Upright v inverted watermarks

Anything relating to British stamp books and booklets.
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Robinr
Posts: 155
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:00 pm

Upright v inverted watermarks

Post by Robinr »

Hi All,

Having spent ages writing up my KE8 control panes I finally got around to the booklet panes. I found that I have a complete set, with only two cylinder-number advertisement panes missing, but with half-a-dozen different cylinder-number repeats.

To my astonishment I discovered that every single booklet pane in my collection has the watermark upright. There is not a single pane with inverted watermark. Over the years I collected panes serendipitously, never bothering about watermarks… I concentrated on cylinder number panes because I wanted to be able to identify the perforations with accuracy.

I studied the production of booklet sheets and found that there are always the same number of inverted watermarks as there are upright watermarks. No surprise there for booklet collectors, but the next surprise for me has been to find that SG Specialized Four Kings shows a significant price difference between panes according to watermark.

Is there really a scarcity difference between regular upright watermarks and inverted ones? Is it a function of collectors' zeal over the decades? Is it true also for KGV and early KGVI? If anybody can enlighten me on this anomaly I'd be most grateful.

If anybody is incidentally interested in swapping the odd KE8 cylinder pane or two I'd be happy to discuss… probably easier off-line (robinrestall@gmail.com).

Best wishes, Robin
earsathome
Posts: 217
Joined: Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:00 pm

Transfer from previous board: original post 2082

Post by earsathome »

Hi Robin,

Regarding the watermarks - with the 240 set sheet layout for stamp books the cylinder numbers would be on the left hand side of the sheet alongside the upright stamps.
In the centre margin the same applies with the cylinder beside the upright stamps.
Thus an inverted cylinder pane should not exist.
That's my take on it anyway
Afraid I cannot help with exchanges, as I am very short of cylinder panes
Regards to all
Ron
Robinr
Posts: 155
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:00 pm

Transfer from previous board: original post 2083

Post by Robinr »

Hi Ron,

Remember all those funny gags about getting old, the first sign, and the second sign?

Well I've just added a new one… the first time you look at a sheet printed for booklet panes and see that the cylinder numbers are only beside the panes with upright watermarks. The second time is when you look at a sheet printed for booklet panes and see that the cylinder numbers are only beside the panes with upright watermarks.

Do-hey. Thanks old friend. I hope it brought a smile to the faces of some readers!

BUT, this still throws no insight into why inverted watermark booklet panes should be priced significantly higher. In fact if you take out the two cylinder panes from a sheet, inverted watermark panes are more common! (Or more correct to say, more of them were produced).

The forum is still open on this subject.

Cheers all, Robin

Ps. I'm still interested in a couple of swaps though - upright watermarks!
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