Possible "Experimental Coil" Covers

A customer of ours, who is also a long-time (and fairly knowledgeable) U.S. stamp collector, professed that he has had these two covers for decades, purchased at different post card shows. He brought them in to a local coin show today for our examination. I have my reservations on both for different reasons, but I thought I would post them here for commentaries/feedback.

Things like this are better examined in the flesh rather than by scans. It might help if you can provide a larger image of the stamp on the second postcard.

That said, here's where scans/photography help. On the first card, traces of perfs can be seen quite clearly on the right side. EDIT: Duh, those are the dotted lines on the post card. Further, Was this scanned on a flatbed scanner? The straight sides must be parallel to be genuine and that's not true here. No question to me that the stamp belongs, but someone has carefully razored off the perfs on at least one side. A magnifier will likely show those traces.

Interested viewer, no experience.
Did these (1c) exist as Horizontal Coils?
Were they constructed by Government AND private institutions?

rod, the horiz coil exists and is Scott 318. This was a governmental production only with this perf 12, but private companies used the imperf coils made for their use, adding their own perfs. Schermack made horiz coils with this design, with both the 2 rectangular slots and the 6 hole perfs styles.

Has there ever been a used 318 that's been confirmed as genuine? Everything including covers submitted to the Philatelic Foundation have failed (one with opinion withdrawn), including ones dating to 1908, the year of issue.

Cheers HB
I have seen an image of the 2c shield Govt Coil on cover

Shown in the *.pdf
"The Third Bureau"
Author : Gregory Shoults

I was reading it last year for my motley collection of coils
It is a nice Monograph.

Query: If they are made up from imperf sheets, why may they have a "distinct colour"

Here are some better close-ups of both stamps.

The possible 318 with the vertical perforations does not appear to be tall enough between the straight edges to be certifiable as a coil.

The possible 316 with the horizontal perforations is more interesting. The first test is to determine whether the stamp is from sheet or booklet stock, which differ by the paper grain being rotated 90 degrees from each other as it was placed in the press. The paper was dampened for printing, then dried resulting in image areas for sheet stamps being slightly taller and skinnier than the shorter and wider booklet stamps due to the paper shrinking at different rates with- and cross-grain.

As an example, here is a Scott 300 from a sheet, provable by perforations on all four sides, made into an overlay template by cutting off several corners.

Here is a booklet pair, provable by the straight edges at both left and right of the pair:

When overlaid to align the upper left corner (aligned at black arrows), the red arrow shows the width of the on-cover booklet stamp is wider than the overlaid template stamp from a sheet. Similarly, the green arrow shows the height of the on-cover booklet stamp is shorter then the overlaid template stamp. No absolute numerical measurement is need - just the comparative height/width ratios.

Measuring the on-screen image of the possible 316, I get a height/width ratio which would indicate a booklet origin, rather than a coil, but an in-person comparison would be highly desirable.

The guide line: The Scott Specialized catalog has these two diagrams of how press sheets of sheet and booklet stamps were marked and cut for retail sale. For normal sheet stock, the guideline was not perforated, only cut. However the sheet stock used to make these early coils was handled differently and the guide line was not cut, and WAS perforated resulting in the production of the first "line pairs"

In booklets, the guide line fell within the booklet pane and was perforated.

The possible 316 could be from either of the colored roes. So the guide line is possible on both early coils and booklets (but not sheets).

Summary, I doubt both of these as being genuine coils also, but have not seen them in person.

If true as a genuine 316 horiz. coil, then it woulb be ½ of a coil guide line pair. Guide pair = $325,000 in 2010 Scotts.

Schrödinger's cat - as long as you don't have it certified, it always could be.

There seems to be a lighter, whiter area above the top straight edge of the horizontal coil indicating the possibility of perforations being removed. The toning of the top edge of the stamp and the area above the lighter area seem to match. On the bottom, there seems to be some evidence of a natural straight edge; there appears to be some green ink showing a partial portion the guide line where sheets of 400 were separated into sheets of 100 for distribution to post offices (unless its just a shadow?). On the vertical coil, the cancellation lines on the left appear to be darker except they are uniformly lighter in the area where perforations would be, suggesting that perforations may have been removed and the cancellation added. Also, the cancellations lines on the right may be added lines?

Just my opinion of what I see in the scans. As stated, in-person review by expertizing folks is warranted on these rare coils.

Reedededge, What are you observations/reservations?

Reedededge, What are you observations/reservations?

Without getting into too much detail, in the case of alleged #318, I compared it to the PF-certified #318 single and pair in my collection, and found slight differences in the size of the design. I also noted what appeared to be shadow perforation toning at the top of where the alleged #318 was adjoined to the cover, leading me to think that the top perforations were trimmed and the stamp was replaced on the cover. In the case of the alleged #316, I sadly do not own an authentic example to compare the questioned stamp to, so I used images available through Siegel. I found differences in the stamp's color and the extra-wide side margins which seemed out of proportion to the known authentic examples. Also, careful examination reveals that the cancellation lines seem to have an ever-so-slight break in their continuity from the cover to the stamp, leading me to believe that the stamp may have been removed, altered and then replaced on the cover. Admittedly, I did not go to all of the analytical lengths that some of the other true scholars on this forum did.

316: an overlay with a #300 sheet stamp is a very easy test. There is a high likelihood it will show your stamp to be from a booklet.

The thickness of the stamp above the surface of the card often leaves a small gap in the cancel as it runs off the stamp onto the card. This is not a "kiss of death" trait, but quite normal.

Martin Armstrong in his United States Coil Issues 1906-38, (1980 2d ed) maintained that horizontal coils would have been postmarked Washington DC or Baltimore, and vertical coils in DC or Indianapolis.

The govt experiment with stamp vending machines selling these was held in Union Station in DC, and then horizontal coils went to a company in Indianapolis while the vertical went to a company in Baltimore and a company in DC.

Armstrong is rather dated. Anyone know if there is revised wisdom on this?

- Jonathan

There is a high likelihood it will show your stamp to be from a booklet.

Just to be perfectly clear, these are NOT my stamps. An elderly gentleman brought them into The Annandale Coin Show last Sunday. He does not own a computer, so I told him that I would do a little research on his behalf. I did also add for him not to get his hopes up.

Without stamps in hand and only being a hobbyist, my opinion is not really important. But my first thought was, 'the odds of finding one of these coils is very long, the odds of a collector having two of them must be astronomical'.
Don

Definitely out of my comfort zone, but when you start playing with the brightness, contrast and saturation values of the second image shown above, it appears as though round semi circles appear toward the right, indicating toning where perfs used to be... If it was a flat edge it's whole life, well then it would be straight.

sus...


My bet is a trim job.