Perforation 11
COIL WASTE
(see below)
Most of the 1¢ stamps are thankfully different and can be identified by the size of the perforations. However there are two stamps that confuse most folks, #594 and #552. Scotts give the measurements of these stamps, which are incredibly hard to measure I have shown how below. As you can see below the difference is very small and where you place the first notch in the ruler has to be dead accurate the “0” line on the gauge goes flush with the start of the design. By far the easiest method is to purchase a cheap and cheerful 2¢ #599 and compare the two stamps against it as shown below. Note that I have cut the corners off #599 in order to make it easier to line the stamps up.
What is coil waste?
On account of narrow margins, too close perforations, and other reasons some of the coiled stamps produced in the late teens and early twenties were discarded. They became known as coil waste. The two exceptions are a 1¢ Franklin (#596) and the Harding Memorial stamp (#613) which were sheet waste. Perforations were added to make them usable as sheet stamps.
Benjamin Rollin Stickney standing next to a Stickney Rotary Web-fed Intaglio Press.
Stickney revolutionlized the printing of stamps and as a result he became the most promoted government employee of the time. Warren Harding fired Stickney and the top brass of the Bureau based on false allegations. A year later he realised his error and rehired them. Stickney retired around 1930 and died in 1946.
For U.S. sheet and booklet stamps a large Stickney rotary press was used.
They carried on in service until 1962.
The Stickney web fed bar perforator that perforated these web fed
Stickney rotary press stamps were made to perforate at the most
10 stamp subjects across at the time. This machine could perforate either endwise or sidewise coils.