Design Errors

According to the DansTopical.com website, "An 'error' in philately usually refers something that has gone wrong in the production of a stamp: the wrong or missing colors, misperforations, inversions, and things like that. Such errors are relatively rare and therefore stamps with such errors are expensive. However, there is another kind of error that is neither so rare nor so expensive. It is the design error. In the case of map stamps they include incorrect coordinates, mistakes in spelling, incorrect geography, political and historical errors, and other similar matters."

For example, shown above is a stamp was issued by Mexico in 1964 to commemorate the Chamizal Treaty negotiated in 1963, and to honor the U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, who had negotiated the treaty. The error is that President Lopez Mateos of Mexico, who was much shorter than President Kennedy, is pictured as being the same height.

To view an indexed listing of other design errors, click here.