page_title: Washington–Franklin Issues
section_title: Coil stamps
hierarchical_section_title: Washington–Franklin Issues / Coil stamps
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Postage stamp, George Washington 1912 issue, 4c
context_page_description: The Washington–Franklin Issues are a series of definitive U.S. Postage stamps depicting George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, issued by the U.S. Post Office between 1908 and 1922. The distinctive feature of this issue is that it employs only two engraved heads set in ovals—Washington and Franklin in full profile—and replicates one or another of these portraits on every stamp denomination in the series. This is a significant departure from previous definitive issues, which had featured pantheons of famous Americans, with each portrait-image confined to a single denomination. At the same time, this break with the recent past represented a return to origins. Washington and Franklin, after all, had appeared on the first two American stamps, issued in 1847, and during the next fifteen years, each of the eight stamp denominations available featured either Washington or Franklin.
  In the early Washington–Franklin issues, every design incorporated a pair of olive branches surrounding one or the other of the two profiles. From 1912 on, however, the Franklin-head issues would instead appear with Oak leaves near the bottom of the oval in the image.
context_section_description: Postage stamps that come in strips with the individual stamps arranged side by side or one above the other and rolled into a coil for sale at the post office are referred to as coil stamps. The coil configuration made the repeated removal of individual stamps easier for the clerks and others who dealt with mass mailings on a daily basis. The coil configuration also made it possible to dispense individual stamps in vending machines. Responding to complaints from vending machine companies that coil stamps with standard perforations (perforated 12) separated too easily, the postal service introduced a much coarser gauge—perforated 8½—in 1910. This gauge, however, proved problematic for opposite reasons: the stamps proved too difficult to separate. As a result, a finer gauge, perforated 10, was used for coils from 1914 on.
  From 1908 to 1914 coil stamps were printed with Flat Plate presses in sheets of 400 which were then cut into strips for coiling. In 1915 the Bureau began printing coil stamps from continuous rolls of paper with the Rotary Press. The printing plates were curved and affixed around a rotating cylinder, a process that stretched the images somewhat, making them slightly longer than similar images printed from a flat-plate. The difference in size becomes evident when the two different types are placed side by side.
  
  Coil stamps are either perforated horizontally, with one stamp over the other, or vertically with the stamps situated side by side along the strip of stamps. Made from the same paper stock as sheet stamps, the coil stamps were accordingly issued concurrently with the regular Washington–Franklins. The denominations for coil stamps of these series range only from 1-cent up to 10-cents. While the 1–5 cent denominations were issued almost continuously the 10-cent coils were only issued twice, once as a yellow Washington-head stamp first issued in 1908, (See: Coil stamps Table-1) and once as a 10-cent yellow Franklin-head coil that wasn't issued until 1916. (See: Coil stamps Table-2)
  Notes:
  Each of the year series produced stamps with denominations of 1c and 2c that were issued with both horizontal and vertical perforations. The remaining denominations of 3c to 10c were issued with mostly vertical perforations.
  There is only one example each of the Washington 3c, 4c and 5c stamps issued with horizontal perforations.
  Neither the Washington-head nor Franklin-head 10-cent coil was ever issued with horizontal perforations, hence the issues only existed with stamps situated next to one another on a coil.
caption: Coil stamps, center-line pairissue of 1912
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