1907 4 Cent Grant Vertical Coil

I have posted 2 pictures of my 1907 Grant coil. The first shows the stamp tied to a piece post marked Oct 29, 1907 at West Philadelphia Station. The second shows the exact measurements for this stamp. Vertical height is 25.1 mm. The measurements for the two edges show that they are exactly parallel.

The stamp has been submitted to both the APS & Philatelic Foundation. Their opinion is it is a # 303 with the perfs trimmed. Very interesting as it would require a super jumbo # 303 to accomplish this There have been a number of research papers published about this stamp & a general human interest article. In essence, it seems that the experts at APS & Foundation are relying on a couple key points to support their position.

The APS expert seems to hold that 10,000 of the base stamp, 4 cent Grant imperforate, is the critical factor. It is an established fact that all 10,000 were sent to Detroit for processing into Schermack Coils. The basis for this position is the January 1909 Fitch report showing that 10,000 stamps were "issued" in May 1908.
Major problem for this scenario: The post office distributes stamps, the BEP has the production responsibility. National Archive documents do not support the APS expert's position. As an additional fact the Smithsonian U.S. Postal Museum removed the 10,000 stamp reference from its website! The 10,000 stamp concept should logically be placed in the historical belief category. If the experts had done the proper National Archives research they would have uncovered the problems with the BEP production records.

The Philatelic Foundation expert took a different tack. In a published article he pointed out that the Post Office Dept. did not "issue" (there's that word again) coil stamps until February 1908. By definition, the 1907 coil must be a fake.

Major problem with the Foundation expert's statement is that it does not cover all the facts. If he had done the proper research he would have found the documents in the Congressional Record from Third Assistant Post Master General Lawshe. Mr Lawshe submitted a letter to Congress and followed it with testimony in February 1908 stating that the Post Office Dept. was conducting private vending machine/coil tests prior to Oct 31, 1907. They were producing coil stamps for tests on 6 machines under Lawshe/Arthur Travers control. One would think if the Foundation claims to be the "Gold Standard" they would know how to conduct basic research.

With the limited information I have shared I am wondering if anyone can help me understand how a forger was able to trim the perfs off a # 303 and achieve exactly parallel edges. Today with lasers etc I believe it is feasible, however, the technology in 1907 seemed to be limited to scissors & a ruler. I believe one of the critical criteria the experts use in evaluating genuine old coils is the parallel edges.

I would appreciate any thoughts that fellow philatelists would like to share about this stamp & the experts evaluation.

Ken