Used Coil Strip Length

Couldn't find a topic related to my question, so here goes...

Is there any practical reason to collect USED coil strips longer than 9 to 11 stamps? I have one that is 14 sitting in front of me. I think I have some others somewhere. It's difficult to store, let alone mount, these strips without risk of harm.

If you'd like to store these, SAFE has pages that hold up to 18 regular sized coils
I have several longer strips and keep those in medicine bottles



Peter

The answer depends upon which coil stamp design and feature we are talking about.

The fact is a 14 USED coil strip is unusual and that makes it worth saving. Of course still on the envelope would be interesting and just as challenging to mount.

There may be other provides of pages for oversize or long strips but SAFE (google: SAFE Collecting Supplies) and check out the "Specialty Horizontal XL Album & Pages."

Once you have a larger album, you will find it holds many thing and likely will fill up rather quickly as philately is not limited to 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

Wow, those SAFE albums and pages are expensive. Can't justify that. For now, I can put the strip at an angle on an 8.5 x 11 page. I can just store these pages stacked flat until I can figure out something else.

It would be nice to know the Scott # or have an illustration of your strip. Curious minds want to know! I agree with PPG, used strips that long are unusual.

Here is a page of used Prexie line pairs including a line strip of 10. As you note, a strip of 14 will fit diagonally on an 8.5x11 page. Easy!

My apologies, the 14 strip is #842.

There's a thin line between 4th and 5th stamp.

Thanks. Yep, that looks like the least expensive way to store it safely.

That thin line is the gap between the two halves of the printing plate cylinder which can collect and thus print ink, the line for the "line pair." Mint as well as used line pairs are listed in Scott.

Now if that strip was still attached to the envelope, there would be Prexie postal history collector drooling over it. I cannot make the date of the cancels out very well but it seems to be "in period" for the 3 cent Prexie use.

Lastly, my guess is that was not on a philatelic mailing as it still had a line pair. Collectors normally removed them and did not use them rather they collected them.

The line was very easy to miss. I have several other line pairs for this particular stamp, but all are of the thicker line variety. It took me 3 or 4 looks to see the thin line.

The cancel seems to be Appleton, Wisconsin dated Jan 8, 1955.

Line width varies by size of the gap between the curved half cylinder plates and the amount of ink present when the image was printed. You can find thin single lines, thin double lines, and both with much thicker lines printed.

Finding several reasons to root through some boxes of flats, I pulled out covers with long coil strips. I can state that used coil strips of 8 or longer on cover are decidedly uncommon. Non-philatelic uses perhaps scarce or even bordering upon rare. Unfortunately, many large covers don't get preserved due to their size.

The longest Prexie example I found, 2 strips of 7 on a registered cover from 1954:


Strips of 11, the longest strips of any coil I came across. The Lunch Wagon being typical of a multiple of the additional-ounce stamp accompanying a single first-ounce stamp.


Two strips of 10 of the Holmes coil in 1978.
Two strips of 7 paying for additional ounces in 1979.
Strip of 7 of the Consumer Education coil, which I suspect is quite uncommon this long.


Strips of varying lengths of 8 to 10 stamps


Fractional rate transportation coils in strips of 10 prevents loss of fractions of a cent. The last only being 8 stamps long.


A commercial transportation coil use, a strip of 8 on a 9-ounce flat to pay for the additional ounces.
Although only 5, finding multiples of the variable rate coils seems unusual.


More recently, the self-adhesive coils do not readily allow for intact strips or multiples in the traditional sense. Additionally the rate progression of several decades ago allowed for paying for each ounce individually up to 12 ounces or more before the Priority Mail rate kicked-in. Now that rate jump is after 3 ounces or thereabouts.

(All items here are scanned from full flat-sized mail pieces at not trimmed down.)

Thanks for sharing. Some nice examples there.

John:

Your Prexie cover with 14 of the 3 cent horizonal coils is close to a "record".

Rich Pederson maintains several on-line census pages for Prexie stamps. For coil stamps, he does not make a distinction between individual stamps versus stamps in a single strip, but it is an interesting site to visit.

The home page for "Largest Number of a Given Prexie" is here:

https://www.pedersonstamps.com/most...cel-or-piece

The Page for this 3 cent horizontal coil stamp is here:
https://www.pedersonstamps.com/3cen...izontal-coil

He shows covers with 17 and 15 stamps. His third place cover has only 12 stamps in two strips of six stamps.

Mike

I cannot disagree. Supplies can be and are quite expensive at time. I try to treat myself to one item every now and then. It is normally now until the Monday of MLK Jr. Holiday Weekend that Lighthouse offers a 20% off sale. I don't now (yet?) if SAFE has a certain sale period.

There is demand for used supplies and as such ebay for example is a good place to score used items. Depending on the particular items, used prices are not much less than new for certain discontinued or high demand items.

Mike,
I was unaware of his site. It shows the "other" side to contrast with solo uses!

I have a couple of items I should scan for 3rd or 4th place here and there, but I really don't chase prexies too closely..

Including this one. Registered April 16, 1951 from the Philatelic Sales Agency, using the vertical coil stamps.

Great thread, a lot of nice items posted. Definitely keep that big Prexie strip intact. On ebay a piece like that should sell for double-digits despite its modest catalog value.


I once bought an oversize (9x12) Postal Commemorative Society album of Lady Diana FDCs for cheap, not because I wanted the FDCs, but because I could use a big sturdy album for large covers and other items at a much better price than a new, or even used album would cost. Fortunately it was local so I didn't have to pay shipping because that thing is heavy and won't fit into a Flat Rate mailing box.

For your strip of 14, you can hinge it every 3 or 4 stamps, carefully aligned to not twerk the perfs. Better would be to mount it in a couple of Showguard strips to keep safe. I would prefer the "open at top" variety rather than "split back" for easier handling a piece this big.

Edit: added photo of my contribution to the thread, a strip of 4 six-cent coil #846 on oversize cover. (Pederson record is 20 #846 on a single cover).