Wert, I understand why you thought that calling a grill type a "Z" grill might have something to do with its shape. After all, why else call it a "Z?" That question is best answered by the man most responsible for creating the classification system in the first place; i.e. William Stevenson. Stevenson grouped the grills into "families" based on grill size (point count and linear dimensions of a rectangular array of points) rather than the denominations upon which they occur. All the denominations bearing a grill of a particular size constitute the "family" for that grill type. For the earliest grills he recognized seven families on the issued stamps, which he labeled A-F plus Z.
In 1940 Lester Brookman wrote an APS handbook,
Notes on the Grilled Issues of the United States, and included the following note by Stevenson:
Quote:
"The families listed above as A, B, C, D, E and F certainly appeared in this order. Where the Z belongs in the list is in doubt. That is why I list it separately." A bit later he adds: "However, again, the D grill is found only on the 2c and 3c and the Z grill thus almost certainly follows the D grill period. Until we get a sufficient number of dated copies, we can best leave the Z grill thus located as to period."
Because I have only given a partial quote, that explanation might not seem to make logical sense. However, Brookman reproduced his entire handbook as a separate chapter in his
The United States Postage Stamps of the Nineteenth Century, which originally appeared as a three volume work. You can now access this work on the website of the US Philatelic Classics Society. The handbook on grills was in volume two.
Posted 01/09/2015 8:38 pm
