Damage On Mailometer Stamp

This Mailometer stamp has an irregular top edge. Could this damage have been caused by the Mailometer machine?

Perhaps this was from an over-zealous set of scissors that cut the stamp off the envelope before soaking?

Yes, probably. They are pretty scarce over here, in fact this is the first one I see in person. There are quite some in ebay US , but none with a similar irregularity. Thank you for the input.

re: full height
I would start by comparing this stamp to another vending coil. Two scenarios come to mind:
1. The left side is "full height" which would point to damage, more likely by the recipient or a later salvager/collector after exiting the mailstream rather than during the mechanical coil application process.
2. The right side is "full height" which would point to a sudden paper buckle in the coil stripping process, likely from an edge row of the paper web..

Very well but as I said I never saw one in person at coin shows and this is the first and only one I got now. US stamps are not abundant here on the European continent.
I will have to watch out and wait for another one.

Well, after a 40 year collecting hiatus a was not aware that I own two more of the type.
Comparison shows that the "nose" on the upper margin is not the remainder of an over-zealous pair of scissors but looks like surpassing full height, John's number 2 scenario. Thus not a damage but worthy of keeping.

An excellent follow-up image!
It will be interesting to see additional observations from others.

Always assuming that all are genuine, of course. All vending coils have been faked to some degree, even inexpensive ones.

What came first? The perforations, the precancel or the coiling?

I have lots of Schermack/ Mailometer precancels and I really don't know. Does anybody know? Belasco or Howard never mentioned the process.

I would expect that pre-cancels would be done in the sheet. Then stripped and perforated.

That makes sense but by who? The final mailer? The post office?

The V&A companies trimmed the margins and pasted 150 sheets together. Perforated and split them into coils, making 20 coils of 3000 stamps.

The Bureau required that anyone purchasing imperforate sheets must mail them from the same post office as purchased. Seems pretty straightforward for Chicago and New York, but how did they handle Ashland,OHIO, Covington,KY and other known precancels for companies that weren't located in a city with stamp perforating machine?