The David Mace Collection of United States

1923 Rotary perf. 11, 2c Harding, top sheet margin single, sharp impression, machine cancel, small faults mentioned on the accompanying 2002 PSE certificate, fine appearance (Warren G. Harding, the 29th President, died in San Francisco on August 2, 1923 and a Harding memorial stamp, printed in black was rushed into production). The first flat plate printing (Scott's 610) was issued on September 1, 1923, in his home town of Marion, Ohio, followed less than two weeks later by the normal perf. 10 rotary press printing (Scott's 612) on September 12. The 2c Harding Rotary perf. 11 stamp was discovered in 1938 by Leslie Lewis of the New York firm, Stanley Gibbons Inc. Gary Griffith presents his hypothesis in United States Stamps 1922-26 that rotary-printed sheets of 400 were first reduced to panes of 100 and then fed through the 11-gauge perforating machine normally used for flat plate sheets. This method explains the existence of a straight-edge on Scott's 613. Production quality and quantity was very low, due to the rotary press stamps' natural tendency to curl, and the use of the flat plate perforator for the slightly different-sized rotary printing. Only 43 used singles, one used pair and a used strip of three are recorded,
Cat. Val. $ 40,000
Estimate: $10000