Franklin 1c - A44 - Imperf - Opinions, Please.

I seem to be going in circles on this one. No Secret mark or grill, no perfs and a postmark, maybe 2. BUT, it looks like the perfs were cut off one side (maybe perf12) although the stamp and margins look too complete/big to have had all the perfs cut off. Back has 2 spots that might be double paper or another layer added and on the top right corner (back), is that a repair or just a crease? Was this a giveaway at a stamp show?

Definitely a trimmed perforated stamp. These were line perfed and it wasn't too unusual to have a jumbo created by misalignment in the machine. Too bad, it would have been very interesting if left as the full jumbo.

Here's one that only took a moment to find on ebay. Something like this could easily have been used to manufacture your stamp, walkabout.

walkabout, your stamp is a trimmed example of #206, the 1c reworked design of 1881. You can see part of the circles from two perfs low on the right side when the obverse is up.

Dudley, the stamp you show is a #182 if it is indeed on soft paper as I suspect. Similar but different from the one that walkabout is showing. But the idea that he is showing a trimmed jumbo is spot on, and there is no natural straight edge in sight on this one either, so your fully perfed example is also good. Just a different stamp.

Thank you, one and all! I hadn't run across a 'jumbo' before.

billsey - Thank you. Another thing to file away to be aware of - 'accidental stamps'

dudley, when I first looked at the example you put up, I thought it had the secret mark of the Contential Bank Note and was a 156. However, on a closer look, the mark is upside down and probably part of the cancellation or something. Yes, I can see how there would have been enough left over after trimming.

essayk - I recognized the one side as being perfed, but it seemed so odd. Looking really closely with a glass, there are a couple of other circles that help to measure it out to a 12, but thank you for the confirmation.

Once again, thank you. The help and input is appreciated.