Scotts#220 Line Through 2's Error

Looking for advice. Found in my collection yesterday and want to know, is this a common error? thanks in advance.

It is not an error but a fairly common happening. This is probably just some ink left on a roller, blade or other part of the press. On some issues this is called a "ductor blade line" or a "doctor blade line".


Peter

You have an interesting EFO item.

It is not an error.
The combination of defects your stamp shows: horiz line is a plate flaw; and cap on left "2" is a transfer variety.

The plate flaw occurs on the finished plate, while the cap on "2" is a stage in the breakup of a relief on a transfer roll. It is not common to find both such defects on the same stamp.

The horizontal line plate "scratch" appears to be one mark but broken over the surface. It might have been a gouge from the bottom edge of another plate, but that is a wild guess only.
Most actual "scratches" are not as straight as this one looks to my eyes, but this one appears to span the full width of the design. The "cap on left '2'" is a fairly early stage for that break.

Since I am not an EFO specialist, I will leave it for others to fill in the blanks.

But neither of these defects is an "error."

Thank You For that information, it's really helpful! I didn't notice a cap in the stamp. I have to take a second look!

Along the same line, I have a #220 with (I Think) a cap on the right???
Any thoughts?

No. Check here how a cap looks like:
https://www.theswedishtiger.com/220-scotts.html

yes, I have 220's with caps on left and both 2's. I think this must be an ink problem!

I checked out Swedish Tiger and they have an example that someone submitted with the cap on the right! actually my example looked better then the one submitted.

Regarding the cap on the right 2 there is some controversy if it is a real variety or not. This was discussed in American Philatelist in the March 1991 issue, attached. If not too legible you can download it freely from the APS website. This article is now more than 30 years old; does anyone know if new information is available?

I could be wrong, but I believe there was a long heated discussion of it on the board some years ago.

None of the stamps scanned into the above posts are the cap variety. The Swedish Tiger is also not always a great place to find accurate information.

eyeonwall, Yes there was. My memory isn't the best but I think it started over a listing for one (right cap) on sale for a pretty large amount. I could be wrong about that, but that's what I'm thinking.