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| Reference Image | | |
 | Scott 613
2c Warren G. Harding Memorial
Pane Single
This used example was sold recently by the Robert A. Siegel
Auction Galleries, Inc. for $47,500.00. | | | | | |
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On Coil-Waste —
From 1919 through 1923 the Bureau of Engraving and Printing salvaged
waste stamps printed on high-capacity rotary presses and prepared
them for public use. Rotary-press waste that was turned into issued
postage gives us some of our rarest United States stamps: Scott 544,
594, 596 and 613.
Rotary-press waste should not be thought of as scraps of paper swept
up from the floor. Rotary waste was well-printed, but it was removed
from the manufacturing line, because it did not conform to the
regular production standards.
The rotary press, first used for printing coil stamps in 1915, was a
new printing method designed for rapid production. Rather than print
stamps on a flat plate one sheet at a time, the rotary press was
fitted with a cylindrical plate that continuously applied
impressions to long rolls of paper.
Rotary-press stamps have slightly different dimensions than their
flat-plate counterparts, due to the curvature of the cylinder. If
the plate is wrapped around the cylinder from top to bottom
(endwise), then the design is slightly longer. If the plate is
wrapped around the cylinder from side to side (sidewise), then the
design is slightly wider. Coil stamps fed endwise through the rotary
press are imperforate at the sides and perforated at top and bottom
between the stamps — they are cut and rolled endwise. Coils in
sidewise format are imperforate at top and bottom and perforated
between stamps at the sides. Of course, sheet stamps are perforated
in both directions.
At the beginning or end of a coil-stamp print run from the
170-subject plates, some leading or trailing paper was produced that
was too short for rolling into 500-stamp rolls. Sheet stamps printed
from 400-subject plates also produced some waste that was set aside.
In 1919 the Bureau devised a plan to salvage this waste by
perforating and cutting the sheets into panes. They were put through
the 11-gauge flat-plate perforator in use at the time, giving the
sheets full perforations on all sides. Depending on whether they
were perforated during an earlier stage of production, the sheets
were put through the flat-plate perforator in either one or two
directions.
The first stamps issued under the program were coil-waste sheets
already perforated 10 in one direction and are listed as Scott
538–541. In 1923 coil waste from the new 1¢ and 2¢ rotary production
was turned into Scott 578–579 and 594–595. These were the last of
the coil-waste issues.
The first Rotary Perf 11 stamp made from sheet waste is Scott 544.
Some believe that waste from the rotary printing of this stamp was
perforated 11 on two separate occasions, one of which coincided with
the 1923 production of Scott 596 and 613.
The 1¢ Green, Scott 594, is waste from a horizontal rotary printing
used to make coils. The rarer Scott 596 is waste from a vertical
rotary printing used to make sheet stamps — a fact proven by the
existence of precancelled copies.
Scott 613, the 2¢ Harding Rotary Perf 11 stamp, was probably made
from an extremely small quantity of rotary sheet waste, possibly
from the end of a roll of paper. It would have been produced at the
same time as Scott 544 and 596 (both sheet-waste stamps).
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