King George Mufti Issue

The question is!

Number 236 8 cent orange, the bottom(wide)selvedge is about 18mm from bottom to perfs.



The others shown are about 10-11mm, Narrow selvedge.





Is this 10-11mm common for this issue? or do you think they have been trimmed.

Opinions please.

Trodent

What would be the logic in trimming them, and so accurately?
I don't think it's the only stamp series that has selvedge with length variations.

For some issues, it may have been done by the printers and for other issues it may have been done by collectors in order to fit them into their albums and/or mounts. It is probably more acceptable if it was done by the printers.

There's also variation on width of the side selvedge in your examples. I suspect these variations are from the printer, but why there is variation is selvedge size in a series - when the stamps are the same size - is a good question.

Some of the cuts are smooth looking and some of the cuts are rough looking with large and small selvedges. When collecting plate blocks, one should ideally look for straight smooth cut wide selvedges on both sides, if possible.

Unitrade does not mention this trimming but in the BNAPS book by Gary Steel he says that" sometimes one or more margins were trimmed resulting in a narrow selvedge" but he does not say why this was done.

In another place in the book he says that the margins can vary between 6.5 to the fill 17.5 mm. Again with no reason why.

I will ask him if he knows as it is an interesting question.

AQ

Apparently the reason for this is not known and it appears to be quite random as is the amount of trimming.

I wonder if the edges of the sheets were damaged in some way BEFORE they were printed and they were trimmed to save the paper which otherwise may have been thrown away.

These stamps were issued from 1937 I also wonder if the trimming was only done during the war. I do not think that there is any info as to when each plate was being used. At least I have not seen anything.

AQ