Help Identifying Error On 1988 US Honeybee 25-Cent Sc# 2281

Is this a known (documented) error on this stamp? I could not find a description for it in the Scott US Specialized book. If you guys have seen this or read about it, please let me know. The bee on this stamp is printed shifted to the left (off of the frame compared to a normal one also shown below). What do you all think?

The Scott's Specialized Catalog as well as the Datz Catalog of Errors only lists major errors, defined as missing rows of perforations, missing colors, or other major production errors. Here is the "missing bee" listed in Scott as 2281i with the black omitted.


What you have is a color shift, known as the "Slow Bee". Search for 2281 Slow Bee and you can find other examples online. There is also a "Fast Bee", "Low Bee" etc. Color shifts are much more common than colors missing, and they are often available in various amounts of shifted colors, so it makes them hard to list them in a catalog. They are of interest to some specialists, their value usually tied to their scarcity and/or the degree of the shifted colors.

They are a fun addition to any collection, so enjoy the find.

To follow what zebra wrote, what you have is called a freak, not an error. But an attractive one.

yes a very cool item with the shift.

Thanks for chiming in guys! Good to know what this is called. In looking things up recently, I also learned a new word - misregistration. Glad to learn something new. Will definitely keep this honeybee proudly displayed

Yes, printing misregistrations can be fun, but are only rarely regular enough or severe enough to merit catalog listing as freaks/oddities. On a tangent, here is a thread which shows the "two-tailed cat" variety of Scott 1468:
http://goscf.com/t/54406
Fun and easily findable.