Lot #: A30_1024

Opening Bid price: $240.00
The auction closed on Thursday, 07 November 2024 22:00 Please login if you are the lot winner
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Description

BIG DISCOVERY - undocumented 3 mils COIL stamp on THICK vertically ribbed paper, in lime-green hue, with perforation of 13¼ : 14½ (13.25 x 14.5) as recorded for this type of paper, affixed as postage for overseas surface mailed printed matter cover, sent from JERUSALEM to GONZALES USA & tied by the rare double circled Sach #F4 18 AUG 1939 dated machine cancel (rarity rated F out of J), on its 2nd day of use. The cover was posted sealed - contrary to printed matter regulations - and opened by cutting the right side.

This rare stamp could have passed undetected as it exhibited no outward characteristic of a coil stamp (the right vertical perforation being rounded and short - but possibly the result of the cover being creased so close to it) - except for the pulled and creased 4th perforation hole from the left on the bottom horizontal axis, caused by a feeder-pin of a stamp vending machine.

Until now Mandate coil stamps were only known as being produced on thin semi-transparent vertically ribbed paper (in the early 1930s), or for the 5m and 10m denominations in a 14 hole horizontal perforation on woven paper. This cataloguer has uncovered additional types including the 3m on thick vertically ribbed paper (see item #143707 in the shop), but here with the horizontal perforation of 13.25. As the stamp does not have the unusual thin and thick outer perforation teeth on one of the edges of the horizonal axes, this stamp is likely from a paste-up roll and not from a continuous roll of coil stamps (both production methods were used in Britain, which supplied Palestine's stamps, into the 1950s). Sacher suggests that this Krag machine cancel was taken over by the government censor in September, who modified it to imprint "Passed by Censor Jerusalem" - the rare type #F14 cancel. Ben-Arieh certification enclosed.