Gold Horizon – Overprint

The second area of condition I look at is the quality of the service indicating overprint which is printed at the counter. As you may imagine that as it’s down to individual counter-staff ‘on the job’ aesthetics comes very much a second place to excellent customer service! And inevitably printers have their off-days too! So I’d say it’s probably about 50 – 50 as to whether a decent looking label is produced! Here is what I look out for…

• Correct positioning:

standard placing

The top line should be 6mm from the top, and the lines and text should start 9mm from the left. So it is quite correct that it shouldn’t be central! I can’t say why it wasn’t designed to be central (possibly a hangover from when the original white Horizon labels were narrower) but there we are.

The following, though a bit extreme is not uncommon:

well tilted!

A slight tilt of a few degrees might be acceptable, as a shift of a couple of mm could be as well if the rest of the label is very good/rare – but the aim is absolutely level & in place. It’s what your eye will tolerate!

• Missing print

printer problems!

There should be no missing print at all. But as with our printers at home, those busy counter-printers have their problems as well! Examples such as this one simply detract from the overall appearance – more striking examples do exist but it is a moot point if they are truly collectable – a discussion for another day!

• Smudging

Of course smudging is a no-no. This one is printer generated:

indicator smudge

And this one? – finger generated:

placement smudge

And this one above the line, is just an added extra!

a curious one

Curious? Well it is a repeated error! Time and again I see examples of a short vertical line above the Queen’s crown. But unfortunately it does just look rather messy; so though, technically I suppose it is a variety I think pursuing that would be a little disingenuous!

I think also we need to think of overprints as cancellations. Technically I believe that is indeed what they are (and makes the label a ‘label’ and not a ‘stamp’). A good clean clear & upright strike therefore, is what is required!

Overall it is the overprint that makes up the bulk of what we might call condition. For me, it must be straight, devoid of smudging and fully printed. Smudging can occasionally make for interesting errors – for instance ‘1EG’, and missing printing can look quite spectacular – but as there is no quality control (ie at the counter) they could not possibly be considered in the same vein as missing colour errors of some comemmoratives – but I do bin them at my peril!