Please help me to fully understand this error.
MWallace
Posts: 4,148 ✭✭✭✭✭
In the 1990s two of these came available to myself and a friend at face value from a local bank. I started collecting coins in the 1960s and error coins in the 1970s, but I know very little about currency and currency errors. Even though I had noticed the seal and district number "indentation", particularly on the left side, I had always thought that it had missed the overprint process. I was thinking that maybe another sheet was on top of this sheet when it went through the overprint step, causing the indentation. I recently sent it in to PMG. It came back "Insufficient Inking Of Overprint". There is absolutely no green ink visible. None! Can someone explain this to me further please?
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Comments
First off, nice error note! The type error that exists on the note is what is referred to as "Missing Third Print". It is rather curious as to why there is an embossing imprint of the District Seal and Shield but not the Serial Number. Might be a couple possibilities for the error in this manner. The sheet this note came from was stuck to the one above it, leaving only impressions but no ink. The second could have been an "operator error". That meaning it was inadvertently caused by the operator shutting down the press, leaving inadequate print to this sheet.
Just my 2¢ worth as it is. I'm surer more thoughts and/or opinions will follow.
Also, the note should bring a premium price for that error.
Nice error note.
I believe that sometimes the grading companies get it wrong. It should be labeled “missing overprint”. Personally, I would reach out to PMG and ask for a do-over on the error description. Something similar happened to me last year. I submitted a misalignment error that came back labeled as a cutting error. PMG corrected the label and also paid for shipping.
And, it almost appears to be the OP’s note used to illustrate a “missing overprint” error in Fred Bart’s latest error guide.
Yes, sometimes the TPGs get it wrong but they could be right on this note.
The strong embossing (of the "missing" printing) is the key to identifying this as an insufficient ink, rather than a missing third printing error. If it missed this printing step, there would be zero embossing.
It's quite possible to have an "insufficient ink" error if a sheet or two go through the press before any ink is applied to the plate. "Insufficient" implies that the ink ran out and that there should be some trace on ink imparted to the paper but this may be a misnomer and this type of error can happen before the plate is inked at all.
Isn't the note missing TWO overprints? The green Treasury seal/serial numbers, and the black Fed bank seal and fed bank #s.
Maybe one is missing and one unlinked? I've never noticed extra embossing from a sheet above, but who knows...
BTW....great find in the wild (almost). I always wondered who the lucky ones were who find these incredible errors at face value.
You are correct Jeff. The embossing is from ONLY what should've been black ink. No embossing where there should have been green ink.
Can someone explain this? Are the black and green inks printed in the same step or separate steps? Like I said, I know little about paper money, but I thought the seals and serial numbers were printed together during the third step.
Wouldn’t the BEP have to have had both insufficient Green & Black ink at the same time for this to happen ? I don’t see that happening.
I believe if two sheets were accidentally fed at one time, the lower sheet would also receive embossing.
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This note is not the one in the book. It has been in my possession since the day it left the bank until it went to PMG in early December.
Close-ups of the left and right sides.
Thanks Jeff. My ex-wife was a teller at the time. It was Christmas time and the bank had new $100 bills for customers to get as gifts. She called me to tell me what she had found. I told her to look further down the stack. There was one more.
And oh yeah!!!! I think you know a little about finding things in the wild, you lucky dog.
Very interesting. I vote for uninked black overprint and missing green overprint. (I am pretty sure they are separate steps).
Logic would dictate that green and black have to be printed in separate passes but I know that this is true for some US small size issues but not for others. Yes, some notes have the green treasury seal and black district seal and numbers printed at the same time, but I'm not sure which ones. Small size isn't my area of expertise.
With that said, I can't explain why there would be embossing for the black printing present but no embossing for the green seal and serial numbers. That would suggest underinked district seal and district numbers and missing green treasury and serial numbers.
Since a double error seems unlikely (but not impossible) I suspect that a small size expert will soon weigh in with the truth rather than our speculation. It's above my pay grade.
I emailed an expert on this subject, in particular the Fed seal, and this was his reply;
“Engraved Fed seals were used through Series 1934D; overprinted Fed seals have been used for everything from Series 1950 onward, except the 1996-generation $100's. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think the reason has something to do with not having enough three-color overprinting presses yet in 1995-6 when production of those $100's began.”
“FRNs of the small-head designs have a two-color overprint, green and black. More recent FRNs have a three-color overprint where two of the colors are green; the Treasury seal is inked separately from the serial numbers, and wouldn't have to be the same color. The 1996-generation $100 has a two-color overprint where both colors are green; there's no black overprint at all, since the Fed seal is engraved in the intaglio plates and the district number is green instead of black. By the way, currency overprinted on LEPE now actually has a four-color overprint where three of the colors are green: the left and right serial numbers are printed separately, because the new computerized numbering blocks are so large that they can't be crammed together close enough to print all the serial numbers on a sheet in one pass.”
PM sent !!!