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Posted By: Jerry Totino

Based on the few old mill examples I have seen there appears to be 2 distinct patterns relative to the overprint bar color and the old mill back itself. In particular, the black overprint bars seem to only come with a black old mill back. On the other hand the red overprint bars (1 or 2) appear to come with only a brown old mill back. Based on this observation I'm not so convinced that these printings were unintentional. Why would the printer go through the trouble of changing the overprint bar color if it was a one time freak printing? There are no other overprint bars in T206 that make use of the black color. If these overprints all had red bars I could buy the theory that the bar was intended for a different back/sheet and was printed by mistake. As I mentioned before why would the printer go through the trouble of matching the black overprint bar to a black old mill back.

Additionally, the 2 black old mill overprints I am aware of are not hand cut. They are factory cut to standard size.

I have never been able to locate a brown old mill that was not trimmed on 1 or more sides. I would be very curious to know if the brown old mill overprints follow the same pattern (i.e. hand cut)

Any thoughts?

Jerry