Gossaert Madonna Booklet Overprint

A couple of weeks ago, Tom McFarland, Secretary of the Plate Number Coil
Collectors Club (PNC3) and an avid booklet collector, discovered a
previously unreported overprint on the current 37c double sided Gossaert
Madonna and Child convertible booklet. This overprint has only been found on
panes with plate P1111.

He made his announcement on the US Stamps group at Yahoo and included a scan
of the overprinted pane.
That scan was posted on the PNC3 booklet site at
www.pnc3.org/booklet/data/2003/madonna-cb-ds.htm .

These are my feelings and thoughts on the 37c Gossaert Madonna and Child
double sided convertible booklet with the overprinted bar code.

From what I can tell, an original printing was made using a bar code (UPC)
with 0-870200-9, which was incorrect.

I believe that the error was discovered early on in the production process,
but at a point where a substantial number of panes had been printed. A
decision was made to overprint, rather than destroy the panes using the
correct bar code, 0-672400-3. I figure that two new negatives and plates
were made: one for the white overprint and then another with the correct bar
code.

I think that the web(s), and there may have been several, of paper with the
wrong bar code were again mounted on the press and run through a second time
to do the overprinting. On this press run, the only area that would be
affected would be the bar code.

When that run was completed, a different set of negatives and another set of
plates with the correct bar code HAD to be made. Plate number P1111 was used
again to finish the original print order.

I feel that since a new set of negatives and plates had to be made that the
corrected plates should have had a new number, such as P2111, to show that a
new black plate was being used.

Since then, I have found that the 'end card' was originally printed with the
wrong item number, blocked out, and then overprinted with the correct item
number. There does not appear to be any end cards without the black bar
overprint.

I was playing around with the overprinted pane trying to get a better scan
of the incorrect bar code and discovered that a rubber eraser worked well in
taking off the bar code to show the original incorrect code underneath.

Ron