US #301 - Attempt At 301c Booklet?

All,

This one has been hanging out in my stack of "to research". I may be over thinking this one but could this be a 301 top margin pair along with several others stamps cobbled together to represent a 301c booklet. (lot of effort if that is the case) Perfs are all over the place and the stamps are all hinged together on the reverse with clear separations also appears re-gummed. Obviously low value but interested in thoughts from others. I don't collect booklets so this one has just be laying around and I thought I would learn something.






Thanks for any thoughts.

Hobsun

Just get a known 301 sheet stamp and compare the design sizes. Booklet singles of this era have designs that are slightly shorter and wider than that of their sheet counterparts. FWIW, this pane looks legit to me.

As Rhett notes the dimensional difference ... it is due to the 90 degree turning of the paper in going through the press for sheet vs booklet printing in this era. The paper is dampened for printing, afterwards the paper fibers shrink differently with the grain vs cross-grain when the damp printed paper is dried. Besides comparing height/width against a known 301 sheet stamp, the watermark direction will be turned 90 degrees. There appears to be a sideways letter on the 3rd stamp when looking at the back side. A scan in fluid would be revealing. Looks like legit booklet pane to me also.

Many thanks to both of you.

The watermark is definitely sideways (that one was easy to check and nice to learn, likely should have seen that nugget of information somewhere before now but as noted not a booklet person thus far). The stamps also measure just a tad wider so this looks like a legit 301c. Unfortunate corner cut and lots of hinges covering all connections but no money in it and learned something.

I now see in Scott the notification that the Wmk is vertical. All the more reason to read things carefully especially in areas that are outside what one normally looks at.

Thanks again.
Hobsun

One can notice remnants of some perforation holes on the vertical sides. This could be evidence of perforations being trimmed to make imperforate sides.

Jogil,

I noticed those as well and this started me down the path of questioning the overall item in the first place. The sideways WM and the measurements noted above pushed me towards these being legit 301c stamps vs standard 301. That being the case the 301c stamps would have not perfs on the sides to trim. Even the photo of the 301c booklet as shown in the Scott catalog has edges which are not clean and could lead one to think they were trimmed to some degree. The actual perf separations and the hinges rejoining them concerned me more in terms of piece-mealing a full pane of 301c stamps. In the end my current thoughts are that this is legit 301c all be it in bad condition.

Thanks

Don