In the Harmer-Schau auction of the Patrick Murphy Collection of one cent Washinton/Franklins, there is an envelope with a J. Hull Wilson P.O. Box 1627 Pittsburgh, Pa. U.S.A. corner card, with 343s? and 481s with Wilson Roulettes. Quoting from the description: "Mr. Hull of Pittsburgh bought a considerable number of sheets and perforated the leftover scrap with a sewing machine. Reportedly, when he defaulted on a bank loan, the bank attempted to sell the stamps (he used them a collateral) at face value. The entire remaining lot was sold to the Nassau Stamp Co. of New York where they remained until the late 1930s or early 1940s".
From the H.R. Hamer, Inc. auction of the Georgetown Collection of Washington Franklin Issues, there is a block of four #481 with Wilson Roulettes and a cover with the J. Hull Wilson etc. corner card with #482s with Wilson Roulettes. Quoting from the description: "The origin of this roulette is rather interesting; there were a quantity of imperforated sheets of this one cent stamp left at a Pittsburgh bank as collateral for a loan, which subsequently defaulted in 1920, then a Mr. J.H. Wilson then applied the roulettes to the sheets in order that they could be sold as postage to local businesses to recoup the losses incurred by the bank."
From the
Guide to United States Vending And Affixing Machine Perforations 1907-1927 by Steven R. Belasco, Quoting: "Following the pattern set by the semi-official Kansas City roulettes, other stamps with roulette seperations were produced. One of them, the "Wilson Roulette" was created by a Pittsburgh, Pa. stamp dealer J. Hull Wilson in the 1920s. It has been reported that Wilson obtained these sheets from a bank in Pittsburgh where they had been used as collateral for a defaulted loan. He applied this roulette to the sheets of imperforated stamps to help seperated them. Wilson may have used this roulette on imperforated stamps simply for fun. A number of these roulettes were used by Wilson on his own mail. Wilson mainly applied this roulette to the two cent Carmine Type IV offset issue of 1918-1920. This roulette is also known on 383, 408 and 481. These stamps are all know on cover with J. Hull Wilson's Corner Card postmarked in Pittsburgh, Pa. in the 1920s."
For what its worth, thats what I have in reference to the Wilson Roulettes. There is no reference, to my knowledge, of any sewing machine rouletting on three cent W/Fs.
Posted 07/02/2012 1:45 pm
I've been incredibly busy and still have yet to submit this for expertize to see if this was an actual Wilson Roulette, but, Like your research shows.I am sure there would have been at the minimum, initials located on the back of the stamp indicating it was an authentic example. Soon as I get settled I'll send it off to see what the experts say. I've been pretty excited and looking forward to it.
