They're from a later print run, and are either a bit of something that got into the platemaking process-Lint would be a possibility- or someone deliberately scratched the black plates in a few spots.
The deliberate scratching the plate seems the most plausible. Seen up close they look much less like random lint and more like a tiny pointing hand.
If it was lint in the process I'd expect to see them turn up in different spots with different colors. When they were new variations were very popular and the sets all got a load of close scrutiny. So if there had been blue, magenta or yellow ones I'd have thought they'd have been found.
Steve B
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