Caveat Emptor Redux

R163 Block of 4 currently for sale on eBay.

Labeled by Katz as imperf; clear roulettes are shown on the sides of the block

Back in August Stuart Katz also posted this block on eBay, at that time for $450.  His starting price now is $340.  I ran a post at that time on this block that you can find here.  As before the block is mislisted.  This part-rouletted block, worth less than $20, is stil being labeled by Mr. Katz as imperforate, which it is not.  If it was in fact imperf, or more accurately with no roulettes, its value would be +$1000. 

Caveat Emptor!

Hyphen Hole 14 Variety

Following the previous post on roulette varieties, JW Palmer sent in examples of the major hyphen-hole variety, the so-called roulette 14.  Scott refers to this hyphen hole variety as an "apparent roulette 14 caused by the slippage of a hyphen-hole 7 roulette wheel."

Below, from JW's collection, is a presentation of how this variety came to exist.  Exactly how this is a "slippage" issue according to Scott I am not sure.  The R163 sheet below shows how there can be a transition from proper HH perfs to HH14s within the same sheet.

R163 sheet with normal hyphen hole perfs and examples of HH14. 

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.

Cancel for July 1: Part Roulette First Day of Use

July 1, 1898 First Day of Tax Period Printed Bullseye Cancels by Smith, Kline and French pharmaceutical company. The pair above is a part roulette pair and has no rouletting between the stamps. There is a bit of a scuff on the left stamp.

===

Smith Kline and French experienced numerous name and corporate changes, becoming SmithKline Beckman in 1982 and then SmithKline Beecham after mergers, the latter in 1989. In 2000, SmithKline Beecham merged with Glaxo Wellcome to become Glaxo Smith Kline, a UK-based company and one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world today.

===

Listing and Value: In the Scott Catalogue the 5/8 cent proprietary stamp is listed under Scott #RB23. The item listed as "horizontal pair imperf vertically" (actually part roulette) is numbered RB23b. There is a value given in the 2009 US Specialized Catalogue for this item in unused condition: $350. That value is italicized, meaning the item is difficult to value accurately. In the case of this pair there just is not much market activity. However, even the italicized value is for the unused pair, not a used or cancelled pair. For that item there is only a blank, and not even a dash. The dash normally indicates the known existence of an item but no value can be placed on the item. "Christopher West" in his series in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News published nearly 90 years ago did not indicate he knew of the existence of the 5/8 cent proprietary without vertical rouletting, either used or unused. This is a very interest pair given the printed cancel, its date, and the nature of the part rouletting. This pair was a part of Henry Tolman's collection.

10 Cent Documentary: Part Roulette

Part roulette strip of 4. There is no rouletting between the 4 stamps. Rouletting exists vertically only.

Battleship Revenues: 1 Cent Documentary Part Roulette

Examples of part roulettes. The one cent documentary part roulettes are fairly common and consequently cheap. In both the pair and block of four, as with all the part roulettes, the lack of rouletting runs horizontally.
A part rouletted pair of the one cent documentary.

A part rouletted block of four of the once cent documentary. Arrow and guideline runs across the top of the block.