Possible US Scott 544(Perf 11x11-Dull Green)

Greetings all,

Haven`t been here for a long time. Hope everyone is fine :)
Im on the coins forum(where I have consigned few ancient coins with the owners in the past) usually under pat44 but for some reason I can not log into the stamp forum with the same handle.

Anyways, I`ve been collecting mainly coins(ancient coins), banknotes, stamps, comics..etc for more then 2 decades. I have bought many stamps albums left and right but I don`t really know much about stamps until recently.

So...Here is one that I find interesting and would appreciate the input of those in this field.

Thank you very much for your time :)

Patrick

Short answer: The set-off of ink on the reverse side indicates that this is a flat plate printing, thus can only be 498.

Longer answer: The wide bottom margin without any guideline also indicates this stamp is from a booklet pane, 2 stamps wide and 3 stamps high. The Scott U.S. catalog is not particularly helpful in this area, but the dampened paper for printing sheets vs booklets was turned 90 degrees from each other when printed. When dried the natural grain of the paper caused normal shrinkage of the image in different directions, Thus these 498 booklet stamps are slightly shorter and wider than their 498 sheet/pane counterparts. Scott does not address this well.

The 2020 Scott catalog starts to address the issue with the "special paper" listings of higher denomination Fourth Bureau issue flat plate stamps 563b, 564b, 566a, 567b, 568a, 569a and airmail C11b, special delivery E13a and Special Handling QE1b-QE3b. See the note before 551 on page 71 and the Special Feature article on pages 66-69 of the 2020 Scott United States Specialize Catalog of Stamps and Covers.

Fascinating! Great detective work. Thank you :)

Kind regards

Patrick

(set-offs magnifications below)

Nice magnification.

Thanks