Washington Coils With Vertical Watermarks

I was going through some Wash Franks, trying to validate their identification. While discovering how many were misidentified by myself as a novice or by whoever sold them to me, I found three possible perf 10 coils (could be altered from sheet stamps) with vertically-reading watermarks. Each has an "S" watermark (what I believe is the 5c blue's WM is partially cut off at the bottom margin, and has a partial "P" at the top margin). Sorry about the WM quality on the scan. The 2c and 4c were more obvious in person.

I thought that vertically-reading watermark letters indicated it came from a booklet stamp, but all three of these have large upper margins--larger than I have yet to see on a booklet stamp. Anyone able to tell me what I'm missing??? Can sheet Wash-Frank stamps have vertical WMs, too? Thanks!

You are most likely correct that the 2 cent was made from booklet stamp, not sure if this holds true for the other 2, I try to not get coils because of the number of fakes. 90% of what I find in albums is fake and I am usually unsure of the other 10%

There are no 4 and 5 cent booklet stamps.

For your 2 cent stamp, if yours is perf 10, all booklet perf 10 panes are going to be 2 stamps wide and 3 stamps high. Thus a straight edge at left and right, and maybe at the bottom. (The AEF pane is perf 11, so not an issue here.) To create the stamp you show would take a lot of work to fabricate it from a booklet, both adding and subtracting perforations, highly unlikely.

(edit. And the 2 cent is almost certainly a legitimate coil. Note the matching knife-cuts to the perforations, done with a slight arc bulging to the right indicating it passed through an affixer machine which did the cutting.)

Thus you appear to have legitimate coils, or something altered from sheet stamps.

this is what 1847 website says about sideways watermarks on coils
http://www.stampsmarter.com/1847usa...ntations.htm

All three are rotary press horizontal coils. Watermarks on horizontal coils are vertical (letters at right angles to the orientation of the design). Also, the perforations are aligned between rows. Flat plate coils would have more intense color and would be the same width as the corresponding sheet stamps. Sidewise rotary coils are also wider than flat plate coils or sheet stamps.

Clark

cfrphoto--The vertical WMs on horizontal coils--is that true for all rotary horizontal coils or can the orientation be either way? I've heard from multiple sources for the p12 flat plate coils, that a vertical WM is used to identify coils made from booklets (for 1c and 2c).

It is the orientation of the paper mesh or grain. Watermarks are aligned with the paper mesh. Flat plate sheet stamps from 400 subject plates (with some documented exceptions) all were printed with vertical paper mesh, hence horizontal watermarks (reading across). Yes, I know the terms horizontal and vertical are overloaded here. All flat plate coils must have horizontal watermarks. Rotary press horizontal coils are oriented at right angles to the direction of the paper web. The paper mesh is oriented with the web to maximize strength. As a result, the watermarks, if present, are at right angles to the stamp design and are called vertical watermarks because they read in the vertical direction. Vertical (endwise) rotary coils, if watermarked, will have horizontal watermarks oriented with the design that read horizontally.

Rules applied to flat plate stamps do not necessarily apply to rotary press stamps.

Clark

Clark,

Great info. I had not heard the WM orientation info for rotary coils. This helps greatly! Thanks!