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The following orientations for the position of the USPS watermark are
possible when viewed from the back of the stamp with the top of the
stamp up, the way most collectors look for watermarks in a tray of
fluid. All orientations other than "normal" are possible if
the paper the stamp was printed on was not placed in the printing press
with the watermark facing up and reading normally. The same orientations
apply for the single-line USPS watermarks.
The "rotated left" and "rotated right" orientations
are only possible when the paper was printed sideways with regard to the
watermark. This can be of large importance in ferreting out spurious
coils made from booklet stamps. The lower denomination stamps,
which include most of the coil stamps, were printed using the
horizontal, that is "non-rotated" watermarks illustrated
below. Booklet stamps, and some higher denomination stamps, were
printed on smaller sheets with the watermarks sideways ( the
"rotated" stamps below). Thus a one or two cent coil
with a sideways (vertical) watermark has a high likelihood of
being a fake
made from a booklet stamp. |