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

FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE THE ONE-CENT FRANKLIN ROTARY PERF 11 ISSUE, SCOTT 596, WHICH IS ONE OF THE KEYS TO A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF UNITED STATES STAMPS.

The Rotary Perf 11 rarities (Scott 544, 594, 596 and 613) were created during an attempt by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to salvage waste from the end of the paper during rotary press printings. The rotary press, first used for printing coil stamps in 1915, was a new printing method designed for rapid production. Rather than print stamps on a flat plate one sheet at a time, the rotary press was fitted with a cylindrical plate that continually applied impressions to long rolls of paper.

Rotary press stamps have dimensions that differ slightly from their flat plate counterparts, due to the curvature of the cylinder. If the plate is wrapped around the cylinder from top to bottom (endwise) then the design is slightly longer, if wrapped around from side to side (sidewise) then the design is slightly wider.

At the beginning or end of rotary press printings, there was some leading or trailing paper that was too short for either rolling into coil rolls, or for perforating for 400-subject plates. In 1919, the Bureau devised a plan to salvage this waste by perforating and cutting the sheets into panes. These were put through the flat-plate perforating machine in use at the time, giving the stamps full perforations on all sides.

Scott 596 is waste from a vertical rotary press printing used to make sheet stamps -- a fact proven by the existence of precancelled copies such as the example offered here.

Our updated census of Scott 596 published in our Zoellner sale (and available at our web site at: http://siegelauctions.com/enc/census/596/596.htm) records thirteen used stamps. Of these, eight are precancelled at Kansas City Mo. There are no known unused examples.

Census No. 596-CAN-12. Ex Lessin. With 2002 P.F. certificate (Image)

FINE. A RARE SOUND EXAMPLE OF THE 2-CENT HARDING ROTARY PERF 11, WHICH IS ONE OF THE RAREST OF ALL 20TH CENTURY ISSUES.

Our census of the 2c Harding Rotary Perf 11 (as published in our Zoellner sale catalogue and updated at our website at www.siegelauctions.com/enc/census/613/613.htm) records 43 used singles (one faintly cancelled, if at all), one used pair and the recently-discovered used strip of three. Of the singles, approximately 30 are sound.

The 2c Harding Rotary Perf 11 stamp was discovered in 1938 by Leslie Lewis of the New York firm, Stanley Gibbons Inc. Gary Griffith presents his hypothesis in United States Stamps 1922-26 that rotary-printed sheets of 400 were first reduced to panes of 100 and then fed through the 11-gauge perforating machine normally used for flat plate sheets. This method distinguishes sheet-waste stamps -- Scott 544, 596 and 613 -- from the coil-waste stamps and explains the existence of a straight-edge on Scott 613.

Census No. 613-CAN-38. With 1978 P.F. certificate (Image)