Scott 492 With On Piece W/Bad Perfs

I believe this is a scott 492. A common stamp. When I look at the perfs they seem to be misaligned. If this were a more valuable stamp and not still on a piece I would assume this was fake. Someone would not fake perfs to create a badly centered 492 and then use it. I'm scratchin' my head.
So are badly aligned perforations a natural occurrence? If so I need to be aware of that when looking out for fakes.

I believe this stamp was dispensed through a stamp vending or affixing machine and the roll was either loaded out-of-alignment or became out-of-alignment as it was dispensing stamps. I've seen quite a few of these over time. Same thing as you see with a lot of the privately perforated stamps used in private vending/affixing machines. You'll see lot's of Schermack type IIIs and Mail-O-Meter type IVs that are out-of-alignment for sale on ebay. I sure others can add more to this to explain how this happened.

stampcrow... and, as you begin to study and lookup more of the coils in both flat press and rotary press, you'll learn to start recognizing the basic types at a glance. For example, I can tell (even in this blurry pic) that it's Ty III and not the Ty II (*rare*) 491...

I guess what I'm wondering, could this also be the case (funky perfs) if it were a 491? Or did they not get dispensed in this same way?

I believe I have seen 491s for sale on the Bay that look similar the 492 you've posted, so I guess they were also used in a like manner.

That is very interesting and important. If those were authentic 491's then obviously it takes more than misalignment for perfs to be fake.

If the perfs on an offered "491" were perfect, *THAT* would be suspicious. Anyone purchasing a "491" would have to have it expertized... there are numerous fakes out there "manufactured" from 409 stock, which is an imperf flat plate - SLW, and the design is not as wide as a rotary 491. So the very first thing one would do would be measure the stamp... if the width were correct then, dip it in fluid and look for the lack of a WM to be sure. If none there, then straight to an expertzer with fingers, eyes and toes crossed... (smiling)

disi123, no 491 fakes are made from imperforate flat plate stock, at least not a fake that would fool anyone (it would be the wrong type - I vs. II, and the wrong printing - flat, not rotary press.)

The vast majority of Scott 491 fakes are made by altering the design of common type III rotary stamps (i.e. taking a Scott 492 & scratching ribbon shading lines off, etc.) Some of those are extremely well done and require high magnification or other forensic techniques to detect.

The bigger problem doesn't involve fakes at all; most problematic Scott 491's are simply misidentified. There are LOTS of Scott 454's with very light/partial watermarks being offered as 491's. I've also seen a number of 492's with carefully positioned cancels hiding important design characteristics masquerading as 491's.

Al E. Gator was correct that perf "cuts" like these are common on coils dispensed from vending/affixing machines. Cuts from certain machines even have a noticeable/characteristic "curve" to them, like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331142612517

That noticeable "curve" cut from vending/affixing machine use is helpful in identifying bureau imperforated coil stamps used on cover, as well as off-cover examples.

Great info and feedback. Thanks all.