Caution
The 1¢ rotary press "coil waste" stamps,
Scott
544 and 545, are sometimes faked.
Scott 544 is one of the great rarities of the 20th century
U.S. stamps, estimated at fewer than 20 unused copies with most of these contained in blocks or strips of four.
Only the most brazen of forgers tries to fake one of these, since
the stamp is so valuable the cost of certification is meaningless in
comparison to the value of the stamp. There is only one reason
anyone would sell one of these without a certificate, they are
absolutely certain it is not the 544.
It is also possible to confuse it with the far more common, yet
still rare Scott 545; the 544 is taller than any given flat plate
stamp and the 545 is wider. Fakes are made from the rotary coil
stamp, Scott 486, or the
experimental 10 x 11 rotary stamp, Scott
542. Both stamps are the wrong color - the Scott 544 is
dark gray green - and therefore make poor
fakes.
Scott 545 may be faked by trimming the perforations at left
and right on the rotary coil stamp Scott
490 and then adding 11 gauge perforations to all four
sides. These fakes will look small with narrow margins and the perforations will
prove
suspect. Similar fakes can be made from Scott
538, but these will be even smaller. There was no
imperforate 1¢ rotary stock, so fakes made by adding perforations
to the imperforate stamp do not exist. It is also possible to
alter the perforations on the perf 10 experimental stamp, Scott
543, but the stamp will be too tall and not wide
enough, since the direction of stretch on the 543, as well as the
542 (sometimes used to fake the 545), is in the vertical
direction.
Particularly large examples of the common Scott 498 may cause
confusion, but the
design of the Scott 498 will never measure a full 19.5 mm wide,
while the 545
must. This stamp is expensive enough that it should be certified
before buying or selling.
