#351 - 1909 5ยข Double line USPS watermark, perf 12 Horizontally
See below for details
Basic Info
5¢ blue, dark blue
Subject: Benjamin Franklin
Printing Method: Flat Plate
Perforations: Imperforate
Watermark: double line USPS (see below)
Scott #: 351
Quantity Issued: 192,000
Issued: January 2nd, 1909
Value
Used
$40 - $75
No postmark with gum (MH)
$65 - $85
Full perfect gum, no postmark
no trace of stamp hinge mark (MNH)
$200 - $225
Plate Numbers
The plate numbers on the sides were cut off and those on the top and bottom were covered up by the paste up.
Line pairs
A solid line between two stamps, seen along the perforations in the middle, was the guide line used on sheets of stamps. They would be placed between each pane (usually 100) of stamps. They can triple the value of the pair.
Earliest documented use
Earliest documented date of use, September 21st, 1909
The first coil stamps
These were not just the first 5¢ horizontal coil stamps produced, they were the only 5¢ horizontal coil stamps produced, due to their lack of popularity.
It was not until early in 1908 that the Post Office Department issued some coil stamps of the 1902 series for use in vending and stamp affixing machines, but purely as an experiment. They were found to be satisfactory and as the Department realized that a demand existed for this type of stamp it was less than three weeks after the new design had been issued in the ordinary form that it was also available in coil form.
As in the previous issue they were made from the regular 400 subject sheets which were perforated twelve in the horizontal spaces between the stamps and then cut into strips of twenty. The horizontal guide line appeared in the middle of each of these strips, which were pasted together by hand and rolled into coils of 500 and 1,000. These were coiled on one half inch diameter pasteboard cores. A "paste up" or line pair, therefore, occurred every twentieth stamp and are about eight times scarcer than the ordinary pairs.
This type of coil was never as popular among users as the endwise coil.
Double line letters watermark
1908-09 Definitive Double Line USPS Watermark Coil Issues
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