Show Your US 1857 Perforated Stamps

Thankyou Mootermutt987 ,,are these varities described the same described in catalogue #16 imperforate 10 cent section ?

Yes, the details described in the catalog for the Types I-IV of the ten cent imperforate #13-#16 are the same for the perforated issues #31-#34 and with the addition of the Type V only found on the perforated issues, #35. I agree with Moot's findings that what you have is a nice-looking and clean #35.

It is possible to be misled by the catalog description of #13 (and by extension #31) as having complete or nearly complete shells at the bottom. True enough, but #35 also has complete or nearly complete shells. One must check the completeness of the side ornaments as well.

I'm happy to have received these recently in an 1875 Scott album. Finally working a scanner to share.

2 more to add

Beautiful specimens clovnfire!!! A bit of oxidation on the 3c and 30c but very nice.

Thanks for checking these out. They just came from an 1875 Scott international album a boy born in 1860 enjoyed filling full. It went to his son and grandson who is now 93 years old. It put me in shock in 2020 for months. I think he lived next to stamp store in New York city perhaps.

Sharing a recent acquisition along with the text of the exhibit page write-up -
________________________________________________

THE RAREST UNITED STATES PLATE CRACK VARIETY -
3c 1857 POSITION 10R2L - Perforated - Scott #25A

Commonly known as the "RECUT BUTTON", it is a stellate crack on the last stamp in the top row of the right pane of plate 2 Late.

Dr. Carroll Chase felt that the crack opened up in January of 1852 when the plate was being worked over.

To quote page 58 of Dr. Chase's book:
"It consists of three short lines about 1mm long, nearly parallel, starting from the top of the (toga) button and runningupward and slightly to the right, and three more, fainter, starting from the other side of the button, and running to the left and slightly downward."

Plate 2 Late produced several one position varieties which are incredibly rare perforated. This plate produced approximately 2,400 impression which were perforated making it, when considered as a perforated plate, approximately ten times as scarce as the rare plate "0".

About 1 out of every 1,000 stamps printed from a specific position survives in philatelic circles.

Dr. Chase has stated this statistic. It can be verified by almost to the exact figure by a random example:

Stanley Ashbrook has uncovered in his career about 40 copies of the Type I one-cent 1851 stamp (Position 7R1E) and we know that there were about 38,000 impression made from plate 1 Early.

With this as the standard, two copies of the above crack should have survived in the perforated state - and certainly no more than five would exist at the very most.

It is doubtful that an unused example exists.

______________________________________________________

Bearing a black "SEP 11, 1857, XXXXXXCKIE, Wis"consin Circular Date Stamp cancel. The perforations cut into the design, but the scissors cut separation reveals the entire design.

If anyone can assist in identifying the Wisconsin Post Office that might have cancelled this stamp, I would be very interested. Also, if anyone knows of another example of this recut/stellate crack in a perforated state, I would be very interested.

Stanshepp, I have that position but not perforated. I thought it was a recut.

stampcrow,
It is a very good stamp imperf as well.

Its probably Milwaukie. That's the old spelling of Milwaukee.

Based upon the date, 9/1857, you can see they were still working out the kinks with the early perforating machine(s). The 3c perforated EKU is 2/28/57, but that was a very limited run/use, and such "first contract" perforated 3c stamps are quite scarce.

Things picked up a bit in early July with the second contract (with Toppan Carpenter and the government for stamps, and now perforations). But July and August into Sep were still a testy period for getting good perforations on stamps that afforded reasonable separation. I expect that the general public was also getting used to them for the first time, and were still used to scissor, and other forms of separation.

Thanks, txstamp!

MILWAUKIE it is.

Stan Shepp

Hey all,

This appears to be a top row stamp. Scott #26 or #26A.
A relief - with the damaged transfer.

The framelines both appear to be at least a little bit doubled.

I would normally just guess #26, but those frame lines don't appear to be right for a #26.

Thoughts?

Stan Shepp

Top row #26.