A  THIRD  LIBERTY  COIL  PERFORATION  HOLE  SIZE?

by  Lawrence  Secchiaroli   APS#  4338-112465   BIA# 12528

Over the past few years during the pursuit and study of the Liberty Series coil varieties, several fellow collectors and myself have noticed what appears to be another large hole variety.  As the experts have pointed out, the Bureau's records indicate that there should only be a large and a small hole variety for most of the denominations.

Figure 1 shows two pairs of Scott # 1054c, the 1c coil wet printing.  Bureau precancel collectors will verify this, as the Precancel Stamp Society (P.S.S.) catalog no. is 1054-63 "Long Beach, Calif."  Being a wet printing, the perforation holes by definition are the large hole variety.

Looking closely at the perforations between each pair indicates that the holes on the left pair do not look as large as those on the right pair.  Again, other collectors and myself have noticed this anomaly on other supposedly "identically" manufactured pairs.

What is going on here?

Figure 2 shows the back side of the same pairs to illustrate the differences in the hole sizes better.  Several of the perforations on the left pair are obviously poorly punched, but most look clean and well punched.  Now look closely at those on the right pair.  A perforation or two look similar to those on the left pair, but most look quite more elliptical in shape.  Under 30X magnification, they are even more obvious.  Vertically the perforations are the same, but horizontally the perforations on the right pair are definitely wider.

Conversations with other collectors, including our Chairman, indicate some confusion as to what caused these differences.

I postulate that the same equipment was used to punch the perforations, but for "large-large hole" varieties like the right pair illustrated, the web speed was slightly greater than the perforator wheel speed.  This resulted in a "punch and stretch" of the perforations versus the normal punching only.  No one I have discussed this idea with has been able to agree or refute my postulation.

Do any of the experts out there who know the intimate workings of the presses and perforators used at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing  know the answer?  Am I correct or at least on the right track, or is there another explanation?  Or do we really have a case for a third Liberty Series  coil perforation hole size?

COMMITTEE  COMMENTS.....

Ken  Lawrence : Yes, there are in-between measurements on dry-printed coil hole sizes, but they do not qualify as a separate variety since they were done on one of just two types of equipment.  Larry Secchiaroli's explanation for the in-between measurement may be correct, but the answer might also be pin wear.  I have seen lots of large-hole 2-1/2c coils mis-identified as small-hole, but under magnification the hole height was large while the width seemed narrower because of larger tufts of residue in the leading and trailing edges of each hole.

Bill Dunn : Regarding the "new" perforation hole size between the large and small Larry Secchiaroli proposed: sorry, I can't buy it.  I thought so, too, when I first started fooling with them.  But, when you use the enlargement method I proposed, one sees that they are really large holes that are poorly punched.  To prove this, enlarge the stamp by 155% on a copy machine, then enlarge that one by the same amount, and if you want to really go all out, enlarge that one again.  Now the holes are about 4-plus millimeters across and one sees all sorts of paper fragments on the hole that give it a funny shape -- an ellipse, or oval, if you wish.  But somewhere on the perforation one finds the distance is the same as all other large holes.

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