2c Carmine Rose, Ty. II, Rotary Perf 11 x 10 (539). Deep rich color and proof-like impression, neat wavy-line machine cancel, unusually choice centering for this difficult issue

VERY FINE AND CHOICE. THE 2-CENT TYPE II ROTARY PERF 11 X 10 IS ONE OF THE RAREST COIL WASTE STAMPS IN USED CONDITION. ONLY THIRTEEN USED SINGLES ARE KNOWN, AND THIS IS WITHOUT QUESTION ONE OF THE FINEST IN EXISTENCE.

At the beginning or end of a coil-stamp print run from the 170-subject rotary plates, some leading or trailing paper was left over that was too short for rolling into 500-stamp rolls. In 1919 the Bureau devised an economical plan to salvage this waste by converting the leftovers from coil stamps into sheet stamps. This was accomplished by cutting the sheets into panes and running them through the flat-plate perforator for the horizontal perforations, giving the stamps perforations on all sides. The Type III design was far more plentiful (producing Scott 540) but a small number of Type II (Scott 539) was also produced.

Since Scott 539 was put through two different perforating machines (perforated 10 vertically on the rotary perforator during the coil part of production and then perforated 11 on the flat plate perforator), most of the stamps are off-center. The rotary press sheets also had a natural tendency to curl, making perforating on the flat plate perforator especially difficult.

Our census of Scott 539, illustrated below and available at our website at http://www.siegelauctions.com/dynamic/census/539/539.pdf , records only thirteen used singles, one used block of four and one on cover. Most are off-center -- only the example offered here and one other (ex Twigg-Smith) have decent centering and are confirmed as sound.

Census No. 539-CAN-03. With 1987 P.F. certificate. We are mystified as to why Scott Catalogue value is so low -- the only example we have offered since keeping computerized records realized $15,500 hammer in 2001.

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