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Questions

1) How are the security punch holes made - by hand or by machine? Was a flat template or a cylinder used or was it similar to a perforating machine? Could a single template be adjusted to different patterns, or was there a different template for each pattern and hole size? How many sheets were punched at a time? Angus Pringle, Kloof RSA

Answers

1) Alan Green comments:
Specimen stamps used for the sample books tended to be printed in sheets of nine in the early days but from 1930 it appears to have become the practice to purchase a sheet of the "best designed" stamps from the Crown Agents. Exceptions known to me are (a) c1890 Western Australia Duty Stamp in sheet of 6; (b) Portugal & Colonies 1898 Vasco de Gama in sheets of 8 either vertical 2x4 or horizontal 4x2 (C) Spain 1926 lithographed Red Cross in sheets of 6; (d) Liberia 1892 sheet of 10; Liberia 1894 triangular in sheet of 8.

Mozambique Company 1918-24 miniature sheets of 9 with various overprint need at least 22 sheets to obtain all the values and variations possible but the lithographed 40c value is available in sheets of 6.

The UPU specimen stamps were probably taken from a production run and then overprinted.

The method of punching the security holes may vary with the issue being prepared but in most cases I suggest the hole operation was performed after the overprinting had been completed. On some sheets the location of the hole is even and forms a pattern, on others not so.

2) Colin Hoffman comments:
I know of three or four different types of security punch holes - there are very small holes on the Specimen stamps and then there are two sizes of holes that are found on the file copy sheets of stamps that were in the Waterlow archives.

Dealing with the Specimen stamps, I imagine these were either printed in small sheets of nine or complete sheets of sixty. In order to make the small hole at what appear to be reasonably regular intervals, I can only think that some form of machine must have been used.

As the holes form a regular pattern, I imagine a flat template must have been used - it is possible that a perforating machine was used with a set of heads comprising of the punches located one to the stamp rather than comprising sufficient perforating pins to perforate the edges of the stamps.

I know that a number of experts have referred to being able to identify different printings by the size of the punch holes but I am not aware of anything that has been written to explain how this was done.