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This article by WA McIntire has been extracted, revised, and/or copied from
United States Specialist. Journal of the Bureau Issues Association, Inc.

Journal of the
Bureau Issues Association, Inc
An association of collectors to promote the study of the philatelic output of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the United States of America

KNOW YOUR COUNTRY'S STAMPS

A Study of US Booklet Panes
June 15, 1940; Page 391

Conducted by W. A. McINTIRE, P.O. Box 28, Clifton, New Jersey

 

Booklets are available in post offices generally throughout the United States. The convenience of these little holders with their wax paper interleaves is much appreciated by the public---more so by people of limited correspondence and those who travel, perhaps, than by the larger users of stamps.

 

The collection of booklets takes various forms according to the preferences of the individual collector. It follows closely the same lines of demarcation which exist in the collection of ordinary issues except that in booklet panes we are dealing with stamps in panes of 6, plain, plate number or marked with lines.

 

There are three main elements concerned with the collection and study of booklet panes.

1. The issue involved
2. The variety and position of the pane
3. Its value or worth

 

Booklet collecting, generally speaking may also be subdivided for each issue under consideration as follows:

a, Plain leaves of 6
b. Line-position panes of 6
c. Plate number panes of 6
d. Panes showing: (1) Plate varieties; (2) Layout dots (3) Unerased lines of various kinds
e. Booklet covers
f. Complete booklets, stamps and covers complete

 

All stamp booklets have been pro- duced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing---none having been prepared by private contractors. The Bank Note Companies were already out of the picture before booklets were originated.

 

There have been 15 series of booklets, if we group them by the different issues and designs, their varieties in perforation and watermarks, and flat plate prints:

Flat Plates

1900 2c,180 and 360, DL 12 (design of 1898).
1903-07 1c, 2c, 180, DL 12.
1903 2c, 180, DL 12.
1908 1c, 180 and 360, DL 12. 2c, 180 and 360, DL 12.
1910 1c, 2c, 360, SL 12.
1912 1c, 2c, 360, SL 12.
1914 1c, 2c, 360, SL 10.
1916 1c, 2c, 360, NW 10.
1917-18 1c, 2c, (Type 1 and 2), 360, NW 11.
1923 1c, 2c, 360, NW 11.
1928 10c Lindbergh, 180, NW11

 

This might look at first glance like a small basis for a collection but there are from 3 to 11 distinct shades to be found in various varieties of each flat plate issue, and there are 12 major varieties in each issue of the flat plate booklets. There are many hundred different plate number varieties to be had. There are freaks, cracked plates, double transfers, twisted transfers, and shifts; not to mention the booklet covers themselves for those who want them and who may have been quickly successful in gathering all the varieties in all the shades of the various issues. There are, therefore, unlimited possibilities in booklet collecting and those who obtain a complete collection could form a very exclusive club because there would be very few members.

 

An excellent treatise on booklets was published some years ago by H L Wiley, entitled "United States Stamp Booklets." This carried the data on booklets from their inception up to and including the 1912 series. Another most interesting compilation was prepared by Simpson Yeomans, BIA Number 6, covering all of the flat plate booklets through the early 1923 series.

 

Flat plate booklets were prepared from both 180 and 360 subject plates. The first flat plate booklet plate number was No. 988 for the 2 cent of 1900 (design of 1898), a 360 subject plate. Plate No. 988 was incidentally the first plate used for the Type IX marginal marking, consisting only of the plain plate number without any imprint of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The last regular flat plate booklet number, according to the records of the writer, was 18521, a 360 subject plate for the 2 cent value of the 1923 series. The 10 cent Lindbergh booklets were 180 subject flat plate numbers 19414, 19425, 19426, 19427. All are very scarce.

 

The layout lines ruled into these flat plates gave rise to the various pane positions which form such an interesting study. These layout lines disappeared with the introduction of the rotary press printings, so that the collections of positions became impossible after the flat plate method of production was abandoned, with the exception that rotary plates can be collected in two forms, that is, plain panes and plate number panes.

 

The study of the 12 major varieties of the 360 subject flat plates, as they were cut from the sheet containing 60 panes of 6 stamps each, discloses the fact that there must necessarily be more of one kind than another after the large sheet is cut to booklet size. From each sheet of 360 stamps there will be but one D leaf showing plate number. Aside from the plain leaves, this is as far as anyone can predict to a certainity. Theoretically there should be a certain average number of varieties cut from each full sheet. If the cutting of the full sheets were done uniformly and exactly, the following would be the average number of varieties produced:(1)

A-39, J-8, H-2, I -2, D-1, B-1/2, C-1/2, K-1/2, L-1/2.

 

This totals 54 panes. What happens to the other 6? Well, they are outlaws. The vertical line can form but one variety. If cutting is to the right of line and arrow, B is formed, but the pane to its right will not have the line nor much of the arrow, or it will be cut so close to the stamp design that it is worthless for the A variety. If cutting is to the left of the arrow and line, the same condition results to the pane to its left. When an arrow pane is found, its original mate on the other side of the arrow has been spoiled for collecting.

 

This principle also holds in the formation of H or I, and K or L. If a good K or H is found, the pane orginally at its right has been trimmed so close that it is not suitable for A or J, and if a good I or L is found, the pane originally at its left will not have enough right margin to prove itself A or J. Thus when H or I, or K or L is found, its original mate on the other side of the vertical line has been spoiled for collecting. And thus the other 6 panes are accounted for.

 

What about varieties M, N, O? They come from cutting the sheet too high. When M is found, there is no variety J in the sheet. When N or O is formed, it is made instead of K or L in cutting the sheet too high. The J line is always close to the bottom of the stamp design, and a proper cutting of the sheet ON the line.

 

The theoretical quantity of panes of various positions can be summarized as follows:(1)

 

In theory, there is no variety M, N, 0. None is intended by the engraver. No varieties except A and D are really intended by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. If all the full sheets were cut exactly on the lines, we would have no true varieties other than A and D. But there is a mechanical as well as a physical impossibility in cutting sheets exactly on the engraver's lines. Paper expansion and contraction and the slight irregularities in feeding sheets into the rotary perforator and cutter, or in the later cutting on the paper cutter, are responsible for our varieties. Vertical cutting too far to the right gives us the H and K varieties. Too far to the left produces I and L varieties. A horizontal cutting which produces J lines eliminates the chance of M, N, O varieties from that sheet. (1)

 

1. Much data of the statistical nature appearing in this article has been copied from research by J. C. Harrigan 477, Colville, Washington

To be continued

Revision Dated: 11-21-2001