Oddball Washington Franklins This set is a lumping of the remaining varieties of the Washington Franklin head series. A small supply of rotary press coil sheets that had already been printed and perforated 10 in one direction, as all perforated 10 coil stamps were, had been set aside for not meeting the strict standards for vending machines. Although these excess sheets are often referred to as coil waste, they were not damaged or otherwise unusable for regular postage. Rather than discard the sheets, it was decided to perforate the sheets in the other direction with the existing perf 11 perforating machines and sell the resulting stamps to the general public. This did not seem like much to the Post Office at the time, but it meant wonders to philatelists. The resulting 1¢ to 3¢ "coil waste" perforated 11 x 10 stamps are listed as Scott 538 through 541 and are marginally rarer than the rotary coil stock from which they were made), Scott 490 through 493, respectively.

Experimental Stamps In 1920, an experimental rotary press printing of the one cent stamp was made, perforated 10 x 11. Although plans had been made to produce the two cent stamp with this experimental printing, only the one cent issue made it into the public's hands. This stamp is listed as Scott 542. In 1921, a revision of this experimental rotary press printing was made since the 10 x 11 sheets were found to break apart too easily, making it difficult for postal workers to distribute and handle the stamps. A new one cent stamp was perforated 10 in both directions. The perf 10 x 10 stamp is much more common than the 11 x 10 stamp.

Rotary Sheet Rarities A few waste sheets of the one cent rotary press stamp escaped destruction and were perforated 11 in both directions. Exceptionally rare, there are only a few authenticated copies. It has been assigned the Scott number 544. This stamp is sometimes erroneously referred to as a coil waste stamp. It has been firmly established that it is indeed from sheet stamp waste.

Rotary Coil Waste Some of the sheets of 1¢ and 2¢ rotary coil stamps were deemed unsuitable for vending machine usage and were set aside as waste prior to perforation. This stock was perfectly good for non-coil use and, in 1922, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing perforated the sheets using the then current perf 11. The 1¢ and 2¢ perf 11 x 11 rotary press stamps are listed as Scott numbers 545 and 546, respectively. Since the rotary press printings are longer in one direction than the equivalent flat plate printings, it is difficult to find these stamps well-centered, the rotary press design simply fills up too much of the stamp. These stamps are not exceptionally rare, but well-centered copies bring a substantial premium.

Separating Flat Plate & Rotary Press Stamps Although the following information is available on the Printing Methods page, it is included here for the reader's benefit:

The rotary press stamps are easily distinguished by their size, they are always longer in one direction than the flat plate printings. An easy way to distinguish the rotary vs. flat plate printings is to cut the easily obtainable 2¢ perforated 11 flat plate stamp, Scott 499 in half, and use it as a template to measure the width of probable rotary stamps. You might want to cut one vertically and another horizontally, since the direction of expansion is horizontal on some rotary printed stamps and vertical on others. Lay this template over the subject stamp. If the subject stamp is either longer or wider it is a rotary stamp. (more ...)