Imperforate On 3 Sides

I am curious about the stamps on these covers. The Lincoln is imperforate on three sides. The Washington is almost the same except for three perforations on the top left. I did a little research on this and found several possible answers: one, the Lincoln is the top stamp in a coil; two, the cutting blade in an auto. affixing machine was awry. Any other thoughts? Are these stamps unique to the point of extra value or just damaged and worth little? Thanks for any responses.



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Hi and welcome,
Your discovery was right on. I do not consider them damaged but I also would not consider them particularly valuable. On cover they represent examples of an affixing machine application of coils stamps from that era.
Note: Some of the cover/postal history folks might want to see the entire covers front and back to better understand if the covers might carry additional interest and/or value.
Don

Hi, is it possible to see both covers full scan?

Stampmaster

Hi Don. Thanks for the reply. Always nice to get the second opinion of someone in the know.

Stampmaster: Attached are the pics of the front and back cover for Washington. Thought I already had a Lincoln front, but turns out I didn't. In a rush, so can't include right now. That being said, the front is plain beyond what you've seen (other than the address, no return address). Bend in the lower left.
I was sifting through my collection this summer. My parents were moving to a new home and wanted stuff that I still had stored with them gone. It was a good motivation for me to sort through all of the envelopes, loose stamps etc. that my grandmother had willed to me. In the process of sifting, I learned a few things about cancellations. Although the collection is focused primarily on Canadian stamps, I did find a number of US covers. Some of them are intriguing, but again, I'm not very familiar with the philatelic cover world. If you're interested in seeing other covers, let me know. Most are old, ranging from the 1880's through 1950's. I have included one just because it was almost a huge gem. The cancel is beautiful and clear, but for some bizarre reason, the day of May was somehow not imprinted. As well, the back stamp shows May but not the day. If it had only been May 1 . . .

Sorry Stampmaster. I thought the pics would have my titles. The back with just the bar cancellation is the Washington cover. Lawfirm is the Lincoln back.

Your 1 cent Pan American is a 3rd class mailing, thus the "day slug" was removed from the bottom center of the postmark on purpose - so it was never there to print. Also notice the back side, the flap was originally tucked-in (unsealed as required of 3rd class mail). The rest of the Buffalo receiving cancel is under the flap (technically a transit cancel on its way to Canada). Hopefully it hasn't been sealed by someone later and you will be able to re-tuck the flap and restore it to its original appearance.

Thanks for responding John. Fascinating stuff. I had no idea. I took another look, and only the very tip of the back flap is sealed. I was able to lift up the sides to look for the transit cancel. Apparently it went through Boston (I think) on May 15. Interesting that something would go from Buffalo to Boston to Ontario, Canada. Anyhow, would it be a no-no to unseal the tip of the flap?

I agree that the likely explanation is a slightly misaligned coil going into an auto-stamp-affixing machine where the blade is not exactly cutting on the perfs. A second possibility is that a person with a coil of stamps was using scissors to cut them apart to avoid possible ripping of the stamps and they were less than exact in where they were cutting.

Your 3-sided stamps show every trait of dispenser miscutting. There is no reason to look further. You will find other threads on this board which discuss the Multipost dispenser, which was one of the most common types. The stamp is often cut at a very slight diagonal, so a perfectly centered straight cut is virtually impossible.

On the Pan American - Yes, I would carefully attempt to jimmy the flap loose and re-tuck in inside to reveal the entire reverse-side cancel - just the way it went through the mail.