Printing Varieties Part 2: Pre-Print Paper Folds

Hi,

The manufacturing of paper back in 1865 wasn't of the same quality as it is today. The end result is as shown below.

These stamps were created when the paper was unintentionally folded somewhat prior to inking. Once the folding had been removed, blank areas were the result.

Jim

The difficulty that I have had with pre-print paper folds is that it is stamp collectors who are the ones who have unfolded these items. Whenever the cancellation crosses the paper fold, it is obvious that the cancellation was applied on the document while the "paper fold" was still unfolded. So what we have is an artifact of altering the appearance of the stamp after it was removed from a document. The stamp has been soaked and while in this wet and softened condition has been stretched to expose the white space. Not the same as trimming perfs to simulate the scarcer part perf or imperf, but a stamp collector altered stamp nevertheless, which is intended to increase the collector value of the stamp.

I don't generally collect pre-print paper folds. In fact, I only have one, which I acquired because of the cancel. I'm posting it here again on the one-in-a-million, miraculous chance that somebody might be able to identify the user.