Harrison Paper On Scott/Unitrade 1164A?

All four stamps are the 38-cent Queen Elizabeth II issued in 1988. The two on the left are perf 13.1x13.6; the two on the right are perf 13.1x12.8. Going off the perf information in Unitrade, the two on the left must therefore be from the booklet pane 1164d, but that would mean they'd be on Slater paper, and this looks like Harrison paper to me (all four have the same pattern of lines). Are the two on the left some unreported paper variety for the booklet stamps, or am I just misidentifying the paper?

Hi:
The Unitrade catalogue listings for this issue are correct. Booklets (#1164b) were printed on Slater paper with 13.1 x 13.6 perfs, as correctly identified in your left column of stamps. The sheet format stamps are on Harrison paper only, with 13.1 x 12.8 perfs (as noted about your right column of stamps). In these printings the Harrison gum did not appear very different from Slater gum, the former being a bit more matte-looking than Slater (quite shiny). So it may be that the angle you used to look at the stamps hid the gum differences. In a normal scan they are likely to appear very similar. There have not been any reported printings of the sheet version on Slater paper.

There is one other way to distinguish the two papers in this case. BOTH show slight ribbing on the back side. I have attached a scan of the two gums (stamps are rotated 90o), left being Harrison ppr. On it you may see the ribbing move down from left to right [not easy to spot...], whereas on the right stamp (Slater from booklet) it is horizontal from left to right [and much easier to see]. The scan was at 1200 dpi and adjusted to highlight the ribbing as best as I can make it.

So the two stamps in your right column are on Harrison paper from sheet stock, but it's just not easy to spot the gum difference.

Hope that all makes sense!

tommyatkins

The stamps you show look used. In that case you will not be able to distinguish the papers

AQ