Stamp Giveaway series 2 # 23 [solved]

Raphael (Mongolia souvenir sheet; Malawi souvenir sheet); Michelangelo (Gibraltar booklet pane); Van der Goes (Rwanda souvenir sheet); Murillo (Rwanda souvenir sheet)

Before stamps were perforated, clerks cut them in strips. A machine for separation of a single stamp from a strip of 20 or more by use of a small guillotine was displayed at the London Great Exhibition in 1851. How many such machines are known to have survived?

Open to everyone but only one guess per participant please. Winner will be correct response received at or before 10 PM Eastern US time, July 10, 2022. If no correct response is received, winner will be first response. Good luck to all who choose to participate!

Will

My guess is 3.

Coinman48

Raphael (Mongolia souvenir sheet; Malawi souvenir sheet); Michelangelo (Gibraltar booklet pane); Van der Goes (Rwanda souvenir sheet); Murillo (Rwanda souvenir sheet)

 

Before stamps were perforated, clerks cut them in strips. A machine for separation of a single stamp from a strip of 20 or more by use of a small guillotine was displayed at the London Great Exhibition in 1851. How many such machines are known to have survived?

 

Open to everyone but only one guess per participant please. Winner will be correct response received at or before 10 PM Eastern US time, July 10, 2022. If no correct response is received, winner will be first response. Good luck to all who choose to participate!

 

Will

My guess is 1.

10

Two.  Guessing it's a small number, 1 and 3 are taken.

Haven't got much luck searching on Google, so I'll pick another low number: 4.

But during the search I found something interesting, a book called “The Year-book of Facts in the Great Exhibition of 1851: Its Origin and Progress, Constructive Details of the Building, the Most Remarkable Articles and Objects Exhibited, Etc”:

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Year_book_of_Facts_in_the_Great_Exhi.html?id=egg-AQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

This one is hard to find!  I've been trying to back up my admittedly wild guess and have learned a lot about the history of perforation, but haven't found anything about the referenced device.  These give aways are really your secret plan to educate us, right Will?

I have to educate myself too. More fun than just saying who wants which stamps and then sending them to first person to ask. I enjoy all the answers and comments. And after all the years I have had the stamps I have no regrets in letting them go.

Will

I love  being educated 🙂

Now just guessing 5

I guess this is the machine built by Henry Archer but I can't find the answer for the question so I will guess 13.

I guess 17.

Beekeeper is declared the winner as that entry was the first and no correct entry was received.

Some of you may take it as a trick question as none of the machines (0) are known to have survived. And it is different than Henry Archer's machine as that machine was meant to perforate stamps.

Future competitions in the works as time permits.

Will 

Cody404 is now declared the winner as Beekeeper declines the winnings. Cody404 sent in the second entry and was the closest to correct so I have no problem changing the winning status. Congratulations, Cody404!