We've now been able to scan the Gold Medal stamps from all of the six printers. Some show distinct shade variations, but there doesn't appear to be any consistency. The most noticeable variations are on the flesh tones. Click on the image to see a larger example.
The base sheets were all printed in lithography by Cartor of France. The image and black text printing was done by six different printers in 4-colour lithography. If there was only black plate, then darker or lighter text would be matched by a similar effect in the picture.
In all pictures the stamps are in the same order.
Row 1: Attleborough, Edinburgh and London.
Row 2: Preston, Solihull and Swindon. (No Preston examples exist from 27-29).
Medal 1 - note particularly the yellow-green shade of the hull. The black text on the Solihull stamp is darkest.
Medal 2 - variations are particularly noticeable on the tarmac/concrete. The Attleborough text is lightest.
Medal 3 - because this is so busy the variation is most noticeable on the flesh, but the black text on the Attleborough stamp is the lightest, and this probably affects the picture.
Medal 4 - the green background is particularly pale on the Attleborough stamp.
Medal 5 - Velodrome stamps show very strong variations in the colour of the track. The London stamp is particularly dark and the Preston stamp light.
Medal 7 - again wide variation appears in the track
Medal 8 - In this Velodrome picture there is much less variation.
Medal 9 - As with medal 1, the hull shows particularly wide variation.
Although similar montages could be displayed for all the medals/stamps few people were interested enough to make it worth continuing. The variations are certainly not worthy of inclusion in the catalogues and inconsistent enough to mean that identifying the printer from individual stamps was impossible.
