E13 Or E16 Special Delivery, But 11 1/4 Perf? Or Am I Stupid And It's 11?

Hello everyone,

I'll start with saying that I am just now rediscovering stamp collecting, so feel free to laugh at me for this question.

I have a US Special delivery stamp which I keep measuring and it keeps coming up 11 1/4 perf. But I can find no such thing online :)

So help please, do these exist or am I measuring wrong? I'm using a Showgard gauge so at least I'm sure that the gauge is correct.

Here's an image, sorry about the fuzziness but the perfs are visible. I could scan it tomorrow if needed.



Thank you

Edit: Sides are 10.5 perf

E13 is perf 11. E16 is 11x10 1/2...

If the sides are 10 1/2, then its E16...

Yes, I go that far :)

So no 11 1/4 variations in existence? Because it's definitely not matching the 11 as far as I can see

According to the Scott US Specialized, no...

But perf variations exist. Measuring perfs - esp within quarters - requires a serious tool & lots of expertise/practice.

Not familiar with the showgard tool you're using, but I'm skeptical. If you want to measure perfs to within a 1/4 , you'll need a much more sophisticated perf gauge...

Both of which I don't have

Thank you for the help though

Compare it to other known perf 11 stamps
Don

I tried that too. I have a twenty cent special delivery which does match the 11 perf on my gauge.

When I align the first holes, the last ones actually do become misaligned but I trust that even less than my gauge.

Edit: My other beginner method was to measure and count :) The 20 cent stamp has 21 holes in exactly 3.7 cm. The 15 cent one measures a bit more than 3.6 cm for the same 21 holes. But again, the differences are too small to be sure

According to the U.S. Kiusalas Specialist Gauge, the Stickney rotary press 11 x 10.5 perforations in Scott are more like Kiusalas 11-70=11.25 by Kiusalas 10.5-75=10.50 Thus, it is actually more accurately 11.25 x 10.50 in quarter perfs instead of only half perfs. (For U.S. flat plate stamps, it is Kiusalas 11-72=10.94 by Kiusalas 11-72=10.94 which is stated as 11 x 11 in the Scott Catalogue. Thus, the perf 11 for rotary (11.25) and flat (10.94) plates is actually different by over a quarter perf.)

Unfortunately Scott has not made such changes in gauge listings when it is warranted. For Canadian stamps in Scott/Unitrade such a quarter difference should be noted for Stickney rotary press Canadian stamps 11.25 x 11 verses flat plate press 11 x 11 stamps, both are still listed as 11 x 11 in their stamp catalogues.

Aha! There's that mystery solved! I should change my username to EagleEye

Thank you jogil

NewToThis: You should be congratulated on making such an eagle eye observation that has been overlooked by the stamp cats (catalogues). Eagles 1, Cats 0

Good one!

But it's actually more like Eagles 0, Cats 1. I was starting to believe that I had stumbled onto an unknown variation

I wonder why they don't update them, though. Such an obvious misrepresentation... Or is it that Scott doesn't list quarters at all?

But since it's the cat's fault, you still get the point.

They appear to list perforation gaugings to the closest halves and not to the closest quarters for old line perforated stamps. For more modern stamps, they list perforation gaugings to the closest decimals (tenths).

Scott has been rounding off perforations for over 100 years.
Don

Good to know. Although it's probably impossible to tell differences in tenths with just the naked eye.

Thank you all for your help. I'm going to like it here

Some. not all