quuador
February 19, 2020, 6:36pm
17
They are also mentioned in my 1st edition stamp variations article . To quote the relevant parts (including the Grey stamp above it):
Thick Grey stamp:
When you look at this stamp from a distant, the stamp appears grey instead of the usual black. Zoomed in as above however, it seems as if parts of the stamp are simply not printed properly. There are both Thin and Thick Grey stamps. The Thick Grey stamps, like the one above, recently got a new theory as to what might have caused them.
In the past, a lot of people thought the Thick, Thin and Grey stamps were just the printer pressing down more or less, or they might almost have run out of ink. @pokemonrevolution recently presented a new and likely theory for these Grey Thick stamps, which I will quote here:
Grey stamped 1st Edition Base set cards for the most part have commonly been considered to exist because of either
A) The ink was low when they were stamped
B) The stamp was not pressed down with enough force to create a nice dark color.
I believe the actual reason behind them is the following. First off I have opened a 1st Edition Base Box which contained many of these grey stamped cards. Majority of the cards had the normal black stamps, however a percent were grey. Coming from the same box I noticed many had various shades of grey to them. Some were very light and grey, others were slightly grey, and some were in the middle. Almost all of the cards from this box were sent to PSA to be graded.
Recently I was looking through some of these cards when I noticed this. See picture link below.
link
This was found on the back of a Professor Oak Trainer card. It was the first one I found, not to mention the most noticeable. It seems the stamp from the card behind it did not completely dry causing some of its stamp to smudge on the back of this one. I continued looking through my cards and noticed that MANY of the trainers have very faint 1st ed stamp smudges on the backs of them as well, in roughly the exact same spot. See link below
link
I then looked through my basic Pokemon common and uncommon cards. Many of these also had the faint remains of a 1st Edition stamp in the spot directly behind where the stamp would be on those cards. See link below.
link
I believe this is what could have caused the grey stamps we see today. They were stamped and did not have enough time to completely dry as they were stacked on each other. Depending on where they were in the pack and how much force was against of the card could cause how much ink came off.
This could very well be the reason we see various shades of the grey stamps. On the trainer cards they all are directly under the “P” in Pokemon at the bottom of the card. For the actual Pokemon species cards they are towards the right of the Pokeball.
Has anyone else noticed these faint 1st ed stamps on the backs of their cards?
Source
So Thick Grey stamps are most likely created when printing sheets were placed on top of each other, before the 1st edition symbols had enough time to dry. This caused part of the ink to stick to the back of the other sheet, causing not only Thick Grey stamps, but also the following variation:
Black Back Imprinted stamp:
Now we’re going from the front to the back of the card. On some Thick 1st edition cards you may find a mirrored imprint of a 1st edition symbol right of the Pokéball (imprints from Pokémon 1st edition stamps), in the bottom-right corner (imprints from Trainer 1st edition stamps), or in the top-left corner (imprints from Energy 1st edition stamps).
White Back Imprinted stamp:
Just like the Black Imprinted stamps, it’s also possible to find white imprinted stamps. I’m not sure how these are formed. At first I thought the ink acted similar as a glue, and when the stacks of sheets are separated again, the ink on the back of the card just got removed, exposing the white of the cardboard itself. However, in the white back stamped Pikachu I own I see no evidence of this whatsoever. There is no damage at the stamp when looking at it from multiple angles.this picture some more white back stamps can be found on some Energies, owned by @shizzlemetimbers .
Thin Grey stamp:
…
I personally have three Red Cheeks Base Set Pikachus like this (never seen a Yellow Cheeks Base Set Pikachu with back imprinted stamp btw). One with an imprint similar as the one shown by Scott; one less visible; and one white one. The first two are shown in my Base Set Pikachu variations article (see sections English Shadowless 1st edition Red Cheeks with 1st edition Black stamp imprint on the back and English Shadowless 1st edition Red Cheeks with 1st edition White stamp imprint on the back ).
Greetz,
5 Likes