CONCLUSION

According to Murphy's law, "what can go wrong, already went wrong somewhere". I suppose you are convinced now, that this law is also applicable to philately.

Philately involves people, from the day the decision is taken to issue a new stamp, till a letter is dropped in our postbox. And ... where people are involved, Murphy is always nearby.

We all are used, in daily life, to cope with Murphy almost every day. But sometimes, Murphy exaggerates : there are some days when everything seems to go wrong, when Murphy is really hunting us !

Such days also occur in philately !

A poor stampprinter in Ukraïne had such a day in 1920. He just had received an order to print new bicolored stamps with a red frame and a black centerpiece, showing a windmill.An easy job he had already done many times before.

But he had just run out of paper, not only he, but the whole country, so he decided to use the backside of old military maps. While he was printing, Murphy stood next to him, so one sheet of stamps was printed on the already printed frontside of one the maps. And when, after the red frame had been printed, the sheet was passed a second time in the press for the black colour. Murphy was there again, and watched how the sheet was introduced upside down.

The result of all this mess : stamps printed on the already printed side of a military map, with inverted centerpiece !

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