Tagging-omitted error of imperf U.S. 1979 Seeing For Me stamp found in dealer’s stock

By Charles Snee

Sometimes a new discovery, in this case a tagging-omitted error on an already listed imperforate error, is found hiding in plain sight in a dealer’s stock.

The new error in question occurs on the United States 1979 15¢ Seeing For Me stamp (Scott 1787).

Imperforate and tagging-omitted errors of the Seeing For Me stamp are listed in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers as Nos. 1787a and 1787b, respectively.

The new tagging-omitted error, which dealer Henry Gitner of Middletown, N.Y., brought to the attention of Linn’s Stamp News in early August, is a variety of Scott 1787a.

On Aug. 10, at the Great American Stamp Show in Cleveland, Gitner showed a Linn’s editor an example of the new error, which is shown in the first picture under normal lighting conditions.

Gitner said the error was found in late July among examples of Scott 1787a in his stock.

Rob Loeffler, an associate of Gitner who collects tagging-omitted errors, told Linn’s he discovered the heretofore unreported error while checking Gitner’s stock.

At the show, Linn’s photographed the new error and an example of Scott 1787a under shortwave ultraviolet light, which reveals the taggant applied to the paper.

Tagging is a phosphor material used to activate automatic mail-processing equipment. For many years, tagging was applied to stamps after they were printed. Today most stamps are printed on prephosphored paper.

As shown in the second picture above, an imperf Seeing For Me pair without tagging is shown at left. The distinctive yellow green block tagging can be seen on the imperf pair at right.

This new tagging-omitted imperf error will be listed in Vol. 1 of the 2025 edition of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, which will be published in April 2024.

In the past two years, Linn’s has reported tagging-omitted errors of the 1991 29¢ Comedians booklet stamp picturing Laurel and Hardy (Scott 2562), 2017 nondenominated (47¢) Love stamp (5155), 2022 nondenominated (58¢) Flags coil stamp printed by Banknote Corporation of America (5656), 2019 nondenominated (55¢) Flag coil stamp printed by Banknote Corporation of America (5343), and 2022 nondenominated (58¢) pink Love stamp (5661).

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