copyright oddness

A recent trip to the library led to the discovery of The Fox at the Manger by P. L. Travers (best known as the author of Mary Poppins).

Here is the copyright info:



The book rolled off the press with a copyright date of 1962, and that date was corrected with a rubber stamp to 1949.

The first thought was that this could be the first American edition of a book that was originally published in 1949, and apparently the typesetters were confused, printed a number of books with the current year, and then had to fabricate a rubber stamp to make the correction before the books were released.

But no - a survey of information available on the internet (down to the index to her papers at the State Library of New South Wales) confirms that the book was written and published in 1962.

So why was someone going to the trouble of putting that stamp in?