Freak, Oddity Or Fraud 456?

This stamp appears to be a vertical coil with a 9½ perf 19½ x 21½ mm Scotts #456(???) -- there is no 9½ perf coil, so is this a bogus stamp?

Or have I just discovered a 'inverted Jenny'? =0)

Scotts warns of many fraudulently perforated stamps in the market place for this series..... what is your opinion?

Picture is a little fuzzy but both the top and bottom margins appear to have been trimmed rather crudely.

RK - my thought also, but I laid the top and bottom against a metal ruler straight edge and they are straight which surprised me because the top edge appears to have a dip in the middle.

I also laid it on top of another vertical coil of the same series and they match. My original guess was someone made a coil out of imperf, but why then cancel the stamp and why clip the edge. It appears to be a Type IV and there is nothing worth the effort to make a fraudulent stamp.

Thanks for your reply.

Unless a better scan causes me to reconsider, I think your coil is genuine (one of the rotary types, not an offset). The true gauge is slightly less than 10 as you have found. I forget the exact number, but someone will soon provide it, no doubt. The catalog rounds off.

A hi-resolution scan is highly desired. But even with a fuzzy image, consider when the halves are cut and paired up. The slant of the cut matches, either front or back ...



Specifically, I think your coil was run through an automatic affixer of some brand, which typically cuts the coil near the perfs and often at a slight diagonal. See near the very end of this thread, the left example of the 2 cent stamps, which is cut very similar to yours:

https://goscf.com/t/69080

Many collectors would consider the slanted perf-cutting to be damage, but some see it as evidence of the clerical technology of the times.

Thank you John Becker.

I have looked at this stamp very closely and it appears to most likely Scotts 535 Imperforate Type IV that was perforated to run thru a Mulitpost dispenser as you suggest. Is this a realistic scenario?

Your stamp has perforations, it cannot be one of the imperforate numbers. Type IV is also offset-printed, which your stamp is not. You missed that part of my post.

I believe your stamp is one of the normal government-produced coils of 445, 456, 493 494. A better scan would help. (i.e., help us help you, by posting a better scan.)

Mr. Becker, I was quite interested in previous post and would like for you to take a look at my stamp. It appears to be the same. It very well may not be. It to is perf 9 1/2. Remember that 200kb is not a lot when it comes to pic.

Yes, I believe you have the same thing ... a machine-affixed coil stamp.

Scott rounds-off the perforation rate, the actual rate for these is a bit less than 10. Yours is perfectly normal.