Journey $100 missing intaglio error

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We've seen missing intaglio printing on the Journey $10, and inverted intaglio printing on the Journey $5, but here's a new twist:  A Journey $100 with partially missing intaglio.  Most interesting:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3429&item=3943914591

What could have caused this?  There seem to be vertical streaks over the portrait.  My guess is that the sheet was fed through something that scraped off the intaglio ink on that area before it had a chance to dry.  The last numeral of the "100" counter on the top left seems to be scraped off too.  But what's really strange is that the coat of arms seems to be fully intact.  Very strange.

Any other thoughts?

Out of curiosity, what is the prefix on that $100?

According to the seller it is a EJE 3.2mil

An interesting note !

John O

This error could be caused by the press being near to run out of ink.  This ink is very thick and viscous so it could not (and must not) flow freely from the dispenser. The ink fills the engraved plates and a scraper removes the excess of ink before pressing onto the sheet of paper.  If there is not enough ink to fill all the recesses on the plates, there will be a blank area on the paper.  

    It's also possible that something have clogged the slot between the dispenser and the rotating plates, so the ink is stopped before reaching the plates.  Maybe a defective scraper could  remove too much ink from the plate.

    It could be interesting to know if the notes printed before and after this note  have the same error.  This kind of effor tends to be present on a serie of notes (consecutive and/or adjecent on the same sheet), but normally the defective notes are removed, but one can forget one or two notes...

    If something could have scraped off the ink from the printed sheet, it could left some trailings and smears.  These is not such things on the note.

Thanks, copperpete.  That's what I love about this forum.  Where else could I learn all this stuff?  

An inking problem would not have created a perfectly blank note. This is more likely caused by two sheets being picked up at the same time, and feeding through together. With Intaglio, there is a physical impression, both sheets would get that, (slightly deeper and less crisp) but only one sheet would get the ink. Subsequent processes (serial numbers maybe) would most likely seperate the sheets so they might both get serial numbers. If the two sheets stuck together during numbering and got seperated later, you'd have a sheet with ink on the front, but no serial numbers, and a sheet with serial numbers but no front black ink. I'd really like to see the notes +/- 1 of this one. That would tell a story.

It also means, if these are printed 40 up on a sheet, that there are 39 more of these out there.

But not all the intaglio ink is missing.  Just the part of the note around the portrait is missing the intaglio ink. The large 100 counter is fully intact.  If it were a case of two sheets being fed through at the same time, all of the intaglio ink would be missing.

BTW, is "intaglio ink" redundant?  Kind of like "polymer plastic"?

Intaglio is "printing from a raised surface". Lithography is "printing from a flat surface, where grease and water don't mix" and Gravure is "printing from recessed surface".

Intaglio includes printing from cold, or hot type, various plastic and paper raised plates, engravings and flexography.

In this case, the engraving (raised metal area) of the portrait also should have ink on it. Not all the black ink is printed on the intaglio pass, there is also a black plate for the lithographed pass. I think Tom once told me there where 10 - 14 different processes to get one of these new notes produced, so you really have to be careful.

Here's another very similar one, this time on a $20:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3429&item=3952421561

Might be a fake, I discovered, you can remove the itaglio printing with Goof Off an adhesive remover, it also removes the optical security feature on the bird series $20s, $50s and $100s.