The type varieties on Iceland's 5a brown official perf 14 (Facit Tj5d)

Type varieties arise from the method of producing the printing type from a master die.
This master die had the following flaws, here identified as M1 and M2.
These flaws, being on the master die, are, therefore, present on every stamp.

Master die flaws
M1	break in frame line NE of small 5
M2	break in lower rh inner frame line (not on every stamp)

25 copies were made of the original master die, these 25 were arranged in a block thus:

1  2  3  4   5
6  7  8  9  10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25

This block was then copied, as a unit, 4 times to produce the plate of 100 units with a layout thus:

                                      Positions of stamps in sheet
                                      ----------------------------
 1  2  3  4  5  1  2  3  4  5          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
 6  7  8  9 10  6  7  8  9 10         11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15         21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
16 17 18 19 20 16 17 18 19 20         31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
21 22 23 24 25 21 22 23 24 25         41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
 1  2  3  4  5  1  2  3  4  5         51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
 6  7  8  9 10  6  7  8  9 10         61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15         71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
16 17 18 19 20 16 17 18 19 20         81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
21 22 23 24 25 21 22 23 24 25         91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Because of the copying process each copy often has flaws which can be used to locate each stamp to one of four positions in the sheet.

Each quarter of the sheet of 100 therefore contains 25 unique stamps. Type flaws for all positions have not yet been found.

Type flaws
Type	positions	description
1	1, 6, 51, 56		no flaw visible
2	2, 7, 52, 57	dot before R of PÓSTFRÍM
3	3, 8, 53, 58	bent frame near R of AUR
4	4, 9, 54, 59		no flaw visible
5	5, 10, 55, 60	dot above A of AUR
6	11, 16, 61, 66		no flaw visible
7	12, 17, 62, 67	chamfered top rh corner
8	13, 18, 63, 68	thickened inner frame either side of frame break N.E. of small 5
9	14, 19, 64, 69		no flaw visible
10	15, 20, 65, 70	broken frame bottom lh corner
11	21, 26, 71, 76	damaged rh corner
12	22, 27, 72, 77	bent frame bottom lh corner
13	23, 28, 73, 78	nick above Í of ÍSLAND
14	24, 29, 74, 79	broken frame bottom rh corner
15	25, 30, 75, 80		no flaw visible
16	31, 36, 81, 86	bottom frame damage
17	32, 37, 82, 87	bottom frame damage
18	33, 38, 83, 88	dot on left hand part of frame + break to right of small 5
19	34, 39, 84, 89		no flaw visible
20	35, 40, 85, 90	dot to left of A + flaw in frame above T of PÓSTFRÍM + spur on leg of F of PÓSTFRÍM
21	41, 46, 91, 96	top rh corner cut + damaged frame above N of ÍSLAND + dot in bottom rh corner
22	42, 47, 92, 97	frame thickening between U and S
23	43, 48, 93, 98	frame filled above Þ
24	44, 49, 94, 99	as type 8 + bend in lh frame + dot below rh leg of A of AUR
25	45, 50, 95, 100		no flaw visible

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Last updated 22 April 2007