452 Coil Lp Or 490 Lp With Rorschach Ink Blot Test For W/M?

Received this pair in the mail from Kelleher Auctions today. Advertised as a 452 Coil LP. It is rotary, perfs seems good, and edges seem pretty good. The watermark threw me for a loop.

It does appear to have a watermark, an "S", bridging both stamps...but it is in a vertical orientation...as in booklet stamps. I know booklet stamps can be larger than sheet flat plate, but this sizes out to your typical Rotary stamp AND the perfs seem good (if it was altered from a booklet pair, they did a darn good job). Does a vertically-oriented watermark exist on non-booklet stamps????

Then I figured I was just over-thinking this and the "watermark" is just a mirage masquerading as such, and this is actually a 490 LP. Thoughts???

Fake coil. Added perfs.

Outside perfs are terrible.

So, assuming perfs were added, what stamps could be altered to create this pair? It is not a sheet flat plate based on size. Booklet pair with outside perfs added and guideline added (and top perfs trimmed)? Can booklet stamps be as wide as rotary?

In theory it's impossible to fake rotary coils, since there is nothing to fake them from. But those perfs really bother me, especially the left side. And the right stamp margins are much smaller then the left stamp margins on both sides.

Agree. The perfs on the left, especially, are terrible. If this was in an individual lot, I am surprised Kelleher lotted it! I hope it was in a larger lot.

I don't see anything wrong with the coil. Perforations are aligned between rows. Rotary press coil watermarks were oriented in the direction of the paper web. Coils were perforated at right angles to the web. Watermarks on horizontal coils were sideways relative to the design, as pictured above. While the terminology is not intuitive, when the watermark letter is at right angles to the design, it is labeled a vertical watermark.

See Volume: 63 Number: 4 Year: 1992 Bureau Specialist: 746 Article: "The Stickney Rotary 11 x 10 1/2 Bar and Wheel Perforator" Author: Louis Repeta

The spacing between the perfs is inconsistent. It is a fake coil, or at best a genuine coil that has been reperforated for some reason.

Philazilla,
cfrphoto is one of the leading Washington/Franklin experts in this country; you can take his opinion to the bank.
Don

I'm with Clark: genuine. Regarding the margins, look at the top-most perforation and bottom-most perforation on the guide line. They are slightly to the right. This is why the margins differ. Bureau staff performing manual manufacturing tasks in 1914 did not always get things exactly perfect.

Clark, as always, thank you for your knowledge and willingness to share.

Regarding the perfs individually, they look on close inspection to have some authentic traits (not perfectly round, fibers present on ends). The rows line up across the stamps. The abnormal spacing exists between perfs 5 & 6 from the top--spacing is smaller than the rest. But, that space abnormality is consistent in each row.

How about a loose perforator pin causing the out-of-position hole? That would explain the row to row consistency. Otherwise, someone took a genuine 452 coil LP, reperforated a single hole in each row...but in a way that makes them line up.


I find identifying reperforations with certainty quite difficult (well, sometimes they are obvious), so I'm always glad for discussions like this.

Thank you Don!

Irregular pin spacing or misaligned pins can be found on early Bureau rotary press coils. I have a few examples on hand where the effects of bent pins can be seen on interior perforations. Holes in the female perforating bars could wear or expand over time after repeated contact with bent pins.

I won't be able to image any of the examples until after WALPEX in Lexington, MA this weekend, but, I have a misaligned pin example handy that I can bring to the show tomorrow.

Coil perforators, developed first were simpler than the rotary press sheet perforator shown below. Vertical perforating wheels and the chopper were not needed for perforating coils. Instead, perforated rolls were fed to the Stickney coiler in a separate step: