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Postage stamp separation

May 04, 2023

For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other.

The Penny Black is imperforate.
Separation of imperforate stamps by scissors, knife or tearing often leads to uneven margins on the stamp as in this 1853 stamp of Van Diemen's Land.
Vertical pair of 1d red, from Plate 70, perforated with the Archer experimental roulette.
Perforated and imperforate versions of the same Austrian stamp of 1920.
A rouletted United States revenue stamp of 1898.
"Bantam" stamps from South West Africa showing normal and rouletted perforations. Three stamps could be printed using the paper normally used for one. Produced during World War II as an economy measure.
This pair of coil stamps clearly shows the pattern of perforation holes; also, on the left side of the pair, the stamp was torn, while on the right the perforations were cut with scissors or knife.

Methods of separation include:

  1. perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes
  2. rouletting: small horizontal and vertical cuts
  3. diecutting: cut paper to shape using a metal die—used for self-adhesive stamps.

Early years

In the early years, from 1840 until 1850, all stamps were issued imperforate, and had to be cut from the sheet with scissors or knife. This was time-consuming and error-prone (as mangled stamps of the era attest). Once reliable separation equipment became available, nations switched rapidly. Imperforate stamps have been issued occasionally since then, either because separation equipment was temporarily unavailable (in newborn nations for instance), to makers of automatic stamp vending equipment (the United States did this in the 1900s and 1910s), as novelties for stamp collectors (particularly when stamps are issued in souvenir sheets), or as errors.

Henry Archer

In 1847, Henry Archer constructed the first (rouletting) machine, the "Archer Roulette", to separate stamps. His plan, submitted to the Postmaster General on 1 October 1847, was referred to the departments of the General Post Office and the Inland Revenue. Two such machines were built. After experimentation both machines proved to be failures. From one machine a few stamps from Plates 70 and 71 have survived. This machine consisted of lancet-shaped blades working on a fly-press principle and piercing the paper with a series of cuts.

Archer then abandoned this approach in favour of perforation, a process which used rows of small round pins to punch out the holes. In 1848 Archer patented his perforation machine which worked on the "stroke" principle. The arrangement of the pins enabled the top and sides of each stamp across the row to be perforated in a single operation, and this became known as "comb" perforation. Perforation trials were conducted in 1849 and 1850 under the auspices of the British Government and stamps from these trials were first issued towards the end of 1850. The Archer machine proved the viability of the process but never entered service. Archer's patent for his perforating machine (no. 12,340 of 1848, dated May 23, 1849) was purchased for £4,000 in June 1853.[1] New machines based on Archer's principles were constructed by David Napier and Son Ltd; these were initially used in October 1853 for revenue stamps and from January 1854 for postage stamps.[2]

The rotary process

Also in 1854 a "rotary process" was patented by William Bemrose and Henry Howe Bemrose. The Bemrose machine was designed as a rouletting machine. As such, it proved impracticable for stamp separation but in 1856 was successfully converted to a perforating machine by George C. Howard of Toppan Carpenter, stamp printers for the American Government.[3] Both the stroke and rotary processes have been refined since then, but are basically still the ones in use in the 21st century. The key decision for the perforator is the spacing of the holes; if too far apart, the stamps will not separate easily, and the stamps are likely to tear, but if too close, the stamps will tend to come apart in normal handling. In a few cases the size of the holes has been a factor. In the case of certain stamps produced by Australia for sale in rolls rather than sheets (coil stamps) a pattern can be seen on the stamp's short side of two small, ten large and two small holes.

Measurement and variations

The standard for describing perforation is the number of holes (or the "teeth" or perfs of an individual stamp) in a 2-centimeter span. The finest gauge ever used is 18 on stamps of the Malay States in the early 1950s, and the coarsest is 2, seen on the 1891 stamps of Bhopal. Modern stamp perforations tend to range from 11 to 14.

Stamps that are perforated on one pair of opposite sides and imperforate on the other have most often been produced in coils instead of sheets, but they can sometimes come from booklet panes. Booklet panes can be associated with any combination of one, two or three imperforate sides. Sheet edges can produce any one imperforate side or two adjacent imperforate sides when the stamp comes from the corner of the sheet.

Variations include syncopated perforations which are uneven, either skipping a hole or by making some holes larger. In the 1990s, Great Britain began adding large elliptical holes to the perforations on each side, as an anti-counterfeiting measure.

Rouletting

Rouletting uses small cuts in the paper instead of holes. It was used by a number of countries, but was rarely if ever seen on modern stamps until the die-cut serpentine roulette self-adhesive varieties appeared. Varieties, often described by philatelists in French terms, include straight cuts (percée en lignes, and percée en lignes colorées with inked cutting bar), arc (percée en arc), sewing-machine (perce en points), sawtooth and the serpentine roulettes (perce en serpentin)[4] used by the early stamps of Finland.[5] Because self-adhesive stamps contain a sticky layer, it is far easier to roulette the separations, than to actually punch out the holes for perforations.[6]

A few types of stamps have combined rouletting and perforation, for instance South Africa in 1942.[7]

Self-adhesive stamps

The first self-adhesive stamp was issued by Sierra Leone in 1964, and by the 1990s these stamps came into wide use. These are inevitably diecut, meaning that the stamps themselves are cut entirely apart, held together only by the backing paper. At first the backing paper was itself solid, but in a repeat of history, is now slightly rouletted so as to facilitate tearing off blocks of stamps without having to remove them from the backing. Since the diecut goes all the way through the stamp, any shape will work, and the original self-adhesives were straight-edged. However, the tradition of perforation is so strong that more recent self-adhesives have a wavy diecut simulating the perforation. It can be recognized by studying the edge of the stamp closely; true perforations will have torn paper fibers on each tooth, while simulated perforations are smooth. From 2012 to 2016 the United States also sold small numbers of the stamps issued during this period in sheets without die cuts, thus creating imperforated varieties of them. Their issuance was very controversial.[8]

Collecting

For the stamp collector, perforations matter, not only as a way to distinguish different stamps (a perf 10 may be rarer and more valuable than a perf 11 of the same design), but also as part of the condition of stamps. Short or "nibbed" perfs are undesirable and reduce value, as are bent or creased perfs. Although the collector could count the number of holes using a ruler, the usual practice is to use a perforation gauge, which has preprinted patterns of holes in a selection of common perforations, requiring one merely to line up the stamp's perforations with the closest match. Rare stamps are often expertized in case they have been reperforated.[9]

Errors

As is inevitable for a mechanical process like perforation, many things can go wrong. Blind perfs are common, occurring when a hole is not completely punched out, as are off-center perfs that cut into the design of the stamp, sometimes very badly. Occasionally pairs or larger groups of stamps may be imperforate between meaning that they are not separated on all sides. Although it is very common to have different gauges of perforation horizontally and vertically, in rare circumstances a stamp may have different perforations on opposite sides; in the case of US stamps only a handful of these are known to exist. The various types of perforation errors are collectively known as misperfs.

See also

References and sources

Notes
  1. ^ Williams, Louis N. (1990). Fundamentals of Philately. State College, PA: American Philatelic Society. p. 756. ISBN 0-933580-13-4.
  2. ^ "Stamp Perforation: The Somerset House Years 1848 to 1880 (Ray Simpson and Peter Sargent)
  3. ^ "The Bemrose Perforating Machine", The London Philatelist, February 2009 (Ray Simpson)
  4. ^ Kloetzel, James E.; et al., eds. (2008). "Introduction". Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. Vol. 1 (165th ed.). Sidney, Ohio: Scott Publishing Co. p. 23A. ISBN 978-0-89487-417-8.
  5. ^ Kloetzel, James E.; et al., eds. (2008). "Finland". Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. Vol. 2 (165th ed.). Sidney, Ohio: Scott Publishing Co. pp. 1119–1120. ISBN 978-0-89487-417-8.
  6. ^ Baadke, Michael (2 November 1998). "Stamp separation appears in many forms". Linn's Stamp News. from the original on 2 February 2017.
  7. ^ Kloetzel, James E.; et al., eds. (2008). "South Africa". Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. Vol. 6 (165th ed.). Sidney, Ohio: Scott Publishing Co. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-89487-417-8.
  8. ^ USPS press sheets: more questions than answers
  9. ^ A Sharp Eye on collecting US Classics (Sharp Photography Publications, 2021) ASIN B091MBTGJ7 (read online)
Sources
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stamp perforation.

Further reading

  • Felix, Ervin J. The Stamp Collector's Guidebook of Worldwide Watermarks and Perforations, from 1840 to date. Racine, WI.: Whitman Publishing Co., 1966 256p.
  • Johnson, R.A. Stamp Perforations with Particular Emphasis on Canadian Stamps. Ottawa: British North America Philatelic Society, 2009 ISBN 978-1-89739-148-8 100p.
  • Williams, L.N. and M. Centenary Of Perforation. In: Gibbons Stamp Monthly, March 1954, Vol. XXCII, No. 7. 3p.

External links

  • Images of different types of perforations, misperforations and errors.

May 04, 2023
postage, stamp, separation, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor,. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Postage stamp separation news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2014 Learn how and when to remove this template message For postage stamps separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other The Penny Black is imperforate Separation of imperforate stamps by scissors knife or tearing often leads to uneven margins on the stamp as in this 1853 stamp of Van Diemen s Land Vertical pair of 1d red from Plate 70 perforated with the Archer experimental roulette Perforated and imperforate versions of the same Austrian stamp of 1920 A rouletted United States revenue stamp of 1898 Bantam stamps from South West Africa showing normal and rouletted perforations Three stamps could be printed using the paper normally used for one Produced during World War II as an economy measure This pair of coil stamps clearly shows the pattern of perforation holes also on the left side of the pair the stamp was torn while on the right the perforations were cut with scissors or knife Methods of separation include perforation cutting rows and columns of small holes rouletting small horizontal and vertical cuts diecutting cut paper to shape using a metal die used for self adhesive stamps Contents 1 Early years 2 Henry Archer 3 The rotary process 4 Measurement and variations 5 Rouletting 6 Self adhesive stamps 7 Collecting 8 Errors 9 See also 10 References and sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksEarly years EditIn the early years from 1840 until 1850 all stamps were issued imperforate and had to be cut from the sheet with scissors or knife This was time consuming and error prone as mangled stamps of the era attest Once reliable separation equipment became available nations switched rapidly Imperforate stamps have been issued occasionally since then either because separation equipment was temporarily unavailable in newborn nations for instance to makers of automatic stamp vending equipment the United States did this in the 1900s and 1910s as novelties for stamp collectors particularly when stamps are issued in souvenir sheets or as errors Henry Archer EditIn 1847 Henry Archer constructed the first rouletting machine the Archer Roulette to separate stamps His plan submitted to the Postmaster General on 1 October 1847 was referred to the departments of the General Post Office and the Inland Revenue Two such machines were built After experimentation both machines proved to be failures From one machine a few stamps from Plates 70 and 71 have survived This machine consisted of lancet shaped blades working on a fly press principle and piercing the paper with a series of cuts Archer then abandoned this approach in favour of perforation a process which used rows of small round pins to punch out the holes In 1848 Archer patented his perforation machine which worked on the stroke principle The arrangement of the pins enabled the top and sides of each stamp across the row to be perforated in a single operation and this became known as comb perforation Perforation trials were conducted in 1849 and 1850 under the auspices of the British Government and stamps from these trials were first issued towards the end of 1850 The Archer machine proved the viability of the process but never entered service Archer s patent for his perforating machine no 12 340 of 1848 dated May 23 1849 was purchased for 4 000 in June 1853 1 New machines based on Archer s principles were constructed by David Napier and Son Ltd these were initially used in October 1853 for revenue stamps and from January 1854 for postage stamps 2 The rotary process EditAlso in 1854 a rotary process was patented by William Bemrose and Henry Howe Bemrose The Bemrose machine was designed as a rouletting machine As such it proved impracticable for stamp separation but in 1856 was successfully converted to a perforating machine by George C Howard of Toppan Carpenter stamp printers for the American Government 3 Both the stroke and rotary processes have been refined since then but are basically still the ones in use in the 21st century The key decision for the perforator is the spacing of the holes if too far apart the stamps will not separate easily and the stamps are likely to tear but if too close the stamps will tend to come apart in normal handling In a few cases the size of the holes has been a factor In the case of certain stamps produced by Australia for sale in rolls rather than sheets coil stamps a pattern can be seen on the stamp s short side of two small ten large and two small holes Measurement and variations EditThe standard for describing perforation is the number of holes or the teeth or perfs of an individual stamp in a 2 centimeter span The finest gauge ever used is 18 on stamps of the Malay States in the early 1950s and the coarsest is 2 seen on the 1891 stamps of Bhopal Modern stamp perforations tend to range from 11 to 14 Stamps that are perforated on one pair of opposite sides and imperforate on the other have most often been produced in coils instead of sheets but they can sometimes come from booklet panes Booklet panes can be associated with any combination of one two or three imperforate sides Sheet edges can produce any one imperforate side or two adjacent imperforate sides when the stamp comes from the corner of the sheet Variations include syncopated perforations which are uneven either skipping a hole or by making some holes larger In the 1990s Great Britain began adding large elliptical holes to the perforations on each side as an anti counterfeiting measure Rouletting EditRouletting uses small cuts in the paper instead of holes It was used by a number of countries but was rarely if ever seen on modern stamps until the die cut serpentine roulette self adhesive varieties appeared Varieties often described by philatelists in French terms include straight cuts percee en lignes and percee en lignes colorees with inked cutting bar arc percee en arc sewing machine perce en points sawtooth and the serpentine roulettes perce en serpentin 4 used by the early stamps of Finland 5 Because self adhesive stamps contain a sticky layer it is far easier to roulette the separations than to actually punch out the holes for perforations 6 A few types of stamps have combined rouletting and perforation for instance South Africa in 1942 7 Self adhesive stamps EditThe first self adhesive stamp was issued by Sierra Leone in 1964 and by the 1990s these stamps came into wide use These are inevitably diecut meaning that the stamps themselves are cut entirely apart held together only by the backing paper At first the backing paper was itself solid but in a repeat of history is now slightly rouletted so as to facilitate tearing off blocks of stamps without having to remove them from the backing Since the diecut goes all the way through the stamp any shape will work and the original self adhesives were straight edged However the tradition of perforation is so strong that more recent self adhesives have a wavy diecut simulating the perforation It can be recognized by studying the edge of the stamp closely true perforations will have torn paper fibers on each tooth while simulated perforations are smooth From 2012 to 2016 the United States also sold small numbers of the stamps issued during this period in sheets without die cuts thus creating imperforated varieties of them Their issuance was very controversial 8 Collecting EditFor the stamp collector perforations matter not only as a way to distinguish different stamps a perf 10 may be rarer and more valuable than a perf 11 of the same design but also as part of the condition of stamps Short or nibbed perfs are undesirable and reduce value as are bent or creased perfs Although the collector could count the number of holes using a ruler the usual practice is to use a perforation gauge which has preprinted patterns of holes in a selection of common perforations requiring one merely to line up the stamp s perforations with the closest match Rare stamps are often expertized in case they have been reperforated 9 Errors EditAs is inevitable for a mechanical process like perforation many things can go wrong Blind perfs are common occurring when a hole is not completely punched out as are off center perfs that cut into the design of the stamp sometimes very badly Occasionally pairs or larger groups of stamps may be imperforate between meaning that they are not separated on all sides Although it is very common to have different gauges of perforation horizontally and vertically in rare circumstances a stamp may have different perforations on opposite sides in the case of US stamps only a handful of these are known to exist The various types of perforation errors are collectively known as misperfs See also EditErrors freaks and oddities Perfin stamps perforated across the middle with letters or a pattern or monogramReferences and sources EditNotes Williams Louis N 1990 Fundamentals of Philately State College PA American Philatelic Society p 756 ISBN 0 933580 13 4 Stamp Perforation The Somerset House Years 1848 to 1880 Ray Simpson and Peter Sargent The Bemrose Perforating Machine The London Philatelist February 2009 Ray Simpson Kloetzel James E et al eds 2008 Introduction Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol 1 165th ed Sidney Ohio Scott Publishing Co p 23A ISBN 978 0 89487 417 8 Kloetzel James E et al eds 2008 Finland Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol 2 165th ed Sidney Ohio Scott Publishing Co pp 1119 1120 ISBN 978 0 89487 417 8 Baadke Michael 2 November 1998 Stamp separation appears in many forms Linn s Stamp News Archived from the original on 2 February 2017 Kloetzel James E et al eds 2008 South Africa Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol 6 165th ed Sidney Ohio Scott Publishing Co p 37 ISBN 978 0 89487 417 8 USPS press sheets more questions than answers A Sharp Eye on collecting US Classics Sharp Photography Publications 2021 ASIN B091MBTGJ7 read online SourcesWilliams L N and M Fundamentals of Philately American Philatelic Society 1990 Chap 15 ISBN 0 933580 13 4 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stamp perforation Further reading EditFelix Ervin J The Stamp Collector s Guidebook of Worldwide Watermarks and Perforations from 1840 to date Racine WI Whitman Publishing Co 1966 256p Johnson R A Stamp Perforations with Particular Emphasis on Canadian Stamps Ottawa British North America Philatelic Society 2009 ISBN 978 1 89739 148 8 100p Williams L N and M Centenary Of Perforation In Gibbons Stamp Monthly March 1954 Vol XXCII No 7 3p External links EditImages of different types of perforations misperforations and errors Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Postage stamp separation amp oldid 1144351105, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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