Electric Eye Presidential Issue (Prexies) FDC Dates

Are first day covers with the date of June 3, 1938 with U.S. # 806 electric eye stamps rarer than first day covers with the date of April 5, 1939 with U.S. # 806 electric eye stamps?

Someone told me that they were much rarer so that I ended up searching and buying some online, especially since they were being sold as ordinary non-electric eye first day covers.

I am probably missing something here! What is an electric eye stamp?

Peter

Electric eye markings are horizontal lines on the vertical margins of stamp sheets that were used to align the perforating apparatus to keep the stamps well centered electro-optically as they were being perforated. These were on the large two way Harris-Seybold perforators.

OK, I was aware of that. But I did not know that these were being collected. The Electric Eye markings are on the selvedge, I suppose. Are these FDC's stamped with stamps that still have the selvedge?

Peter

Yes. They do have the markings on their selvage margin and that's how they are identified as well as through their plate numbers if they have one on them. They also have a cachet on the envelope saying electric eye first day cover on those for April 5, 1939, but mostly not on those for the earlier June 3, 1938 which is the date for regular sheet stamp first day covers for U.S. # 806.

"On June 3, 1938 when the 2c Adams of the Presidential Series was placed on sale, it was found that sheets of this new value were obtainable with the Type I Electric Eye markings. The Post Office Department had not announced this variety, as there was no difference in the stamp design. However, stamp collectors complained bitterly and the Department promised advance notice when new types or values were placed on sale. Plates 21895, 21896, 21897, 21898 were available on the first day, however, few of the covers were mailed and are difficult to obtain." The Stamp Specialist Emerald Book, "The Development of the Electric Eye", by Nathan Goldstein II, H.L. Lindquist Publications, 1946, pages 87-88.

And here I thought it was those prexie stamps where the president has a particularly piercing gaze.

Consider these Electric Eye examples. Although the seller indicates "cachetmaker unknown", I believe they are displaying Fidelity cachets:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Presidentia...em417cff5471

Electric Eye was a device that employed a beam of light to facilitate more accurate perforation of stamps during the stamp manufacturing process.The markings in the margins and gutters of sheets of stamps that enabled the electric eye device to accomplish its purpose of more accurately perforating stamps. Stamps with electric eye markings were first sold in 1935. Electric Eye Dashes are vertical dashes in the vertical gutter between the right and left panes that were used by the electric eye in the perforating process. First used experimentally in 1933. Electric Eye Frame Bars are horizontal lines in the sheet margin used by the electric eye in the perforating process.This marking was first used in 1939. The Electric Eye Gutter Bar - horizontal line in the left sheet margin at the end of the horizontal sheet gutter was used by the electric eye in the perforating process. This marking replaced the Electric Eye Margin Line on some plates in 1939. The Electric Eye Margin Line - horizontal line in the right margin of a sheet at the end of the horizontal sheet gutter was used by the electric eye in the perforating process. First used experimentally in 1933.

#806 Electric Eye FDCs for both dates (corresponding to Type I and Type II) have basically the same catalog value. The cover should bear at least a pair.

The EE FDCs are very roughly 5x more valuable (in terms of catalog value) than the pre-EE FDC of 3Jun1938.

k

From what I can usually find, the type II appears to be much more common than type I for Electric Eye # 806 FDC's.

My 2001 Mellone catalog does not give a FDCs issued quantity or census for the EE FDCs. It only gives the same catalog value for EE FDCs of both dates.

I would probably agree with you that there are significantly more Type II FDCs than Type I FDCs.

Based on the catalog values for EE FDCs which do have quantities listed, it looks like a few thousand difference doesn't make much difference in catalog value (just a few dollars at most). It's not just quantity issued, but also demand. While I love the Prexies, a lot of the Prexie material easily exceeds demand. Of course, you can cite numerous exceptions, but this is unlikely going to be one of them. For example, I would have thought the EE plate block FDC would catalog for considerably more -- but for 806 it catalogs for only $3 more, a very very modest premium.

Still, it's nice to have a set of all 3 FDCs.

Do you mean for 3 fdc's 1) regular stamp fdc, 2) ee stamp fdc type I, 3) ee stamp fdc type II [but not booklet stamp fdc]?

Also, while currently looking very carefully on ebay, I could only find one type I fdc, but many many more of type II fdc's.

I just bought a Mellone U.S. FDC 2007 catalog for around $10.00 U.S. so that I can look into this specific topic more.

Yes, that is what I meant.

k

Here is an old photo of an electric eye stamp perforation device and a couple examples of printed stamps with pre and post electric eye markings:

Do you find the perforations on the right electric eye plate block to be better centered than those on the left pre-electric eye plate block? The electric eye was used to center space balance place perforations better on stamps.

Yes. the stamp electric eye stamp imiage on right is more closely centered then the pre-electic eye on the left which is off centered.