2c Carmine, Perf 10 at Top
(554d). Deep rich color, wide margins, neat "Des Moines Iowa" cancel,
small corner crease at bottom leftVERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONLY TEN SINGLES, A BLOCK OF FOUR AND TWO COVERS OF THIS RARE PERFORATION VARIETY ARE KNOWN TO US.
Ex Griffith. With 2000 P.F. certificate. (Image)
2c Carmine, Perf 10 at Bottom
(554d). Tied by "Colorado Springs Colo. Feb. 6, 1924" cancel on Midland
Terminal Railway Co. corner card cover to New York, deep rich color on
bright paper, missing small part of top flap, minor edgewearVERY FINE ONE OF ONLY TWO COVERS OF THIS PERFORATION VARIETY KNOWN TO US. A GREAT RARITY OF THE ISSUE.
Our unpublished census of Scott 554d contains ten singles, a block of four and two covers. The other cover was offered in our Sale 826, lot 784, where it realized $7,500 hammer.
Ex Griffith. With 1988 P.F. certificate. (Image)
1c Green, Rotary, Perf 11
(594). Bold strike of "Madison Sq. Sta. N.Y. Oct. 4, 1924" machine
slogan cancel ties stamp to small piece, rich color, long full perfs all
around, originally part of a pair on piece (right stamp removed)FINE A RARE USED EXAMPLE OF THE ONE-CENT ROTARY PRESS COIL WASTE STAMP, SCOTT 594.
The 1c Green, Scott 594, is waste from a horizontal rotary printing used to make coils. At the beginning or end of a coil-stamp print run from the 170-subject rotary plates, some leading or trailing paper was produced that was too short for rolling into 500-stamp rolls. In 1919 the Bureau devised a plan to salvage this waste by perforating and cutting the sheets into panes. They were put through the 11-gauge flat-plate perforator in use at the time, giving the sheets full perforations on all sides. In 1923 coil waste from the new 1c and 2c rotary production was turned into stamps later classified as Scott 578-579 and 594-595. These were the last of the coil-waste issues. The existence of Scott 594 was not reported until four months after the final sheets were delivered, and the 1c Rotary Perf 11 was soon recognized as one of the rarest United States stamps. There are today fewer than 100 confirmed examples of Scott 594.
Ex Sheriff. With copy of 1972 P.F. certificate. (Image)
2c Harding, Rotary Perf 11
(613). Wide even margins on three sides, perfs clear at bottom, sharp
impression, wavy-line machine cancel, faint diagonal crease and trivial
natural inclusion (not mentioned on accompanying certificate)VERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONLY 43 EXAMPLES OF THE 2-CENT HARDING ROTARY PERF 11 STAMPS ARE RECORDED IN OUR CENSUS.
Our census published in the Zoellner sale (and available at our website at: www.siegelauctions.com/enc/census/613/613.htm) records 39 used singles (one faintly cancelled, if at all) and two used pairs. Of the singles, 21 are sound.
The 2c Harding Rotary Perf 11 stamp was first discovered in 1938 by Leslie Lewis of the New York firm, Stanley Gibbons Inc. The Weills discovered three additional singles among unsorted 2c stamps soaked off envelopes postmarked at New Orleans, circa November 1923.
Gary Griffith presents his hypothesis in United States Stamps 1922-26 that rotary-printed sheets of 400 were first reduced to panes of 100 and then fed through the 11-gauge perforating machine normally used for flat plate sheets. This method distinguishes sheet-waste stamps -- Scott 544, 596 and 613 -- from the coil-waste stamps and explains the existence of a straight-edge on Scott 613.
Census No. 613-CAN-31. Ex Cole. With 1957 P.F. certificate (Image)