Poor Mutilated Stamps

These came from a batch of stamps given to my brother by a friend of his whose mother "collected" stamps.

I believe this picture will explain why I hedged on the word collected.



I cannot for the life of me fathom what her intentions for these stamps might have been to have so callously hacked on them when freeing them from their envelopes. Bizarre.

I believe she can plead ignorance. She really doesn't know about stamps or what she is doing. Fortunately, it's all common stuff.

Yes, quite fortunate indeed. I think I may have a couple dozen of that Eisenhower stamp now. But for some reason, no matter how many I may already have, I still cringe when I come across stamps that look like these.

On the bright side, these ex-stamps will find a happy home in my wife's decoupage box.

There are two other types with kind hearts (1) The ones that scrub and polish all coins before they give or try to sell them to you :) (2) People who cut "cut squares" off of printed stamp material such as post cards and always cut right on the lines :)

Jim

Not that I am complaining at all, but it has seemed the 7 days I have been here, that there is only a dozen or so people who post or are online. Has this forum been on as long as the coin one? and I guess the second question, has it always been rather low number of postings? Is there a 50/14 rule for creating contests?
Sorry if I hijack the mutilated thread, but I will post a "crinkled" one that escaped its mount and got caught in the binding .....sad. Maybe use it for a prize :)

Jim

Hi desertgem,
The stamp community has been open a little over four months. I think the coin community is about 4 years old.
We have been growing steadily, but could always use some help to get us to the next level.
If you are ready to start a contest, just go for it, I'm sure everyone will enjoy it!

stamphop-
Great thread, ouch, these make me cringe too.

My Mother-in-Law used to save all her stamps for me and with her eyesight failing, she would quite often cut off the perforations. Maybe this lady had the same problem.

Steve

Now I hadn't though about that explanation, Steve. What I found puzzling was that the batch that came from her had a number of stamps that are cut just fine, a handful that are just missing perforations or dip slightly into the design, and then there are the handful that look like the ones I posted. Cataracts or the like could certainly explain a lot. Combine that with deteriorating fine motor skills and you have a pefect recipe for stamp mutilation.

And I shouldn't complain too much. There were a few neat items in that batch, including a WWII stamp rations book similar to the one posted by scoutjim99 in this thread.

If anyone else has any horror stories they would like to post here (images encouraged), feel free.

And don't worry, if you're the responsible party, we won't make TOO much fun of you.

All I can say is, I hope she didn't cut her son's HAIR ,too!!


Gussyboy1

Very Funny Gussy

Those poor stamps

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All I can say is, I hope she didn't cut her son's HAIR ,too!

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Yeah, the old bowl-on-the-head and trim off everything that sticks out!

Stamphop, maybe you can make a plastic trimming template for her... something with wide margins she can place over the stamp before she cuts it away from the envelope. People who buy on-paper mixtures like them close-clipped to get more bang for their buck, but these are a LOT too close.

Ouch! Makes me feel bad just looking at them...

I feel your pain As go through my inherited stuff I find lots of good stamps cut just a little too close. I get frustrated enough I have to put it down and go to my WW collection.

I also found a bunch of ratty ones I had soaked off myself and stored in a cheese box. I think I will end up throwing many of these away.

Charles.

Charles, don't throw them away--they are a great learning stamp for my grandkids--send 'em to me! The kids place the stamps in their album and when a better stamp like it comes along then they can replace that "cut close" one.
Also, I wanted to post one of my nightmarish stamp soaking mistakes here-these are the Disney stamps--the adhesive is a "nightmare" to get off--I rubbed a little too hard and thus the color came off on the front side of the stamp--I have found every one of these Disney stamps hard to remove the adhesive! I know that NO ONE has EVER done this before!




Thanks!
Gussyboy1