Original description of the error

Stamp issued to show the Arab solidarity against the expansion of Israel into occupied territories. But one of these territories, the territory of Gazah, was represented on this stamp as belonging to Israel !

Comment received from visitor

No one has forgotten about Gaza. Simply put, if they do not recognize the existence of Israel, then they do not recognize the border between Israel and Gaza. The entire black area is Palestine, not Israel. It is a political declaration, not a mistake.

Original description of the error

A rocket in space, outside the atmosphere, does not leave a trail of smoke behind !

Comment received from visitor

Not only smoke. Rocket engines never work with full power when the object is so far from earth. But I noticed the rocket started somewhere from Central Europe and the flag looks like Polish. I started an investigation. And yes, this is Polish meteorological rocket Meteor-1 (abbreviated on the stamp to “M.”). And indeed, it was two-stage (“Kétlépcsős” in Hungarian). And indeed, it was a solid propellant rocket, thus a lot of smoke is correct. And indeed, one launch was probably 16 June 1965 (English Wikipedia says 17 June, but I’d believe Polish sources). But one error is obvious – that day the rocket reached level 36 km, not 20000 km, like on the stamp. And the rocket was small – only 2,5 m high and 32,5 kg at launch. But it looks giant on the stamp!

Original description of the error

All the planets have their own moon, and are circling around the sun on the same lane, and the plane of the Moon´s orbit dances in different directions.

Comment received from visitor

No, this is not a ballet of the planets, but the Earth and the Moon shown in various places in their orbit around the Sun. But still, there is a big mistake. In the picture, the plane of the Moon´s orbit dances in different directions, instead of maintaining a constant position, and even aligns perpendicularly to the Earth´s orbit (which never happens - the Moon is never seen over the North Pole). A better title would be ´Crazy Moon.´

Original description of the error

IIII instead of IV (Roman 4), and VIIII instead of IX (Roman 9)

Comment received from visitor

The roman figures are not wrong. They are just less standard. You can find “IIII” quite often on old city clocks, and VIIII can also be found. Simply: another, more archaic tradition, not error, especially in 1936.

Original description of the error

Correct stamp for Argentina, as they claim the Falkland Islands, and of course wrong for Great Britain.

Comment received from visitor

The Falklands are of course not an error, but a territorial claim. But the joke with this stamp is elsewhere, too. There are two versions of the stamp. In the first (easily available): not only Argentine was marked, but the borders of all South American countries. And that caused a row, because there were claims about erroneous course of the borders (I think Peru, Ecuador, but maybe I’m wrong). So, Argentina erased the borders completely and issued the stamp that you show.

Original description of the error

Impossible to recognise the continents on this globe, they only exist in the imagination of the designer.

Comment received from visitor

AUSTRIA 1955 10 years of the UN, globe and flags. You are quite right that it is difficult to see the shapes of continents as they were placed rather differently to what we are accustomed to, but after a while I could see Greenland and North America, so I do not see the real problem here. The real problem is a wrong Soviet flag with a huge hammer and sickle placed centrally in the flag. The real Soviet flag had a small emblem placed in the upper left corner. The flag presented here is definitely wrong.

Original description of the error

On the shop the stamp shows TOBACOS, but below : Historia del TABACO

Comment received from visitor

I supposed that it might be an old spelling problem. I googled the phrase and found an item on eBay from an old cigar box. So, I guess there is no error, just carefully recreated real spelling. Apparent error at most.

Original description of the error

Incorrect presentation of the human blood circulation : there should be one down and one return path, both splitting somewhere in the middle of the body.

Comment received from visitor

I have the impression that this bloodstream – when you look at various drawings on the Internet – is not far from reality.

Original description of the error

A printed 7 never has a small horizontal line. See other stamp.

Comment received from visitor

It is not true that ´7´ never has a horizontal line. In Poland, everyone usually writes 7 by hand with a horizontal line (it helps to distinguish 1 and 7). I always do so. I suppose that in Germany it could have been/still is like that too (you would have to ask the Germans). Yes, in printing this horizontal line is rare, but is it not allowed to use such “script” font? Maybe describe it in a different way - that is uses a rather uncommon font?

Original description of the error

Take a rest sitting on the lath, maybe convenient, but quite impossible while jumping for competition.

Comment received from visitor

SAN MARINO 1963 (and multiple other in ‘sports’ category) I’m almost sure some ‘impossible for competition’ high jumps (as well as pole jumps) you treat as errors were quite normal in the past. I googled the phrase “high jump female 1960” and many photos seem to confirm it. Strange old pictures on stamps can be real. If you can’t check the pictures for jump errors (I’m not competent to do it) maybe less critical descriptions would be better?

Original description of the error

Reindeers do not live in the Southern hemisphere, only in the North.

Comment received from visitor

FRENCH ANTARCTIC TERRITORY 1987 Maybe it is better to change from "error" to "apparent error"? Explanation: what you wrote was true before humans arrived to the Antarctic, but reindeers were successfully introduced in Kerguelen Island in 1956, and several thousand of them still live there wild. I think the stamp is about them. (They were also introduced in South Georgia, but exterminated recently, around 2014).

Original description of the error

This tour started and ended in Prague. The last stage from Pilsen back to Prague was forgotten.

Comment received from visitor

GDR (DDR) 1957 The International Peace Race. In 1957 this tour started in Prague and ended in Warsaw, please consult: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Race so no stage is missing on the map. But there is another error here: while Berlin is represented by the Town Hall and Prague by Charles Bridge and they are easy to recognise, Warsaw seems to be represented by the Palace of Culture and Science, which is absolutely not resembling the real palace. Actually I am surprised that in communist Germany they did not know how the real building looked liked, or perhaps there was too little space in the stamp, so they flattened it a bit. Please, compare it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science. The real palace is very tall, this one looks not tall, but stout and surrounded by strange buildings which in reality do not exist.

Original description of the error

Strange country name on this stamp from Norway: NOREG instead of NORGE.

Comment received from visitor

NOREG is the countryname of Norway in the second language of this country. Can indeed be very confusing for foreigners who are not aware of it !

Original description of the error

Rusland and France both issued a stamp in 1975 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Russian-French relations., but the Russian stamp put the anniversary wrongly in 1974.

Comment received from visitor

RUSSIA 1975 “Wrong year” “Rusland (??) and France both issued a stamp in 1975 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Russian-French relations., but the Russian stamp put the anniversary wrongly in 1974.” Maybe it is the French stamp with error? Russian Wikipedia is detailed about it and states the relationship was established on 28 October 1924. Yes, maybe the stamp was issued a little bit late, but there is no error ON the stamp. On the other hand, when two stamps give different dates, both are good for your collection.

Original description of the error

This Brachiosaurus did not live in water, and his forelegs are too small.

Comment received from visitor

SAN MARINO 1965 “Wrong representation” (dino) Yes, nowadays we think so. But in the 1960’s the idea that such a big animal was too heavy to live on land still prevailed in science (easy to check). Yes, now we think its forelegs were longer. But we cannot blame the designer that he/she was unaware about later development of paleontology. Maybe it would be fair to start the sentence with “Now we know that Brachiosaurus…”?

Original description of the error

At the end of the second World War Poland became a Republic. From then the crown above the eagle was removed from the coat of arms.

Comment received from visitor

USA 1966 crown: There is an error in your description: Poland did not become a republic at the end of the Second World War, but at the end of the First WW in 1918. There is no design error here, only the question of interpretation. The stamp shows the correct arms of Poland until 1945 and from 1989 until today. When the communists occupied Poland in 1944/45 they removed the crown from the head of the Polish White Eagle and that was the only time in history when the Polish Eagle was crownless. So in 1966 this type of eagle was not the official arms of communist Poland but the crownless eagle was rejected by the Polish people and was certainly not accepted by millions of Poles living in the USA. This stamps was issued thanks to Poles living in the USA to celebrate the Millennium of Christianity in Poland, which the communists refuse to celebrate. Communist state in Poland was always very hostile to Christians, so placing a cross and a communist eagle (crownless eagle) would be unthinkable to most Poles and rather offensive. The White Eagle in the stamp represents the Catholic Poland, not the communist one, so it could not be crownless. Such eagle was chosen with purpose and it was not a mistake, as Christian and communist symbols do not go well in a stamps celebrating the Millennium of Christianity in Poland.

Original description of the error

Karl instead of Carl, Lewis instead of Levis, and Los Ancelès instead of Los Angeles.

Comment received from visitor

The inscription ´LOS-ANCELES´ instead of ´LOS ANGELES´ is correct name of this city in Azeri. You can check it on Wikipedia (Azeri). If Frenchmen say “Londres” instead “London,” this is not an error. As for the spelling of Carl Lewis´s name, I don´t know if it´s correct or not. Although the Azeri Wikipedia currently has a different spelling, it´s possible that the Azeri rules for transcribing surnames were different in 1996 (that was just a few years after the abandonment of Cyrillic).

Original description of the error

The orbit of Lunik III is represented quite incorrectly.

Comment received from visitor

You cannot compare orbits depicted in different frames of reference. On the stamp it is mostly symbolic, with Earth-Moon line treated as a solid frame of reference (you look on the moon all the time and draw the orbit as you see it). Your other picture shows another frame of reference (you look all the time at a given star). In one of the frames of references the other is rotating and diagrams are different, but it doesn’t mean without detailed study that one of them is incorrect. Using the same argument, I could say that your sentence “I moved 10 meters upstairs”, and your picture of it, is wrong. Because at the same time in the heliocentric frame of reference you moved 600 km around the Sun (quite different picture!). In my opinion the orbit in the stamp is not terribly bad.

Original description of the error

The wheels of this amphibious vehicle should have been pictured at least partially covered by water.

Comment received from visitor

Maybe this vehicle is not on water, but on ice?

Original description of the error

There is no atmosphere and thus no oxygen on the moon, how explain the impressive flame during the landing process ?

Comment received from visitor

Yes, it´s strange. Mainly because the orbital stage is just above the lunar surface and close to the lander. Whether the atmosphere has oxygen is completely irrelevant. Rocket engines (and there are such here) do not draw oxygen from the atmosphere. In reality, the flame on the Moon was not visible (there is a recording of the lunar module liftoff from the Apollo 17 mission). However, this is a matter of the choice of fuel and oxidizer. If a black powder rocket had been used, there would have been a flame like in the picture (and clouds of smoke). But I understand the designer - if he had not drawn the flames, people would have claimed that the rocket engines don’t work.

Original description of the error

One stick is missing, and in any case it is much too long to be really helpful /Not an error

Comment received from visitor

Years ago this was a normal way to move on the snow. With 2 poles this would have been anachronistic.