in the loupe photo the T in THE doesn't look like 7 the way it does in the first photo. But I still lean toward it being the THE given that I can also see the H and the E in their spots. If true, it is very strange, and I can't explain how or why it would be there, seemingly in relief, and ...ONALS also be there but off-set from the THE. Also, the ...ONALS looks slightly skewed in a couple of ways that I can't figure out how it would even happen with the printing process.
Could the print be a reverse on the back of the foil sheet they used to apply the gold, appearing correctly then as the foil wore off (I don't know how they did the foil process, so that may be a dumb idea)?
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