Test Your EFO Knowledge: Quiz Answers

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How did you do in the quiz, EFO students?

Many U.S. stamps are issued in panes of 50 or 100, but are actualy printed in sheets containing four panes. This is depicted in the diagram below.

When sheets are cut apart to create the panes, sometimes cuts are shifted, and this creates gutter pairs or gutter snipes, as shown in the diagram. When there is at least one complete stamp on either side of the interpane stripe, a gutter snipe has been created. If there is a partial stamp on either interpane stripe, the resulting error is called a gutter snipe.

The figures above show a variety of gutter pairs and gutter snipes. The 1½¢ Martha Washington stamps are a gutter snipe. The others all have at least one complete stamps on either side of teh interpane gutter and hence are gutter pairs.

The story featuring these stamps appeared in the April-June 2014 issue of The EFO Collector.

December 8^th, 2023

Top row: Scott 55 (1921): Major shift of horizontal perfs.

Middle row:
Left: Scott 117a (1934) Miscut Goethals booklet pane.
Right: Scott 117 (1933) Plate block of four with vertical perforations shifted to include more than half of the plate number within stamp. Note the Canal Zone overprint.

Bottom row:
Left: Scott C50 (1974) Black shifted down. You can notice it best when you look at the plane's wings.
Right: Scott C53 (1976) Black shifted right. Here also you can see it most clearly by looking at the plane's wings.

The story featuring these stamps appeared in the January-March 2014 issue of The EFO Collector.

April 16^th, 2023