Paste-Up Pairs Question

I enjoy collecting coils. In general, is there a premium for paste-up pairs? Strictly from a pricing standpoint, is there a rule of thumb when, for example, comparing the price of a standard coil pair, a paste-up pair, and a line pair (assume they are all of the same issue, very similar in centering and condition)? There is never a catalog value for paste-ups, so are they considered more rare and therefore more valuable (closer to a line pair), or more like a error and less valuable? Thanks.

A paste-up pair is usually looked at as an EFO, something that probably should not have been. And yes, there are so few available that most regular catalogs do not list them. Even specialized catalogs very seldom list these.
They are however more expensive as a line pair.

Peter

EFO? I disagree. The paste-up process was an ordinary part of Bureau production of coils based on strips cut from sheet stock.

Now, the often misaligned appearance of a paste-up pair may detract, for some collectors. I find it quaint and an interesting conversation-starter, so I readily buy them. I usually find them offered at standard pair prices.

The usual paste-ups were part of flat plate printed sheet stamps that were made into coil stamps by attaching separate sheets together that were broken down into long coil strips.

Flat plate coils were cut from partly perforated sheets into strips. The strips were pasted end to end to create coils. Paste up pairs and center line pairs occurred at the same frequency, every 20 stamps. Hand assembled coils were cut into strips before pasting up the strips into coils. The half sheets were pushed through a specially equipped perforating machine with cutting wheels resulting in parallel, but very slightly irregular edges very different from later "Auto Wound" coils stripped by the Stickney coiler. After it was was available, half sheets were pasted up before stripping into ten coil rolls. The sudden appearance of perf 8½ coils can be attributed to the fragility of the perf 12 half sheets pasted up into a continuous web for stripping. Few perf 12 Auto Wound coils were produced. Later, when sheet stamps were changed from perf 12 to perf 10, flat plate coils were also changed, but the production run was short because they were soon replaced with rotary press coils.

Rotary press paste up pairs could occur if the web broke and was repaired but they are uncommon.

Flat plate coil paste ups (pairs and singles) were for a while actually favored "back in the day" despite their sometimes awkward appearance because it was thought that they had to be genuine in what was then a sea of fakes. But then the fakers started doing paste ups as well. Somewhere around here I have a flat plate paste up single with a clean PF certificate as a member of a pair and bad certs as a single from PSE, PSAG, and the PF. The interesting thing is that the other member of the fake pair has an older clean listing in the PF cert database as a single! Which just means technology and knowledge in expertizing keep improving.

For Stickney rotary press perforated coils (Kiusalas 10-80) that have been repaired from breaking apart with paste-up paper repair tabs, the paste-up repair tabs have been found to be made from flat plate perforator perforated paper (Kiusalas 10-79 earlier and Kiusalas 11-72 later).

disi123, I'd love to see a scan of your 491 paste-up pair (call me very skeptical).

As far as value, paste-up pairs tend to sell at a discount vs. regular pairs, despite being as scarce as line pairs (...yet another interesting but unloved variety!) I have much better luck selling paste-up pairs with hidden plate numbers. They will often sell at a modest premium vs. a regular pair.