Dear Sir,

Based on communications from two readers, the following errata should be made to “Why Collect the U.S. Washington-Franklin Heads?  A 100th Anniversary Tribute” – Part IX (July, 2009 Specialist):

In the caption for Figure 174, it was noted there are 42,000 different varieties of local precancels, with most appearing on the Washington-Franklins.  A closer estimate of those on Washington-Franklin heads by a precancel specialist has the number at about 5,000 to 6,000.  Thus, it is not quite “most” but still a substantial number.

The caption for Figure 175 should have stated that cost reductions were actually first achieved when the Stickney rotary presses were fitted with precanceling equipment in 1923 and then only large precancel print orders were produced by the Bureau.

In the captions for Figures 178 and 179, the Schermack coils were referred to with H capital letter suffixes, e.g., Scott #343H, which would indicate they were government stripped imperforate coils, which is not the case.  The coils were made by Schermack/Mailometer from sheets of imperforate stamps, so they should be treated as varieties of the basic Scott numbers, e.g. Scott #343.

In Figure 184 showing hand-applied cancels, the “LOWELL MASS “ cancel is a hand-applied precancel.

Sincerely,
Larry Weiss