5c Blue, Bluish (361). Position 1 (upper left corner in the full sheet of 400, possibly plate 4931) with wide corner sheet selvage showing string of plate printers’ initials “SM--MF--” and manuscript “X” which was applied to the sheets ordered by Third Assistant Postmaster General Arthur M. Travers, barest trace of previous hinge at bottom right along one or two perfs visible only when cross-lighting the stamp, rich color on deeply blued paper, perfect centering with wide and well-balanced margins

EXTREMELY FINE. ONE OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES OF THE 5-CENT 1909 BLUISH PAPER ISSUE IN EXISTENCE. A REMARKABLE STAMP, NOT ONLY IN TERMS OF MARGINS, COLOR, CENTERING AND GUM, BUT ALSO AS THE ONLY RECORDED FULL CORNER-MARGIN EXAMPLE.

This unique corner-margin example was part of a block of four in the Colonel Edward H. R. Green collection (Part 27, Fifield sale, Apr. 23-25, 1946, lot 635), the Amos Eno collection (Harmer, Rooke sale, May 18, 1954, lot 184) and the B. D. Phillips collection. Sometime after it was sold in the 1978 Rarities of the World auction and certified by The Philatelic Foundation (June 5, 1978), it was divided into singles, one of which was subsequently sold to Robert Drucker.

This stamp shows part of the string of plate printers’ initials, each of which was entered by the BEP employee when the plate was put on the press. The position below continues the string, which is its entirety reads “SM--MF--TB--GD”. Another left-margin single of the 5c Bluish Paper is recorded with the same string of letters on this stamp (“SM-MF-T”) but in different positions, so it must be from a different plate.

Ex Col. Edward H. R. Green, Eno and B. D. Phillips as a block, ex Drucker as a single. With 1978 P.F. certificate for the block and 2002 P.F. certificate for the single. Scott value without any premium for the selvage or imprint letters

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