The Jay Hoffman Collection of United States Stamps continued...

FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF ONLY 40 RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THIS MAJOR 20TH CENTURY RARITY.

Scott 482A, like its more famous predecessor, Scott 314A, was issued imperforate by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and sold to the Schermack Company for use in its patented stamp-affixing machines. The Schermack "Sealer and Stamper" machine typically applied stamps one at a time, and, in most cases, the hyphen-hole perfs on one side would be cut off. Unlike Scott 314A, the release of imperforate sheets printed from the experimental Type Ia plates escaped the notice of contemporary collectors, and, therefore, this stamp has a very small survival rate.

Our updated census of Scott 482A published in the Zoellner catalogue and available at our website at: http://www.siegelauctions.com/enc/census/482a/482a.htm records three covers, one unused single, a used pair and 34 used singles for a total of 40 stamps. Most examples are either cut well into the design or have the Schermack perfs trimmed away on one side.

Schermack Type III stamps are often cut into the design by the oblong perforations or miscut with one side of the perforated margin missing. This problem for collectors, which meant very little to contemporary users of the stamps, resulted from two consecutive events. First, the sheets were perforated with the Schermack holes, creating an opportunity for misalignment between the stamps. Second, when the strip of stamps was fed through the Schermack affixing machine, the cutting blade did not always align with the space between stamps.

Census No. 482A-CAN-37. Ex Lake Shore. With 1998 P.F. certificate (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. A BEAUTIFUL MINT NEVER-HINGED EXAMPLE OF THE 5-CENT IMPERFORATE DOUBLE ERROR IN A BLOCK OF TWELVE. AN IMPRESSIVE MULTIPLE.

During the course of production of the normal 2c plate No. 7942, three positions were noted to be defective. The plate was returned to the siderographer, who burnished out the three positions and mistakenly re-entered them using a transfer roll for the 5c stamp. The error passed unnoticed and the sheets were issued to the public Perf 10, Imperforate and Perf 11 (Scott 467, 485 and 505). The imperforate is by far the rarest of the three.

With 2006 P.S.E. certificate (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. A BEAUTIFUL BLOCK OF NINE CONTAINING A MINT NEVER-HINGED EXAMPLE OF THE 5-CENT IMPERFORATE ERROR.

With 2004 P.F. certificate (Image)