Riverside Stamps
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Suspect Scott #579 Unused Single.
I bought this stamp on EBay for $1.36 as a suspect fake with the goal of getting it off of the market and doing a proper analysis on it. The #579 is a rotary press coil waste stamp perforated 11X10 and has a catalogue value of $70 unused. To be honest I can’t find anything in the literature that even remotely hints that the #579 has ever been faked, the Philatelic Foundation, as of 2/15/15, has 435 certificates out for this stamp and none are fakes though 21 were deemed to be reperforated at the top (Qty: 3), on the left (Qty: 5), at the right (Qty: 1), and at the bottom (Qty: 12). The size of the frame is almost unique amongst the series of stamps that make up the #579 – only the #595 has the same design size. 1847usa.com lists 24 varieties of the design in both flat plate and rotary press with each printing having a district frame size. Below is a table of all of the different varieties of this style of stamp that could possibly be used to fake the #579.
As can be seen from this table the Design Size of the #579 is quite different from all the other designs except for the #595. I doubt very much that someone would be stupid enough to take a very expensive stamp, trim off the perforations on the left and right sides and reperforated them to gauge 10. Using the imperforate #577 would result in a stamp with the right proportions but the design size would be noticeably off and using the perf 10 vertical coil stamp would give a properly proportioned stamp but again the design size would be off. Trimming and reperfing the other fully perforated stamps would result in stamps that would be either narrow or short. So it comes down to the design size and the perforations. The design size of the suspect is 19.75mm X 22.25mm – spot on for the issue. Below are images of the suspect overlaid on known genuine perf 10 and 11 blocks.
The suspect lines up perfectly with both the perf 10 and perf 11 references. I believe that the clipped perfs on the right side are a result of the manufacturing process because a number of certificates in the P.F. database state that is a cause of clipped perfs on most of their patients. Conclusion: In my opinion the suspect is a genuine #579 As always comments and suggestions are always welcome. To Contact Riverside Stamps:
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