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| Established July 15, 1969 |
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The Supposed “Missing Gold Variety” Offers of a “Missing Gold Variety” of Scott no. 63 appear on occasion from dealer’s inventories or in their displays at shows. The description is understandable enough, the “gold” color of such pieces, as offered, does indeed appear to be missing and, indeed, the “variety” was called to the attention of members on p. 70 of FTDD vol. 2 (July 1970). The facts behind that apparent lack have finally become available, however, and, in contrast to what was suspected in the early report, had nothing to do with the production and release of the issue, but rather with the post purchase and storage history of a particular standard pad of 100 sheets. A U.S. Serviceman stationed in Naha in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s had the custom of purchasing pads of new issues and odd lot sheets of other issues which he stored in a footlocker. Given the potential for damage to stored items in the area as a result of the humidity, he also had the habit of including packets of a silica gel desiccant in an attempt to avoid, or at least reduce, the problem. One of those packets rested next to the upper left corner of the pad of no. 63 he had acquired. Over the period of storage, the effects of the gel’s vapors were a chemical change in the “gold” color of the stamps in the upper left corner of all sheets in the pad. Some 5-10 sheets were eventually removed for sale in Okinawa, but those remaining were later sold as “damaged” stamps to a dealer on the East Coast in the United States. That dealer then, also later, broke out blocks of nine from the upper left corner at the request of a West Coast dealer, who had seen them in the East Coast dealer’s stock, and who wished to offer them (and did) as Cinderella items. |
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| The Ryukyu Philatelic Specialist Society, LTD. |