The EFO Collector
Auction
Club Business
Honor Roll
Buyers & Sellers of EFO Material
| Click here for a printer friendly version of this essay. | Click here to send a note or comment to John Hotchner. |
47. Double paper/mill splices: Double layers of paper can occur at the paper mill or in the stamp-production process. The former happens because the paper mill has accepted an order for a web, or roll, of paper that will feed through a press at high speed. In the process of making the web, overlaps occur. Stamp production equipment has sensors to detect such flaws so that they don't damage the sensitive printing equipment and so that the double papers can be identified and excised. Mill splices can be identified by either the type of adhesive used to bond the overlap, or by the red plastic tape used by some manufacturers for this purpose. Both are quite scarce, typically running $75 and up for a block of four or more. They are very difficult to get apart.
Type 47: The mill splice on this 20¢ Flag Over Supreme Court block (Scott 1894) consists of overlapping paper being held together by two sided blue tape. Because the bottom part of the paper is folded up, the third horizontal row of perforations went through four thicknesses. Note that the edge of the splice has interfered with the printing of the top of the Supreme Court building in the bottom row.
| Previous: Souvenir sheet miscuts | Double paper/mill splices | Next: Double paper/roll-to-roll splices |
| Table of Contents | Freaks |