Shoddy work?

  Would you say so upon seeing these stamps? Yes, that is the first question! Do I have the stamp in front of me correctly, or upside down? Yes, that is the second question. Are they even stamps? I actually should have asked that question first. So there are more questions than answers. Unless you are a specialized collector of Thai stamps. Because then you have the answers. They are Thai service stamps issued starting October 1, 1963, and intended for domestic use only. Let's first look at the numbers. This does require knowledge of the Thai script. This can usually be found in a stamp catalog: From this it can be deduced that the two signs in the middle of the seal represent the digit 1 and the digit 0: So that must be 10. And the currency? That is written underneath: satangs. So the first image is correct, the second is upside down. And the color? It is clearly visible that the seal is printed in two colors, carmine and orange-red. They were printed using letterpress on soft, frayed paper and feature perforations that most closely resemble 11½. That means 11½ perforation holes counted over a width of 2 cm. To count that, a perforation gauge is indispensable. Furthermore, the seals remained ungummed, so they had to be gummed by the user before affixing. The sheets were placed in the letterpress one by one, causing the prints to often not end up in exactly the right place. These are therefore called 'misprints'. A fine example of a misprint of the 10 satangs can be seen here. The next value is also easy to find: 20 satangs. The following characters correspond to this:     The colors? Because the printing inks used did not align exactly, it is clearly visible that green and carmine red were used. Overlaid, the result was a muddy gray. Due to poor perforation, the stamp on the right was roughly torn off. Throw it away as damaged? No, because the printing inks used were the deciding factor for me to give this stamp a place in the album anyway. Then follows the value of 25 satangs:   Here again, two printing colors: carmine red and light blue, creating a strange, almost indefinable color. One sheet of stamps is known with only one printing color: carmine red. Also a misprint, but unfortunately I have never been able to acquire it. A silent wish… The next value is 50 satangs. First, the characters again: Although barely visible, two printing colors were used here as well: carmine red over rose red. Only on the first stamp was the rose red printing color omitted. As a result, the stamp is darker than the others. The characters for the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 5 are now clear. Therefore, let's move on to the higher values. On the following stamps, the three characters below the numbers 1.00 form the word "bath." The 1 bath (value 100 satangs) was printed in two colors: carmine red and a silver-gray color. However, the gray on the first stamp is transparent, resulting in a muddy image. On the other stamp, the silver-gray color is opaque.   And there is another difference. The decorations on the left and right in the oval border are different on the first stamp than on the second. So, two types. Why? I do not know! The last stamp in the series has a value of 2 baht. With the 2-bath, two printing colors were also used: carmine red and grey-green. Another nasty color as a result. But there must be two types of this as well. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find a type II. But I keep searching. In 1964, there apparently arose a need for a reprint of several denominations. There was apparently sufficient stock of the 10 and 50 satangs, but not of the 20 and 25 satangs and the 1 and 2 baht denominations. It was decided to give the reprints different colors, creating more distinction between the various denominations. These became the service stamps of 20 satangs in dark green, 25 satangs in blue, 1 baht in gray, and 2 baht in dark olive green. The stamps of 20 and 25 satangs and the 1 baht stamp appeared in Type I, but the 2 baht stamp in Type II. That last 2 baht stamp? Indeed, shoddy work! Off-center print, poor printing, bad perforation, yet collectible? And you learn some Thai while you're at it!