Sale 976 — United States Stamps

Sale Date — Tuesday-Friday, 29 September-2 October, 2009

Category — 1922-29 Issues (Scott 574-657a, including Scott 613)

Lot
Symbol
Photo/Description
Cat./Est. Value
Realized
2179
 
Sale 976, Lot 2179, 1922-29 Issues (Scott 574-657a, including Scott 613)2c Harding, Rotary, Perf 11 (613). Well-centered with unusually wide margins for this Rotary Waste issue, with sheet selvage at top, sharp impression, bold wavy-line machine cancel

FRESH AND VERY FINE. ONE OF THE FINEST SINGLES OF THE 44 2-CENT HARDING ROTARY PERF 11 STAMPS RECORDED IN OUR CENSUS.

Our census of the 2c Harding Rotary Perf 11(www.siegelauctions.com/dynamic/census/613/613.pdf ) records 43 used singles (one faintly cancelled, if at all), one used pair and a newly-discovered used strip of three. Of the singles, approximately 30 are sound, but of these only six rate a grade of Very Fine or Extremely Fine. The stamp offered here is especially desirable by virtue of the selvage and its unusually wide margins.

The 2c Harding Rotary Perf 11 stamp was discovered in 1938 by Leslie Lewis of the New York firm, Stanley Gibbons Inc., and the stamp offered here was part of that find. 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-11. Ex Grunin where acquired by the current owner in our 1971 sale. With 1966 P.F. certificate.

45,000
45,000