Recent "Red TOLSTOI" ghost image explained

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Current color laser or ink jet printing mixes colors, which is why you don't have to run the sheet through the printer repeatedly. Old style printing applies layers of single colors. The red ink was the last applied on old cards because it was the hardest to cover over (if you mask red with anything else it turns brown to black), except with black or metal (T205 borders). I have a badly misprinted T205 and you can see the print sequence from it. A more likely explanation for the red Tolstoi ghosts is either (1) they used the wrong ink for the back and meant to scrap the sheet but that back sheet bled onto the front of another sheet as they stacked in and they either intentionally or accidentally ran through anyway, or (2) there was another form of card with a red Tolstoi back that they meant to print and it bled onto the sheet in a stack.