Introduction to the 1914 Compound Perforations

New Major Numbers Added to Scott Catalogue

	Scott 423A formerly 424a	Scott 423B formerly 425d	Scott 423C formerly 428a	Scott 423D formerly 424b	Scott 423E formerly 425c

The transition from Perf 2 to 10 began at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing after the arrival of the new 10-gauge perforating wheels in December 1913. The reason for making the change was the Post Office Department’s desire to strengthen the sheets of stamps, which had been perforated with 12 holes per 2 centimeters since 1861. Switching to perf 10 made the sheets easier to handle and less likely to break apart. However, the Perf 10 holes were too far apart, and in response to complaints about the difficulty of separating stamps, the gauge was further modified to Perf 11 in 1917.

Sheets of the Washington-Franklin regular issues were perforated on a straight-line perforating machines, which required two passes, horizontal and vertical. With ach pass, the perforating wheels punched holes between the rows, and the cutting wheel divided the sheet along the guide line. If the same machine and gauge were used for both passes, the perf gauge would be the same in both directions. However, if a different gauge were used for the second pass, then the result would be “compound” perforations. Evidently, this occurred during the transition from Perf 12 to 10.

For many years, the Scott Catalogue listed the 1914 Compound Perforation stamps as varieties of their Perf 10 counterparts. Then, with publication of the 2003 edition, the Compound Perfs were elevated to Major Scott Number status. An article written by Larry S. Weiss in the 2003 U.S. Specialized Catalogue concluded “Thus, students overwhelmingly agree that the compound perfs simply were not errors but rather regular production stamps… they should be catalogued as major numbers.” James Kloetzel, the catalogue editor, added “it is entirely consistent with current Scott policy that regular production stamps having perforation differences of ½ gauge or more in either direction qualify for major number listing… These new, major numbers will appear in the Scott National, Minuteman and Pony Express albums…”