10/13/2021
Among the scarcest 20th century United States stamps are copies of the 1917-1919 Washington Franklin flat plate stamps that are perforated 11 on three sides and perforated 10 on one side (either the top or bottom). These varieties occurred during the process of perforating sheets on the standard 11-gauge machine. At a certain point, one of the perforating wheels developed a problem and had to be repaired. When the row of pins on the perforating wheel was reset, some were spaced unevenly and further apart than the others.
Scott lists eleven of these, catalog numbers 498g, 502e, 506a, 508c, 509a, 511a, 512b, 514a, 515d, 516a and 517c. Over the past 15 years only four copies have been authenticated by the American Philatelic Expertizing Service (APEX) — one each of 498g, 502e, 508c and 512b. Scott notes that three of the eleven, 506a, 509a and 511a, exist with transitional perfs where the perforations gauge partly perf 10 and partly perf 11 at the top or the bottom.
One of these transitional perfs was recently submitted to APEX. This previously unrecorded example of Scott 511a is precanceled with the Hoboken, NJ Precancel Stamp Society type 211. The stamp has transitional perfs at the top, starting at the left edge with perf 11 and transitioning to perf 10 at the 5th perf tip from the left.
Scott values this at the same value as a regular 511a, $3,250 for a used copy in the 2021 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers.
Ken Martin
Ken Martin is the Director of Expertizing for the American Philatelic Society. You can learn more about having your stamps authenticated through APEX.
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