Sale 1148 — The Barry K. Schwartz Collection of The U.S. 1909 Bluish Paper Issue
Sale Date — Tuesday, 28 February, 2017
Category — Eight-Cent Olive Green (Scott 363)
8c Olive Green, Bluish (363). Left imprint and plate no. 4922 vertical strip of three -- separated into singles at the time of the Colonel Green auctions in the 1940s and later reunited and expertly rejoined along the horizontal perforations -- bright fresh color, deeply blued paper!FINE. THIS REJOINED STRIP IS ONE OF TWO RECORDED IMPRINT AND PLATE NUMBER MULTIPLES OF THE 8-CENT 1909 BLUISH PAPER ISSUE IN PRIVATE HANDS. A MAJOR 20TH CENTURY RARITY.
The June 1910 Third Assistant Postmaster General’s report states that 4,000 (ten sheets) of the 8c were printed on Bluish Paper. It is believed that none of the 4c and 8c Bluish Paper stamps were distributed to post offices, and that all of the examples in collectors’ hands reached the market through the Travers-Steinmetz exchange and the 1914 National Museum trades to H. F. Colman (12 copies) and Nassau Stamp Company (65 copies).
Four different plates were used to print the 8c Bluish Paper on the Hoe & Company four-plate press: 4919, 4922, 4923 and 4924, but only number 4922 has been recorded from surviving examples. This strip comes from the left of the upper left pane. The top imprint and plate number multiple from the same pane is offered in lot 136 of this sale, and no others are believed to exist in private hands. A pane of 100 from the upper right position of the same plate was reported by Boggs to be in the Post Office Department files.
In the absence of a plate block of the 8c Bluish Paper, this imprint and plate number strip assumes far greater significance. The top imprint and plate number strip offered in lot 136 is the only intact plate number multiple of the 8c Bluish Paper in private hands. The rejoined strip offered here, from the left side of the same pane, was offered in three different auctions in the series of sales of the Colonel Edward H. R. Green collection. The top “4922” stamp was in Part 21, lot 336 (Heiman, Mar. 19-23, 1945). The middle “aving & Printing” stamp was in Part 20, lot 408 (Laurence & Stryker, Mar. 5-6, 1945). The bottom “Bureau, Engr” stamp was offered a year earlier in Part 15, lot 62 (H. C. Barr, Mar. 23-Apr. 1, 1944). As recently as 2009, when the bottom stamp was sold by our firm in the Alan B. Whitman auction (Sale 968, lot 469), the three stamps remained apart. Finally, after more than six decades, they were reunited and expertly rejoined along the horizontal perforations.
All three ex Colonel Edward H. R. Green. Each stamp accompanied by at least one P.F. certificate, as follows: top (1973), middle (1950, ex Jack R. Hughes), and bottom (1983, 1997, ex Whitman).
Scott value for the intact strip is $150,000.00. Scott value as three singles without premium for the plate number and imprint
