"Quality Control," Circa 1862

LOL.

Jim

European perforating machines, 10 different sized first issue revenues, lots of time pressure to get the stamps out all conspire to cause a lot of wild perforations.

Still, seems like there was an awful lot of "meh, close enough" going on at the time.

Jim

Interesting but not that uncommon. No way is the stamp worth 90x catalog.

We should not be surprised by these printing freaks. We know that Butler & Carpenter had difficulty perforating the stamps, leading to the delivery of imperf and and part perf stamps. They did not wish to waste a lot of otherwise well printed stamps.

Let's also not forget that in the 1890's a New York stamp dealer acquired a perforator to enhance his stock of first issue revenues with stray perforations, adding to the myth of bad perforating practices at Butler & Carpenter.

$5-10 maybe. $45? No way.

This is the same seller who puts up items like this one. This is a major stamp seller on eBay, and I am not exactly sure how he has missed the whole row of perfs on this "imperforate" stamp.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/U-S-USED-R9...AOSwuxFY0wS9

BLEAGH!

Bart,

I saw that row of perfs along the right side also. Yes, I agree that one should not have been missed.

Maybe we should send him a note to be more careful when he trims off the perfs to completely remove them?

I would never accuse anyone of doing so unless I KNEW that they did it. And some people are such newbies that they won't know, but I do not at all believe that is the case here.

Looking at that stamp carefully actually shows perts on three sides, which might set a record for an imperf.

It's the ultra-rare "semi-perforated" variety.

I would prefer the term "imperfish."

Jim

The original R3c is still available with no bids if anyone is interested in this "radical" misperf

-Willie

Along with some new fakes mixed in among the new listings.