Bob,
Now that you have taken WAG #1 off the table, let me â??viciously attackâ? WAG #2! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> As you have noted, the small crown is applied over the Crown/Z inspectorâ??s mark. Also, this small crown is on all of the C/Z marks I have observed, and it occurs in random positions and orientations with respect to the C/Z mark, so it is obviously independently struck. As I recall, some of these C/Z marked First Issues had not been modified, so that would seem to rule out the application of the small crown to indicate the modifications had been completed (perhaps some of the forum members that have unmodified First Issues could corroborate this). Also, why overstrike an inspectorâ??s mark rather than making it a clear and separate stamp?
Your tongue in cheek remark that â??Guess it took Inspector "Z" a month or two to qualify and Inspector "T" had to cover both dutiesâ? got me thinking and prompted my equally off the cuff remark â??I guess Inspector "Z" needed additional supervisionâ?. Now that I have thought about it some more, I find the idea that â??Inspector Zâ? was serving an apprenticeship and the small crown was a senior inspectorâ??s double check very appealing. No way to verify this of course, but it provides grist for the mill. Here is another chance to â??scourgeâ? me (or at least a whack on the nose with a rolled up newspaper).
WAG #3 is starting to look pretty good too.