Coil stamp
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009) |
A coil stamp is a type of postage stamp sold in strips one stamp wide. The name derives from the usual handling of long strips, which is to coil them into rolls, in a manner reminiscent of adhesive tape rolls. A large percentage of modern stamps are sold in coil form, because they are more amenable to mechanized handling in large quantities than either sheet stamps or booklet stamps.
Origins
Coil stamps first appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Sweden
While in most countries coil production is restricted to the workaday stamps used in large quantities, Sweden has produced coil versions of most of their stamps since 1920.
In the United Kingdom
In the UK, coil stamps first appeared in 1907, to supply newly installed
In the United States
In the
The first US government-produced coils appeared in 1908, produced by pasting together enough imperforate sheets to make rolls of 500 or 1,000 stamps, cutting them into strips and perforating between. The 1-cent, 2-cent and 5-cent values in the Series of 1902 (Second Bureau Issue) were produced in coil versions, but relatively few copies exist because in late 1908 the series was superseded by the Washington-Franklin Issues. As a result, all Second Bureau coils are quite rare. Even the most common, the horizontal 2-cent coil, can fetch as much as US$2000, while the much rarer, the 1-cent vertical coil, brought $130,000 at an auction in 2009, and the even rarer 2-cent vertical coil (only eight copies are known) would surely sell for considerably more, should one become available.[1]
Later a
Perforations
The perforations of coil stamps are usually found along the right and left sides ("vertical perf"), but they have also been produced with perforations along the top and bottom ("horizontal perf"). Longer perforations on one side than the other, and separation by cutting rather than tearing, are indications that a stamp may have come from a coil.
Recent innovations
A recent innovation enabled by
See also
- 1935 Irish 2d coil stamp An experimental Irish stamp.
- Plate number coil
- Coil waste
References
Further reading
- Armstrong, Martin A. The Coil Issues of the United States, 1906-1938. Lawrenceville, N.J.: M.A. Armstrong Enterprises: Trenton Pub. Co., 1980 124p.
- Jaffé, Hans H. and R.E. Kuntz. Coils: A Worldwide Catalog = Roulettes = Rollenmarken. Cincinnati: H. Jaffé, 1980 84p.
- Rudd, Charles D. Coil Stamps: Introduction, Development and Uses. Christchurch: Selwyn Stamps, 1995 ISBN 0-473-02952-989p.