United States #507 Perf 11 Three Sides, Perf 12 on Left Side??

Ronald D Edge

I was checking a bunch of early Washingtons, and came across this stamp, Perf 11 Three Sides, Perf 12 on Left Side, with 407 penciled on back. Which it would be, if it was watermarked, which it is not, and perf 12 all sides.
While taking the picture to upload, the left side looks suspicious, but how do you turn a perf 11 into a perf 12 w/0 running ragged?
Scott Specialized list no variant with a perf on one side dif, for this issue, which it does for some.
Just a reperf??

Thanks,
Ron.
edgeonlinesales

Ted Tyszka

Those left-side perfs look too perfect and clean. Was probably a jumbo margin stamp with plenty of room to reperf.

Scott Payton

So let's look at this a little bit logically, and ignore the perfs.
First it's a 7c Washington. There weren't many variations in this one, so should be easy.
There is no watermark, so that immediately narrows it down to 2 possibilities: 469 and 507.
The 469 is a per 10 so that is out.
The 507 is a perf 11, so with 3 out of 4 we know really, the only possibility is this is a 507.

Now, let's look at what doesn't fit: a perf 12 at left.
These flat plate printed stamps were all printed in sheets of 400 and then cut into panes of 100, essentially quartering the sheet, BEFORE perforation.

What that means is, for every pane, the two edges without selvage would be natural straight edges.
During the mid 1900's it was very "unfashionable" for stamps to have a natural straight edge, so many were reperforated to give them that full "stamp look". The sheet is cut on the guidelines, but it's usually off to one side or the other, so there is no appearance of the guideline in this perf, or it would be an instant clue. If the stamp were measured, I'm sure it would still come out to the same width, and not trimmed.

Ted is right, the perf holes themselves show no sigh of speed. (The sheets were fed through machines with big wheels that have pins on one side, and a hole on the other. The pin pushes the paper against the whole which cuts the hole, like a hole punch does), but they are in motion, so one side of the perf hole is pressed in first, and results in some added pressure on the paper as it enters. This side is NEVER perfect. And the opposite side tends to be more smooth, but under high magnification, you will notice evidence of that movement as well.
Comb perforators, like this one:

Don't leave that mark of the speed (which makes a slightly oval shape to the hole if you look at it compared to another perforation made by hand).

So this stamp we know came from the upper right pane of 100 (the only one with a natural straight edge at left), was reperforated at the wrong perf size, but still appears natural at a casual glance.

Had it been a 507 reperforated at left, it would otherwise require utilizing the original perforation or cutting it away, but there is NO WAY to get that kind of wing margin on a FW. It has to be natural straight edge, and that comes from the center line cut.
The outer edges are ALWAYS perforated, as there is selvage attached, so no opportunity for this stamp to be this size, and be reperforated at left, which it is.

Scott Payton

I meant to insert this image as well.
Below is a pane of 100 from a Franklin 331 pane of 100. It is from the bottom right of the sheet:


So you can see how that straight edge gets created, and how this can't come from a a perforated side, as the selvage is always perforated.

Ronald D Edge

I came back to this late, but thanks for the very full and complete explanation of what is obviously a clean cut reperforated left edge. I knew there would be someone with in depth knowledge here who could explain it.

Thanks,
Ron.

Scott Payton

Just realized I made a mistake in my comment before this one... that pane isn't from the bottom RIGHT corner, it's from the bottom LEFT corner. But illustrates the same point, and in the case of your 507, it came from the right side of the sheet, but no way to tell if that was from the top pane or the bottom pane.