Foro de Filatelia Argentina

Isn't a bit strange that no one has seen (or noticed) the change of size/perforation?

It more often occurs that a stamp get smaller when the perforation stroke was too short. In the case of the 2p Echeverria the comb was moving horizontally. Usually you see a slightly thicker tooth and the lefthand or righthand side:



But a narrower stamp should be met more often

After the introduction of the new Goebel reel-fed photogravure press in 1968 the standard size got changed somewhat - this has been done before without many collectora seeing it! - and now the height got 1 tooth higher 26 instead of 25 and the comb - an in-line perforator on the press - was moving vertically!

Only a few of the definitives of that period had been printed on the old sheet-fed Mailander photogravure press. J. Merlo does mention this in his book on the printing methods of Argentinean stamps!

So far I only konw of the 1p Girasol in green and the 1p Bariloche in brown! Both stamps have a direction of printing horizontally and had been perforated by a separate comb also horizontally!

The 1p Bariloche had been printed reel-fed on the Goebel,but (part?) of the printing also on the sheet-fed Mailander. The normal size for the Goebel was 18/26 teeth, for the Mailander 18/25 teeth. However, for 2 stamps only [?] a comb had been used with 19/26 teeth and moving horizontally - i.e. a base-line of 26 teeth! But wasn't 18 teeth more than enough???



Apparently not! And even in the normal width stamps - NB the ones printed on the Mailander! - remnants of the 19th pin can be seen with the comb moving from right to left:



and





The last hole of the previous stroke should have fallen in the first hole of the next stroke but that requires an enormous accuracy... Remains the question why too many pins in the side-lines????

The first stamp printed on the new Goebel reel-fed photogravure press had been - according to J.R/. Merlo the 20p Aeronautic and Space Week issued on 02.11.1968:



A base-line of 18 teeth and a side-line of 26 teeth!