Why Is This 112 Stamp So Wide?

This stamp looks odd to me. It has a grill, and certainly appears to be a Scott 112. The fact that it is so wide and has a straight edge isn't odd. Obviously someone could have cut the perfs off, but even so, is it common that the perfs could be so far apart? Was there that much variation in the perforations of this issue? I have a feeling there is something I don't know about how this stamp was printed.

I've been researching this, and I see that these were printed in panes of 300 and separated into sheets of 150. Could this be a natural straight edge on the dividing line between the sheets?

I believe this is called a straddle pane.

Yes. And the knife was a bit off to the right on this cutting apart of the two pane

great centering

rlsny,
You're lucky someone didn't try to "reperf" the right side of this (because it's a beautifully centered stamp on the 3 margins).
So think about 1869 and what the precision and technology was in those days. This was all handled by humans with a few machines involved, but most of those were still manually operated.
As you mention, the sheets were cut down, and then perfed. So you're seeing natural straight edge on the right. It has a bit of the design of the next stamp over (which would likely have resulted in the perfs of all the stamps in that pane to be hideous). Another term (particularly when there isn't another part of the stamp visible) is "Wing Margin". So this is a wide wing margin stamp, that was cut before perf, and since they humans didn't get it quite right, you end up with a bit of a wide one. Lovely 112 otherwise.

As I am reading this post, an ebay ad pops up with THIS stamp pictured (NOT a 112, but this exact example)! Priced at $85. Also listed in the ad are a 116, 290, and a 311. It's in the normal location on this page for that of an ad - it is NOT part of the poster's post. This cannot possibly be a coincidence. Me thinks ebay knows more about what goes on on this forum than we do! Hi ebay!!! /mootermutt is waving at you/ Maybe I should put pants on, too.

The ebay ads here will show you some recently listed lots from whoever made the post. Sellers register their ebay ids on this site, so it isn't much of a mystery how ebay figures it out.

This thread has mined this forum to gain information for creating an ebay listing without providing a reciprocal level of transparency back to the forum, nor was thanks provided afterwards - not even after the sale listing was discovered. Hmmm.

Hi. Probably a small misunderstanding. I post often in the forum and I'm quite open about the fact that a large part of my hobby is to break down collections for resale on ebay. I only gave a thumbs up in this thread, where I usually give a more explicit thanks. I greatly appreciate the expertise in this forum and I have a learned a lot by asking questions. I hope that clarifies things. Please feel free to ask me anything. No secret here.