Sale 1093 — The Curtis Collection: U.S. 20th Century and Air Post
Sale Date — Monday-Tuesday, 23-24 February, 2015
Category — 1923 and Later Issues (Scott 578-834a)
2c Harding, Rotary, Perf 11 (613). Four margins, sharp impression, unobtrusive machine cancel, small corner crease at top rightFINE APPEARING 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, available at our website at www.siegelauctions.com/dynamic/census/613/613.pdf , records 43 used singles (one faintly cancelled, if at all), one used pair and a strip of three.
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-13. This is the right stamp from the second pair in the Usticke photo of the Gibbons find. With 1956 and 1992 P.F. certificates
