1041 Sheet - Markings At Top

I have this full sheet of 1041 Liberty Flat Plate. It has these little boxes and a notch in the UR corner. It does not look like the notch is accidental/damage. Does anyone know what these are for? Thank you.

Look forward to a complete answer from someone who knows but it looks to me like a color registration feature.

Scott 1041 was printed on a flat-plate press in two passes: blue first and carmine separately. My best guess is that the complete hole originally fitted over some kind of locating pin when the sheet went through for the second color. That would help put the sheet back in the same position so the red Statue of Liberty lined up with the blue background. The blue and red U-shaped outlines may have marked the location of that hole and also made it easier to check the alignment. When the sheet was later cut mechanically, part of the hole may have been cut away, leaving the semicircular notch we see now.

The longer blue and red lines are easier to explain. The Smithsonian has an uncut 400-stamp blue plate proof here:

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/...242263.16199

You can see blue guide lines at the center of the sheet margins. I also found carmine plate proofs with the same type of lines in red. Since the finished stamps went through both color printings, both lines appeared on the final press sheet. When the 400-stamp sheet was cut into four panes of 100, parts of those lines remained in the selvage. That seems to explain the parallel blue and red lines on this pane.

I also wondered whether the hole was used when the stamps were perforated. After reading about the BEP's equipment, I'm less convinced of that. By 1954, the perforating machine normally used an electric eye to read printed marks in the sheet margins and automatically adjust the sheet's position. It apparently didn't need a locating pin through a hole.

So, at this point, I think the notch is more likely connected with registering the two color printings, handling the sheet, or cutting it into panes. I still haven't found any BEP source that identifies this exact U-shaped mark and notch, though, so this is only my theory so far.

Sounds good to me!

The lines are clearly color registration marks. I do not recall ever seeing a notch on any panes; screw heads printed, but not notches or holes such as this one.

Might have also insured the 2nd color wasn't inverted.

It's possible that it was there for that reason. This is the top left pane of the sheet, so there was nothing above it.

The one show is three plate numbers after the reference proof. The three sided rectangle lines were not part of blue plate #24912. The vertical lines and the horizontal lines were used for color registration. The fact the boxes appeared later and contain, at least here, a notch does not seem related to later printing related efforts. I like the inversion prevention idea.

The OP's pane is miscut upward a bit. The notch and perhaps the boxes would have been removed if the cutting was properly registered.

The Marginal Markings Committee of The United States Stamp Society may have an answer.
https://www.usstamps.org/committees/

I kept looking and found another example that seems to explain what physically happened here.

This Smithsonian certified proof of the one-color 1956 $5 Hamilton has a complete small square in the same position, but no hole:

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/...0.283370.668

Now compare it with this finished upper-right Hamilton pane. It has a round punch centered in that square, and the top-edge trimming passed through both the hole and the square:

https://kelleherstampassets.s3.us-e.../1010661.jpg

That leaves exactly what we see on the 1041 pane: a semicircular notch with the lower three sides of the box forming a U. It appears to be an intentional printed target for a production punch, which was normally supposed to be trimmed away.

The same complete square also appears on this Smithsonian proof of the one-color $1 Wilson:

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/....242263.2878

Since the Hamilton and Wilson stamps were printed in only one color, the punch could not have been intended only to register the second color or prevent it from being inverted. On the 1041, however, the separate blue and carmine outlines could still provide a quick visual check that the two impressions were aligned at that point.

My best guess is that the hole was an indexing or orientation point used during some later production operation. A hole in one particular location could keep a sheet, or a pile of sheets, facing the correct direction and perhaps fit over a pin or against a fixture during handling, perforating, or trimming. I researched the electric-eye perforator, and it registered the perforations by reading printed marginal dashes, not by reading a physical hole, so I cannot say that this hole was specifically for perforating. What I still have not found is a BEP document naming the mark or identifying the exact machine or production step that used the hole.

The Wilson proof is just a vignette proof for a bicolor stamp. So the idea of preventing inverted centers still holds. Once it was created for that purpose, it would have applied to all printings regardless of color. Every sheet of paper would have to conform to the plate pattern.

The upper right corner of many flat plate sheets was cut at an angle for the same reason. The plate was designed that way so that the paper could only fit in one direction.

Nice research.

Good catch on the Wilson proof; you are right that it is bicolor, so I should not have used it as a one-color example. The single-color $5 Hamilton still has the same boxed-hole arrangement:

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/...0.283370.668

I also found similar boxed holes on contemporary British sheets, where they are specifically called "perforation guide holes":


(uploaded the screenshot since I wasn't allowed to insert the link to this website for some reason)

This article describes sheets being pierced and then placed over matching register pins on perforating equipment:

https://www.les-wilkinson.co.uk/article12.shtml

That fits the indexing/orientation idea well. My best guess remains that it was a keyed production point for keeping the sheet properly oriented during handling or finishing.