Help With US Scott 491 Paste Up Pair Revision

Adding this: They are still showing me as new so I cannot respond to replies.
My response to: Trying to separate these two will undoubtedly damage either stamp. Why do you need to separate to sell them on ebay? My answer would be: I do not Need to seperate them to sell on ebay. My question was should I separate the left on and send it in for certification? the reason would be that as a Paste Up Pair they are worth about as much as a regular pair or less, but the Scott Catalogue for 2024 shows the US Scott 491 value as $5250 which would be worth the fee for certification. The right stamp would be worthless but that would not matter. Here is my original post:
Hi, I have a question about a specific US Scott 491 paste up coil pair I purchased some time ago. Question is could I separate the left stamp from the pair and send it in to be certified as a US Scott 491? It does have perforation 10 and seems to meet the other requirements of a 491. If I separate the left stamp there would be very little left margin but ample margins on the other 3 sides. I have been selling off most of my US collection and was getting ready to list this on ebay as the paste up pair but noticed that the left stamp may not leave any indication that it was part of the paste up pair. Where the right stamp has what looks to be the plate number 6963 or maybe 3696. I will upload a couple of images that I hope it will help. Thanks in advance.

Trying to separate these two will undoubtedly damage either stamp. Why do you need to separate to sell them on ebay?

Probably 6963. Here is the picture rotated. Remember, this is the view from the back.

Don't separate the paste-up pair. It will only reduce the value. The whole is worth more than the sum of the parts.

I hate to break the news to you but note that #491 is a rotary press coil (type II) and your photo shows a flat press coil #444 (type I). The pencil notation on the back even says so, I think it says "1914 # 444 / 3.00 pair". I don't normally trust the IDs from previous collectors without verification, but I believe it is correct in this case.

Update: you don't have to edit your original message to reply to posts, just hit "Reply to Topic" at the top of the page to start a new post in this thread.

Definitely flat plate. Checking a Durland catalog will hp confirm the id.

NOT 491. Leave the pair alone.

The pair is a type one #444. Plate #6963 confirms it.

By definition, paste-up pairs do not normally exist on rotary press stamps. Since the rotary press could produce rolls of coil stamps that are infinitely long, paste-up pairs would only exist if a problem happened when the paper tore and was spliced back together.

Flat plate stamps, on the other hand, were produced in sheets that were only 10 or 20 stamps wide. The sheets were cut into strips and pasted together side by side (or top to bottom) to create the coil rolls of up to 1000 stamps. The seam where the strips were joined creates the paste-up pair. Paste-up pairs are about as common as line pairs, but having the plate number adds extra collectability.

For reference, my Durland catalog prices a paste-up pair of 444 with plate number at $350 versus Scott's $120 for a normal pair and $300 for a line pair.

Thanks for the information. I knew it was a flat plate printing vs Rotary but thought maybe they did something different with paste up coil pairs since I am not really familiar with them. I could not read the writing in pencil on back but thanks for deciphering that for me. The information on the plate number seals it so thanks again for all the input and help. Bob.