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Article 22: Russia 1866 1 Kopeck Value

This is one of the most beautiful Russian stamps of the Tsarist era. I show here a few details of shifts, color shades, as well as high resolution images of the design,including some plate varieties.

The specimen shown below has a noticeable shift between the black and yellow printings.

Below are two halves from two specimens. The specimen on the left is a darker shade of yellow than the specimen on the right. The specimen on the left also has a marked shift between the yellow and black printings.

This detail shows the background. It is composed of a field of 1's enclosed in hexagons. The edge is somewhat worn-out. Notice that the edge hexagons are miss-shaped. The left image is without color to improve on the contrast between the two plates.

Here is a highlight of the shield, with a small break in the inner line at 3 o'clock.

Here is a highlight of the post horns in the shield area, with a small break in the inner line at 6 o'clock.

Below is a highlight of the bottom of a specimen showing significant under-inking of the black plate.