Franklin One Cent Identification

Hi all:

I'm thinking the stamp pictured below is a Scott 352 but feel uncomfortable with this because: 1) the top of the stamp is not straight; 2) no obvious watermark.

There does appear to be 20% of a single line watermark "S" in the bottom right corner (looking at face of stamp), but given the location the entire watermark should be visible, and its not.

The curved cut top margin could result from the envelope being cut open with scissors.

At 7x magnification, the stamp appears to be 18 1/2 mm wide and 21 3/4 mm tall. Perfed 12. Looking at the back, there is a small tear left side at end of a paper crease that extends diagonally from center of left side to near bottom right corner.

What do you think?

TIA,

Burnside

You've done some good work on this stamp so far. The lack of a watermark means it is not a 352. There's a nice tool available to assist in narrowing down Washington Franklins:

http://www.stampsmarter.com/feature...rank_ID.html

There's also a companion site that has a lot of detail on commonly fraudulent Washington/Franklin:

http://www.stampsmarter.com/1847usa/WFFakes.html

All 1 cent Franklin stamps of this design have either a single-line or double-line watermark. There are no unwatermarked types.

Good rule of thumb for on obvious watermark, go with single line watermark. Double line almost always leaves something, even if only a nub.

Thanks you all for your contributions.

Risny, I looked at the Stamp Smarter WFFakes page you linked. It states that the one cent Franklin Coil stamps, Scott 352 and 387, have a "proper height of at least 25 mm".

My stamp measures 23 1/2 mm at its tallest along its right side, a measurement which suggests it most likely is a fake.

Thanks for steering me to a good source.

Burnside.

Genuine coils will have the opposite straight edges absolutely parallel. The top edge of this stamp clearly slopes. This alone condemns your stamp to a non-coil, in addition to the lack of proper minimum height you noted. One would conclude your stamp is from sheet stock with trimming damage at the top (at least), whether intentional or accidental. The bottom edge may be a natural straight edge from the sheet-to-pane cutting process during manufacture.

Thanks for your reply, John.

John, or anyone, another feature of this stamp that bothered me was the perf lines because they are not square with the design. On coils, can the perf lines be off square? And if they can be, would these pass muster?

Could this be a doctored booklet pane stamp, 374a? If it had been made from the imperf 383 the forger could have gotten the stamp height (25 mm) correct. If from 374a one row of perfs would have to be faked. From 383 both rows would have to be faked. The two rows of perfs are very slightly out of parallel with one another.

TIA for any responses.

Burnside

Bob, in this time period the perf lines are not always perfectly square to the design. Booklet stamp possibility can be determined by design aspect ratio; just compare the design of your patient with a known flat plate booklet or sheet stamp. (Flat plate booklet stamps of this period have wider and shorter designs than their flat plate sheet stamp counterparts.)

Terminology: Your stamp is not a fake or forgery. It is a genuine stamp. It is a sheet stamp which has been trimmed intentionally or accidentally and now has a faint resemblance to a coil, which is it not. No amount of wishing will make it a coil.

Imperforate and booklet stocks cannot convincingly have various perforations added or subtracted to pass muster as coils.

Thank you John Becker! Your posts have been the best.

I have always had a hard time with water marks. Since all flavors of this design and denomination have water marks, you'd think I could figure the water mark out.

Well, I've had this stamp in Rosignol so many times, I can say with certainty that Rosignol does not leave residue, but I can't say for sure if this stamp is SLW or DLW. I do see a curved line bottom left. Or did I?

Either way, its not a coil, and thanks for helping me thru the woods.