Scott Unlisted 1 1/4 Cent Proprietary Vertically Imperforate Between

Acquired in the Robert Siegel 2007 Henry Tolman auction, the RB25 horizontal pair below was not singled out for individual sale; it was part of a larger lot, hinged to a page in a lot of several other proprietary imperforate pairs and blocks.  The pair is homely, with a crease, a pinhole, and a major centering problem.  But it might be unique.  Tolman included it in his collection because there is no rouletting between the stamps.  There is rouletting all around, creating an imperforate, or "imroulette"-between condition that is somewhat rare among the battlship imperf examples.

RB25 imperf between

The Scott US Specialized Catalog does not list an imperf between version of RB25.  Perhaps it is now time since we now have a certified example:

1 Cent Documentary Roulette Varieties

Three days ago Sean Roberts sent in an interesting 1ct documentary block of 4, apparently nonrouletted vertically.  In turn, Frank Sente sent in some rouletting anomalies, prompting this post on rouletting varieties on R163. 

No Roulette:

This pair appeared in a post more than one year ago.  ex-Joyce and ex-Tolman, this is one of the few known no-roulette examples of the 1c documentary.  The pair is Scott listed but the value is in italics.

"Imperf Horizontally:"

Also Scott listed, this example no-rouletting horizontally is fairly common.  Scott lists the variety as imperf horizontally, though technically the block is imperf vertically too.  Roulette cuts are generally not considered perforations.  This block is part of Frank Sente's collection.

No Rouletting Vertically Between?:

This is the block sent in by Sean Roberts.  There are no obvious roulette cuts running down the center of this block, either from the front or reverse of the block.  Sean reports a vertical crease where the roulettes should be.  An issue is whether such a crease would be considered blind roulettes or no roulettes.  There are clear vertical roulettes on either side of the block, showing that the sheet this block came from went through the rouletting machine.  The wheel responsible for the rouletting running down the middle of the block clearly had a problem.  Does that make this block important?

Shifted Roulette:

Another Frank Sente contribution is this dramatically shifted horizontal roulette.

Realigned Roulette:

Lastly, a roulette that realigned itself part-way during the rouletting of the sheet.  See the left side of the bottom stamp of the pair.  Interesting Pacific and US Express handstamp.

The Revenue Stamps of the United States: Battleship Part Roulettes

Christopher West/Elliot Perry's book on the revenue stamps of the United States has a short chapter at the end of the book and the section on 1898 revenue stamps for "various items."  One of those items is a section on part roulettes.  Here is an excerpt, with my own illustrations (book text in italics):

   Part Roulettes. -- A number of the documentaries and proprietaries exist rouletted vertically, but not horizontally, or vice versa, and at least one stamp -- the 2c documentary -- is known imperforate, that is, without any horizontal or vertical rouletting.  The Boston Book also mentions the 10c documentary imperf, but this value is not now so catalogued.  The stamps listed as existing rouletted horizontally only are: 3/8 and 2c proprietary and $1 green, $3 brown and $10 black documentary.

   The 3/8c proprietary is not rare, nor particularly scarce, part rouletted.  Blocks are frequently seen and at least one full sheet is in existence.  The 2c proprietary part rouletted was offered for sale in May, 1901, the owner stating only 120 pairs existed.  The would indicate that not less that two sheets escaped the vertical roulette...

The "not rare" 3/8c proprietary part roulette.  Deep orange in color

The "not rare" 3/8c proprietary part roulette.  This pair is burnt orange in color.  Color differences in orange stamps are often due to sulfurization, which tends to turn some of the 1/2 cent orange documentary and 3/8 cent proprietary stamps darker, if not brown.  If the colors are true, however, differing colors in the pairs would indicate the part roulette error occured on more than one press run. 

Margin copy of the 2c proprietary part roulette.  I have two pairs of this stamp in this condition and the pairs are not that expensive or scarce.  There are certainly more copies than the 120 pairs reported by Perry.

   The stamps listed as existing rouletted vertically only are: 1/4c, 5/8c, 1c, 2 1/2c, 5c proprietary and 1/2c gray, 1c, 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 10c, $1 green documentary.  The Boston Book mentions also the 1/8c and 1 1/4c proprietary, but the existence of the latter stamp part rouletted could not be verified.  As the 1/8c is not now so catalogued, quite likely it also lacks proper verification.  The dealer who offered the 2c proprietary "imroulette" vertically, also offered the 2c proprietary, rouletted vertically only, in January, 1901, and stated that the entire lot was two sheets.  This would be 200, 216, or 232 stamps, but others may have been found and the stamp is not very scarce today.  The 5/8c part roulette, is usually found in vertical paris cancelled "Maltine."  Only a few pairs and strips are known.  The 1/4c, 1c and 5c are seldom seen. 

Part roulette 5/8c proprietary block of 4 with Maltine logo handstamp cancel.  While Perry indicated this part roulette to be scarce at the time of his writing, the current catalog value for a pair, $85, would indicate that more pairs have come to light in the past 90 years.

5/8c proprietary part roulette pair with Malitine handstamp in roman.  Perry/West doesn't indicate the the type of Maltine handstamp cancel that was familiar to him.

5/8c proprietary part roulette horizontal pair. Unreported by Elliot Perry.

1 1/4c proprietary part roulette horizontal pair.  There is rouletting to the left and right of the pair but not between the two stamps.  There is no evidence of blind roulettes.  This type of partial roulette is rare among all battleships.  Virtually all cases of part roulettes involve non-rouletting on the vertical or horizontal of the entire sheet.  From Tolman's collection of part roulettes.  Unreported by Elliot Perry and unlisted in Scott.

2 1/2c proprietary part roulette vert guideline block of 4. Image of this block can be found in the Joyce and Tolman auction catalogs.

5c proprietary part roulette pair.  Reported by Elliot Perry as "seldom seen".

   The 1c, 2c, and 10c documentary part rouletted are fairly common, the 1/2c less so, and the 4c and 5c quite rare.  Of the 4c, only two blocks, both unused, which came from the same sheet, are on record.  The 5c was reported from Philadelphia in 1898, and some were also used in Chicago in October of that year.

2c documentary pair part roulette

Examples of 1c and 10c part roulettes can be found in previous posts.

One Cent Documentary: No Rouletting

A no roulette, imperf, or imroulette pair of the one cent documentary. Rare to the point of having an italicized value in the 2008 Scott catalogue, unlike the part roulettes, the true imperf is quite scarce and merits a reasonably high valuation.

I acquired this pair and the accompanying certificate from the Henry Tolman sale. Its pedigree can be established prior to Mr. Tolman, as the pair was sold in the Morton Dean Joyce Sale nearly 15 years earlier. Mr. Joyce put together the single greatest collection of US revenues.

1898 Revenues: Perforation Types

Perhaps the most significant feature of the 1898 revenue series beyond the basic battleship design is the method the Bureau of Engraving and Printing applied so that users could separate the stamps. Standard round perforations (now mostly history due to die cutting used on self-stick stamps) were not used on the 1898 revenues. Instead, the Bureau used both "rouletting" and rectangular perforations. Roulette: The block above has been rouletted. As you can see by looking between the stamps, there appear to be a series of cuts. These were made by a wheel with the equivalent of short knife blades on it that cut in between the stamps. The process removes no paper and does not make a hole. By this standard a roulette is not a perforation. Hyphen Hole: The block below has hyphen hole perforations. This process is a perforation process and does remove paper from the stamp sheet. Unlike normal round perforations these are oblong slots that look something like hyphens, hence the name hyphen hole.

When the stamps first appeared in 1898 they were exclusively scored using rouletting. By early 1900 only hyphen-holes were used by the Bureau. I chose blocks to illustrate the difference between roulette and hyphen-hole. Single stamps make it sometimes difficult at first glance to detect the difference between hyphen hole and roulette. Formally, hyphen-hole stamps on this issue are labeled as HH 7 since there are 7 holes per 2cm. Rouletting in R 5.5, since there are 5 and half roulette cuts per 2cm.

The 2 cent documentaries did have stamps that were issued without any rouletting, at least as partial roulettes. There are no known stamps, at least to my knowledge, that are combined imperforate and hyphen hole.