Compound Perforations And Control Perfin On Schermack/Scott #392

I'm curious, did you watermark it before you sent it out for a cert? Any picture taken while in the fluid?

Good Luck with it. Even if it's a #343 it has a nice value.

Kcaramat,thanks for getting interested on this stamp,we don't have fluid in France but I owe a signoscope T2 wich it works pretty good and it gave me a P at the bottom cente so I figure is the 3rd from left on the 5th row down,lest wait and see,thanks

The pair of Franklins you show has a Benton Harbor Michigan cancel on it. This indicates it is off a "Covel " cover of vintage 1913. Horizon pairs are seen on cover and bring 100-200 US dollars. The vertical coil on cover is much rarer and hard to price. Off cover the price on these items drops like a rock. The collector Covel who lived and worked in Benton Harbor had his own perforator and made these coils from imperforate sheets just for fun and not to defraud anyone.

Not sure how this relates to the topic. Perhaps the comment is on the wrong thread ??

The Benton Harbor collector that you refer to was Alvin W. Filstrup. He was the purchasing agent for Covel Mfg. During his travels he mailed many items back to himself for his collection.

The Rosback Perforating Co. was also located in Benton Harbor at that time.

Recently picked up this 3c Schermack T.III with control perfin "37". Pretty excited to find it. Does it appear genuine? Is the PF best to certify this?

Congratulations !

The cancel is similar to all known 345s with control marks. I personally am not aware of any that have been sent in for certification.

There is one known on cover and it would appear this stamp was only used by Babson Brothers of Chicago for mailings pertaining to Edison Phonographs.

The envelopes were large and appeared to have to be folded in 2 to pass through the Schermack Mailing Machine. Presumably they were stuffed by hand after the stamp had been applied.

Babson Brothers mailings showed control mark 37 from May 1910 until Feb 1911 when in Mar of that year the #8 pin broke making it pattern 378, later that same month the #6 pin broke making it pattern 3678.

By April 1911 the #4 pin also broke creating mark 34678, the last pattern known used by Babson. No 345s are known with anything but pattern 37. Perhaps that heavy usage took it's toll on the control mark die causing the breakage.

kcaramat - thank you for the fascinating background history on this control perfin.