The 8c stamp issued by the United States Postal Service in the year 1973 honoring the 500th birth anniversary of Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus has an interesting story behind it.

The design of the 8¢ stamp shows Copernicus holding a representation of the sun as the central feature of the universe. The illustration of Copernicus was engraved in black ink, while the sun was printed by lithography in yellow-orange. Somehow in the latter variety of the stamp, the sun was removed. There were subsequently two panes of 50 found that have been certified as genuine missing colors.

The above image shows both the stamps. The stamp with the orange sun is shown at the left and one that has been altered to remove the yellow-orange ink is shown at right.

Image Courtesy: https://www.linns.com

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