Mystery Holes in French Selvedge.

[youpiao]

Any selvedge collector worth his salt will probably know the answer to this.
From the HipStamp forum: Something I see often in photos of older French de Luxe proof sheets and in the margins of some French postage stamps is a set of odd punch holes.What are they called and what did they do ? My first guess would be some sort of security device.

Also: What's happened to the Medium Image links on SeeMyStamps. There were none on my page for this stamp.

[khj]

They are security punch holes. In the French catalogs, I believe they are simply referred to as "perforation de l' Atelier". Don't know the formal name/translation in English, but I call it the cheeky smile selvedge. The entire security punch consists of the arc with a diamond to the left and right.

They not only appear on select French proofs, mint sheets, souvenir sheets... (I believe circa 1920's through the 1950's, maybe more?), but I've seen them on Monaco as well.

[youpiao]

And how does this security function work?

[khj]

Sorry, don't know. Security/control numbers are typically for inventory control/identification. Security punches/holes are typically to indicate possession at a certain stage in distribution. But for the "cheeky smile", I'm afraid I don't know the details. Really need to ask an early 20th Century France specialists...

Needless to say, let us know when you find out!

[khj]

Here's what I could dig up, err... Google...

Control punches: the control punch (half-moon between two diamonds) are found on all Deluxe Sheets (as well as Sepia Die Proofs, Color Proofs and Acceptance Die Proofs) until 1967. These punches were used for accounting purposes.
The punching machine would count the quantity of Deluxe Sheets prepared.
Before 1967, the control punches are at the bottom of the sheet; from 1967 to date, there are not control punches on the sheet.

Quoted from EPREUVES DE LUXE.

Learned my new stamp info for the day! Merci!

Hope that's helpful/useful.

k

[khj]

I will add that Maury does have a very small number of listings for control punches top/bottom/missing varieties.

[youpiao]

Thanks, k. This is going to give me soooo much cred on the other board.

[youpiao]

I will add, k, that you are one salty dog.

[khj]

Getting more saltier/ornery with each passing day that I don't get to play with my stamps.

[youpiao]

I'd like to pick up a few of these. They're surprisingly inexpensive for being printed in quantities of 2 or 300.

[khj]

The reason is because they are sort of a very small collecting niche (one of the reasons why selvedge collecting is so inexpensive, even though some selvedge is quite rare).

It's like French imperfs or specimens -- you'll keep them when the fall into your lap, but few people actively collect them to the point of pursuing a specialty collection.

[youpiao]

May 5, 2022 23:06:13 GMT -5 khj said:

I will add that Maury does have a very small number of listings for control punches top/bottom/missing varieties.

I guess they are sprinkled (salted?) lightly throughout the listings. I looked through my 2018 and could not find any.

Also, more recent proofs (since the 90s?) have become just another mass produced postal product, like FDCs and commemorative panels, produced in the thousands.

[khj]

youpiao, yes very lightly salted, lest we develop hypertension.

In the 2018 Maury look at:

p263, after #351, the listing for #BF3(1937) -- BF3c is for missing security punch, and BF3d is for security punch at top (instead of at bottom)

k