
Stamp design errors - Tomte
http://www.edbmb.net/stamps/index-1A.php
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orf
I love it when articles HN takes me down a rabbit hole. These stamps are
interesting but the one from Pitcairn caught my eye.

I had no idea that Pitcairn existed, it's a little island inhabited by
descendants of the mutineers of a famous English ship called the Bounty[1].
It's inhabited by only 60 people[2] and the only settlement is the 2nd
smallest capital in the world.

It's even got it's own TLD: .pn[3]

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamstown,_Pitcairn_Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamstown,_Pitcairn_Islands)

3\. [http://www.government.pn/](http://www.government.pn/)

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kr0
Here is a application to be a teacher dated 2016. Seems relevant considering
the stamp
[http://www.government.pn/EO%20Ad%202017.pdf](http://www.government.pn/EO%20Ad%202017.pdf)

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Luc
> A Rubick's cube with 3x3x4 levels is technically impossible

Nope, you can buy fully functioning ones, from several manufacturers even.

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john111
Can you link to an example? I know that 4x4x4 is thing, but 3x3x4 does seem
impossible.

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sena
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrVCUBfOGNg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrVCUBfOGNg)

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mrob
The weird step in the bore of the Denmark 1976 horn is covered by the hand so
you can't be certain that it won't produce a sound. But it is certainly being
played wrong. Brass instruments are pressed against the lips, not placed into
the mouth. The vibration of the lips is the origin of the sound.

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Overtonwindow
If you've not seen it, there's a fantastic children's movie from the 80s
called "Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller" where all the kids collect
stamps, and it's a great stamp movie. Do check it out.

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hueving
Agree, in the stamp movie genre, it's easily top 10. :)

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Overtonwindow
Wait, there are others?! Top 10? That means there are 9 more - share!

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conductr
I would guess that many of these were intentional since the clarity without
magnification is more important than zoomed in accuracy.

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eridius
Which of these errors would improve clarity at the macro scale? I doubt any of
them would.

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mynameisvlad
Off the top of my head, the German bird probably does. It probably gets
muddled if the cage bars overlap it.

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eridius
There are other birds on the same stamp and they're all behind bars. Only in
that one cage is the bird in front of the bars.

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conductr
This is still a good example. The bird he is holding is a more important
object than the other birds. It's a focal point. This is also true with the
ship ropes cutting through the moon, if they don't the moon shape stands out
more. Omit a toe so the foot looks like a foot, otherwise the toes are too
small and look jumbled anyways.

There's even the building with the tree shadow. If the tree shadow was in the
foreground it would not even be visible on the stamp. If the light source was
really respected, the building would be casting a shadow on the entire scene
and the building would probably look poorly lit itself. More than likely, the
image was drawn based on a view where the light source created the best light
on the building thus the shown shadow of the tree. However, that left the sky
empty - so let's just draw in the sun and it looks great. Is it photo
accurate? No, but it doesn't make it an error.

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eridius
I don't know why you're trying to rationalize this. It's much more likely that
all of these examples were genuine errors than that someone decided to
introduce something that is _obviously_ incorrect because they thought it was
somehow more aesthetically pleasing.

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conductr
Seriously? How about because you asked for examples.

And it's something I personally do all the time. I'm in photoshop zoomed in to
perfect some detail, then I zoom out and it looks like garbage. So I purposely
make an "error" so it looks better at 100%.

I don't know why you insist on having such a literal photo realistic
illustration or else the only rational explaination is that artist must have
made an error. Error implies unintentional, which many of these are. But many
are not.

~~~
eridius
I get the concept of introducing tiny errors to make it look better, but I
disagree with almost all of the examples you cited.

For the bird one, the shape of the bird in that cage is different than the
other yellow birds, but is identical to the black one. So that bird was
probably originally black, then was edited to be yellow but they forgot to
restore the black bars over it.

For the moon one, that's extremely implausible. It's a tiny rope, right next
to a large shape that clearly cuts across the moon. Having it go behind the
moon doesn't make the moon stand out any more, it's simply an error. In
addition, the moon isn't even the focal point of that image, it's a fairly
incidental detail (hell, it's almost hidden behind the house).

The toe one is the only one that I think is plausibly intentional.

For the tree one, I agree that the scene was likely drawn without a sun, then
the sun added in after. But that _does_ make it an error, because they decided
to stick a sun somewhere that clearly contradicts the lighting on the rest of
the stamp.

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appleflaxen
> Can anyone explain why the two skis are exactly in line, and not the left
> and the right foot

this is completely compatible with telemark skis, where the toe is anchored
but the heel is free.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemark_skiing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemark_skiing)

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soperj
Am I mistaken or the Copernicus one, they say Venus is missing, when it's
actually Mercury?

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laurentdc
May I suggest this one too?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gronchi_Rosa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gronchi_Rosa)

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joeskyyy
Pretty sure the Belgian Congo one from 1949 is just eyes playing tricks on
you. I see it blowing the proper direction looking at it immediately. If I
stare hard enough, I can see the perception of it being backwards, however.

Fun read though!

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ygra
I'm not sure there is a perception issue if one flag is waving backwards, and
the other three forwards. Wind doesn't really work that way (at least not
within a few meters of height). The sails also indicate that the wind is
coming from behind, which makes the flag at the stern impossible.

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joeskyyy
Ah! I just saw what was being pointed out. The focus of the picture made it
seem like it was the top sail of the middle mast, not the flag at the stern.
:D

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SippinLean
In "Four inverted N in one sentence" the `W` is inverted as well

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fredgrott
Damn, I have two of those errors in my own collection..sweet

