More Stamps To Test Your Skills

Barb, from what I understand.. people would reperf to make them look more symmetrical, change a straight edge, repair torn perfs.. all to make the stamp appear more valuable then it is..

a stamp with nice perforations on 4 sides is more valuable then a stamp without...

Ahhh so. therefore, fraud? whole new place to look. gotcha.

exactly.. fraud, fakes, whatever.. you want to call it.. I have been finding out it is pretty rampant, either by ignorance or design.. people are selling altered stamps.

Sneaky dogs, is a perf that big of a deal to reperf? What do they gain if one can tell? People always got to ruin a good thing y'know?

To answer your question about why some of these stamps come with such tight margins... basically it comes down to spacing on the plates. The toughest 61s to find with clear margins are the 2c, 5c and 30c. The easiest way to see for yourself is to look at some blocks of plate proofs, James Lee usually has stock listed on his website and of course searching Siegel's site is also a good way to look and see them.