1914 1c Washington, Green, Single Line Watermark, Perf. 12 x 10

Add Rare Compound Perf Pair to Your Collection

It’s not often you get the chance to own stamps as scarce as this 1914 1¢ Washington pair.  What makes it so scarce?  It’s the perforations.  The stamps were perforated horizontally with 12-gauge perforations and vertically with 10-gauge perforations.  The compound perf stamps were only in ...  more

Add Rare Compound Perf Pair to Your Collection

It’s not often you get the chance to own stamps as scarce as this 1914 1¢ Washington pair.  What makes it so scarce?  It’s the perforations.  The stamps were perforated horizontally with 12-gauge perforations and vertically with 10-gauge perforations.  The compound perf stamps were only in production for a couple months and went unnoticed by most collectors at the time they were issued.  As a result, fewer than 100 of these stamps are known to exist today and many of these are locked away in private collections.

The compound perforation stamps came into being in late 1914.  The Bureau of Engraving and Printing had been using 12-gauge perforations on stamps for many years, but postmasters complained the stamps separated unintentionally.  In 1913, the Post Office Department asked the BEP to change the perforations to eliminate the problem.  The decision was made to reduce the number perforation holes per two centimeters from 12 to 10.  The new perforating wheels arrived at the BEP in late December 1913.  Production for sheet stamps using the new equipment began in September 1914.  The perf 12 machines were phased out by early November.  During that two-month period, some stamps were perforated using both machines, the 12-gauge perforator for the horizontal perforations and the 10-gauge machine for the vertical perforations.  The BEP wasn’t concerned with the size of the perforations, so there was no announcement about the compound perf stamps.  Most of them were used and discarded, making the surviving stamps even more rare and valuable. 

For many years, the compound perf stamps were viewed as errors and assigned a miner number.  In 2003, the Scott’s Catalog finally assigned these stamps a major catalog number.

Now you can add a pair of stamp #423A stamps with compound perfs to your collection.  It will be a showpiece in your album.  Our stock of these rare stamps is extremely limited.  Order yours now.