4c Columbian, Error of Color (233a). Mint N.H. with part of left sheet selvage, deep rich color in the darker of the two recognized shades, bright paper, unusually wide margins, natural inclusion speck in top margin

VERY FINE AND CHOICE. A RARE AND DESIRABLE MINT NEVER-HINGED EXAMPLE OF THE 4-CENT COLUMBIAN ERROR OF COLOR.

The 4c Columbian color error was caused by the use of a wrong batch of ink, and spectrographic analysis has shown that the blue inks of the 4c error and 1c Columbian have the same components.

Stamps from at least two panes reached collectors, and the few cancelled examples indicate that stamps used by the public came from additional panes. It is likely that a number of full sheets were printed using the wrong ink, and most of the stamps have simply been lost to philately.

With 1970 and 1999 P.F. certificates.

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