These Telegraph Stamp Varieties Shouldn't Exist

The Scott Specialized catalog says that these Commercial Union Telegraph Company stamps were issued in panes of four, with straight edges at the top, right, and bottom of each pane.

The left edge of the stamps were either attached to another stamp, or were attached to the selvage, which was then stapled into the booklets.

So how do you explain these 'perforated on all four sides' varieties?

To me, the answer is obvious: the stamps were also issued in a larger size pane, one that included a center stamp with perforations on all four sides.

Maybe this should be added to the catalog in the future?

Jim

First step would be to prove the perfs are all genuine.

Based on the image above, are there any that look even slightly suspect?

Jim

Whether they do or not they must be checked. You are claiming a new variety, so that is the first step to proving it one way or the other.

Yes, but I am lazy and it has been a century since they were first listed.

So it's much easier to just post these things here.

Back to my beverage.

Jim

Well, so is Scott. It seems to have always taken a driven/fanatical(?) collector walking in and laying out the example(s) in front of them. Scott #6b, the 1c type Ic was known about for many years with some question over where it belonged in the scheme of things and its pricing. That one wasn't added to the catalog until the 1990s. If a semi-major US stamp of high value like that takes that long to be listed...

Have another beverage.

These days what it usually takes is a new cert for the item in question. Then Scott will add it.

8T1 and 8T2, the yellow and green stamps, are both available in booklet panes of four and the stamps have straight edges. I have seen the yellow stamp with perforations all around, but not the green stamp.

On the other hand, 8T3, the lilac rose stamp, I don't recall ever seeing an example with a straight edge. I have also never seen a multiple of the stamp and all indications are that it was issued in a sheet, not a booklet pane. Scott does not list a booklet pane for this stamp.

Eric

Hi Eric,

The Hiscocks catalogue shows a Complimentary stamp with a straight edge.

Well, either a cert or a strip larger than 2 either horizontally or vertically...

Here's 8T3 with a straight edge.

Along with an unlisted variety and an EFO pane.

Jim

8T1 is also known on regular paper and on a thin, crisp paper.

This paper difference is very obvious when the two are compared against each other, in hand.

Hard to show the thin paper in a scan, but here's an example.

Jim

George Jay Kramer, expert author of the United States and Telegraph Stamps and Franks states" A case for the legitimacy of the perforated four sides of the lilac rose frank may be made as these franks have been noted for years. Full booklet panes of the green and yellow stamps are plentiful; bur none are known of the lilac rose stamp. Further, no booklet covers which would explain its makeup has ever been recorded. This means the franks were produced 3x3, 3x4, 4x4 or larger would all produce a small number of franks without a straight edge.