Three More Fakes From NY Stamps

"In a genuine roulette, you might assume that, under magnification, you will see a horizontal (or vertical) "cut", then the tip, then a cut again. You would for sure see this if every other perforated tip had been trimmed off. But look closer. There should be a tiny "divot" or notch that goes into the stamp body, just before the tip. By tiny, I mean very, very, very tiny. May not even see it on every cut. So, on a genuine roulette, it's actually: cut, notch, tip, notch, cut, etc."

This is what I meant when I discussed "evidence of separation". It is not just a notch, but there should be fibers present from where the paper was torn during the separation. The lack of this is one reason I believe the one cent is not genuine.

This example appears genuine based on this scan. This cancel is also known on at least one other genuine example of this stamp.

I agree. Real rouletted stamps have a "roughness" about them that you get a feel for, over time. Stray fibers, uneven tip ends, etc.

I think 1typesetter's one cent is genuine based on the width of the tips at the top and especially at the bottom.

On the other hand, the two cent has no roughness at all about it. Looks like it's fresh from from an X-Acto knife job.

Jim

As I said, I don't think that is an accurate method to determine genuine roulettes. The 2 cent IS fresh from an x-acto knife, even if it was done decades ago.

FYI-the Brian Bleckwenn mentioned above has been a friend and major mentor of mine for 45 years. He taught me all I know about roulettes, among a great many other things.

revcollector,

Is this what you are referring to?



Also, on the 3 cent, wouldn't the circled areas be a lot narrower on the ends if they were trimmed perfs?



Just askin'.

Yes, that is what we are referring to. Notice that they are all on the SAME side.
No. One of the problems with enlarged scans is that they make margins and perfs seem larger by proportion then they really are. Perfs are actually fairly wide at the base, even 12's. Because they are so short and are magnified, they seem large. And this issue is on a thick soft paper as well, so the perfs are frequently not sharply cut and added bits of paper are not unusual.