Need Help With US Scott #101

Hi guys,

I am a newbie here but I have been following the forum on and off for many years. I have many useful things from the experts here.

Anyway, I have a question that hopefully you can help me with. I saw a listing on ebay for US Scott #101 but with a Z grill pattern on the back. The seller sent it for APS identification only and it identifies the stamp as 101 with F grill. I include here both pictures (front and back) from the seller. Looking forward to hearing back from your expert opinion. Thanks.

HC

Fake!

Cannot be Z, no such thing on 90c.

Either entirely fake grill on 72 or altered grill.

My guess is stamp is not sound either. It looks real nice however

I do believe that if it was sent in to the PF even for ID purpose there would be some document stating what their ID was, without it no joy.

Genuine Scott 101 comes only with F grill, but the grill shown in the photo here cannot be an F grill: it measures 14 or 15 by 18 points, whereas the genuine F grill measures 11 to 12 by 15 to 17 points. I concur with rgstamp.

I also think it is a fake grill, but the impression almost looks very real. The stamp itself looks real nice. Part of me wants to just bid on it, send to PF and find out what it is. But the bid price is getting high now.

Which begs the question, why would someone do that to a lovely stamp? Assuming the red cancel is legitimate (nothing to really go on in the posted picture) it's an excellent example of a very difficult to find 4 margin stamp. The centering on these is usually terrible so why ruin an already difficult to obtain piece? I'm no expert in grills but even though I wouldn't shell out this kind of money without a certificate, the grill looks legitimate to my untrained mind.

From what I am seeing this "grill" purports to measure 14x18 points. Because the points are so uniform those dimensions exclude an authentic F-grill. This grill is clean and uniformly impressed, but does anyone see any grill ridges? If so, are they vertical or horizontal? Any characteristic "half rows?" I must confess that I do not see them. That gives me pause at the outset.

I would need to study it directly, angling it in the light for a good look, but I do not have confidence that this is either a Z-grill (as it purports to be by dimension) or an F-grill (for which it is too large). It is certainly not a candidate for being the "discovery copy" of a Z-grill on the 90c. The artist who crafted this has made it so perfect that there is no room for it to be anything recognized as authentic. Or so it appears from what I think I can see.

That thing has been reperfed for starters.

Pass.

Billw2,

would you please indicate where on the stamp you see reperforation? Thank you.

I circled a couple spots that look funny to me. The perfs don't look as if they were ever round.

Ah, I see it now. Thank you.

Top and at least the left, in reality both sides.

A quick glance shows that it is very "narrow" for a 90c 1861 design.