MAJOR DISCOVERY - the 3 mils EXPERIMENTAL COIL stamp on THICK vertically ribbed paper, in lime-green hue, with rounded/bumpy vertical perforation (at right) characteristic of coil stamps - but with perforation of 13½ : 14½ (13.5 x 14.5) as documented for vertically ribbed thin semi-transparent paper and not 13¼ (13.25) horizontally as documented for the thick paper as used here; tied to 30 SEPT 1937 postmarked cover from TEL AVIV to LONDON, used as franking for printed matter overseas surface mail. Verically folded; presently sealed (mailed unsealed per printed matter regulation but in time sealed by virtue of the gum remaining intact).
The vertical perforations are bent upwards from being pulled from a vending machine - here bottom-fed as was the standard in the UK from 1927 (where these stamps were produced), and not top-end first as originally documented - and even questioned - by Arthur Hocheiser ("The Palestine Paste-Up Coils: An Enigma", Israel Philatelist Journal #50, 1999).
The significance of this discovery is that it shows 3 mils coil stamps existed well into the 1930s, beyond the single order (of 200,000) for them of 1 Aug 1928 documented in Norman Collins' compilation of the Crown Agents Requisition Books. As those records show no orders for coil stamps between August 1936 and August 1938 (the boon years of the pre-war expansion of postal and air services) and many missing requisition order numbers in between, they are likely incomplete as this example attests. Ben-Arieh certificate enclosed.
