[61] Metropolitan Philatelist, I: 226. The next perforation is of gauge 14, and this is well known though of extreme rarity. Messrs. Corwin and King did not know of over twenty specimens in 1891. We are fortunate in being able to illustrate a fine used pair on piece of cover from the Pack collection as No. 128 on Plate XIII. Most unfortunately, however, as will be noted, some vandal cut the cover, though perhaps unwittingly, just so as to destroy most of the postmark and thus lose forever the date and place of mailing. Messrs. Corwin and King state:[62]-- [62] ibid. I: 275. We have lately seen a pair of 3d. perf. 14, upon the original cover, but which, unfortunately, presents a most indistinct dating stamp, and, although endorsed by the recipient with date of writing, May 30, date of receipt and date of reply, all three year dates are so indistinctly written that one is unable to tell whether it is 1857 or 1859, although we think the former was the date. Should this be the case it would seem as though the perf. 14 and another curious perforation just discovered ... were experimental, or provisional, pending the receipt from the makers of those perf. 12. Most of the few stamps perf. 14 which we have seen, appear cut on one or more sides with the shears, as though the users were not familiar with the advantages of perforation as a means of separating the stamps, and adhering in a measure to the old methods. This is one of the reasons which lead us to believe that these stamps, perf. 14, were issued before those perf. 12, because the latter are almost invariably separated by tearing apart as is proper.... The writer has in his collection seven copies of the 3d. perf. 14, and of these four specimens show double perforation on one or more sides. It is a rare occurrence when a double perforation is found upon any of the stamps so treated by the American Bank Note Co. or their predecessors, and when we find four out of seven specimens in that condition, we are justified in stating that these stamps, gauging 14, were never perforated by the makers. In another part of the article just quoted is the following:[63]-- The American Bank Note Co. and Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson, their predecessors, have never, according to official information from them, employed any other gauge than 12, in fact they call 12 their standard and only perforation. Allowing that they did perforate the ones found perf. 12 (which are the rule, while those perf. 14 are the exception), then those perf. 14 must have been certainly operated upon elsewhere than in the shops of the Bank Note Co., where this perforation is unknown. [63] Metropolitan Philatelist, I: 226.