

INTRODUCTION

Errors, Freaks and Oddities (EFOs) usually occur during stamp printing process.  Both the printing plants and the post office try their bests to eliminate and destroy these imperfect stamps.  However, still, some escape and land into collectors hands.

Collecting EFOs can be very rewarding.  Most exists with very limited quantity, many with only one sheet known, while others are unique all by itself.  It can be said that EFOs are the gems of a Republic collection.

There are several types of EFOs on Philippine stamps, the most popular of which are:

• Accordion - flaws due to printing on creased paper.

• Additional Printing on the Reverse - a stamp that bears a print of part of the design on the back.  It differs from Offset in that the printing reads normally from left to right and could have become printed on both sides if complete design appears.

• Blanket Offset - stamps with double or partially double print which is due to adjustment of the printing press' blanket during the early stages of printing.

• Colors Omitted– when one or more colors of the stamp designs omitted.

• Colors Shifted - when one or more colors of the stamp designs are shifted, including on Overprint issues.

• Doctor Blade Flaw - flaws due to faulty wiping of the ink on the printing cylinder; appears in white or colored lines of varying width and generally extends over several stamps.

• Double Impression - a stamp that exhibits linear duplication in all or some parts of the design, irrespective of the cause of such duplication.

• Dry Print - a stamp exhibiting uncolored lines, spots caused by wet printing upon paper insufficiently dampened.

• Flaw - any blemish in the stamp design resulting from or occasioned by the process or printing.

• Imperforate - when a sheet of stamp was not fed into the perforating machine, thus having all perforations omitted.  When caught before the stamps are officially released to the public, a small quantity is issued Imperforate as part of the regular issue.  If not, an Imperforate copy becomes a major error.

• Inverted Overprint - when stamps are surcharged or overprinted and the sheet of stamps was fed to the press the wrong way, resulting for the overprint to be inverted.

• Litho Flaw - this is due to specks of dust setting on the plate which which prevents the ink from reaching the area, leaving a white inkless portion.  Minor flecks of colors are similarly caused.  Such flaws only affect part of a printing and cannot be regarded as constant.

• Offset - an additional unintended impression or part impression of the stamp design on the face or back of a stamp, caused by wet printing ink coming into contact with the surface that bears the additional impression.  Appears most commonly at the back of a stamp (gummed-side) and the most frequest cause being that the sheet has been forced into close contact with another sheet of freshly printed stamps before the ink is dry.  The design appears reversed, that is, it reads from right to left, instead of the normal from left to right.

• Perforations Shifted - when the horizontal perforations are shifted either upwards or downwards;  or, when the vertical perforations are shifted either to the left or to the right.  Both results in similar variety for each stamp.

• Perforations Shifted and Slanted - most sheets with dramatic shift of either vertical or horizontal perforations will produce stamps with incomplete designs and white spaces on the outer  rows.  Sometimes, marginal inscriptions and markings become part of the "stamp" due to the shift.

Note:  Whenever a perforation shift occurs, stamps on top and bottom  or left and right of the sheets are different from the rest of the stamps in the sheet.

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