Shu Shu Gah Lodge #24 S7 Varieties or MVE?

Tom Wadnola sent along a scan of two of the S7 Flaps from Shu Shu Gah Lodge #24 and questions should they be listed as separate variations?

You can see the two flaps below, click on the image to bring up a larger version.

If you click on the thumbnail, the two most visible differences are the position of the bird’s beak on the red “H” and the distance between the red “K” and the “NE” in New.

In the top flap, the beak is near the top of the H with white clearly showing between the beak and the crossbar of the H. Also there is a distinct gap (approximately 2mm) between the K and NE.

The lower flap the heron’s beak touches the crossbar in the H and the red K nearly touches the NE in New.

So do we have an S7a or S7b, or is this merely a case of MVE?

MVE…What’s that?

The Blue Book defines MVE as

Minor variations exist. This notation is commonly used when patches are very slightly different, but the difference cannot be described. For example, similar patches that are slightly different sizes will be given the MVE notation.

Well, than what about the Tags?

The Blue Book gives the following explanation for tags:

These are the single threads that connect letters to each other or to the border. Tags may also connect different design elements to themselves or to each other. Often times, different tagging patterns help differentiate varieties of an issue.

If we examine the flaps closely, all of the tags between the various letters appear to be in the same places on each of the flaps.

I pulled one sample of the S7 flap from my dupes and compared it to two in the scan.

The tags are the same and but the placement of the heron’s beak is slightly different from either of the flaps in the scan as is the size of the gap between the K and the NE.

So Variety or MVE?

My opinion is MVE, not different enough for a variety, and likely there is a 2-3mm range in the placement of the beak and spacing between the K and NE in various samples.

What do you think?