Wash #68 With Perfs Cut Off

So why would somebody be so stupid?

I assume you mean "Why would somebody be so stupid as to cut the perfs off?".

Unless you have some documentation to think otherwise, I can think of a number of reasons:

First, there is no telling when the perfs were cut off. Some of the earlier "classics", when stamp collecting was in its infancy, sometimes did these sort of modifications to stamps to help them look uniformed or to fit in irregular sized spaces in early albums. Today, we would consider it sacrilege, just as we wouldn't apply a hinge to a classic and valuable stamp anymore ... but yet there was a time when they did it.

Second, it could also have been because of what appears to be a tear in the stamp on the right side. A beginner collector might have thought that to cut off the perfs would make the stamp look more attractive because of that damage. Besides, who is to tell whether or not there could have been significant damage to the perfs anyway, which would have prompted a newbie to think down those lines.

Third, perhaps much less likely, is that someone could have done it intentionally to deceive an uninformed collector. Once again, there is no telling when it was done, so the cuts could date back to the 19th century when the stamp was issued, and before a host of catalogs documented what to look for in fake versus genuine stamps. It could have been an unscrupulous collector that did it for perceived financial gain.

All purely conjecture on my part, but certainly some possibilities to consider as to why it was done.

I have a yarn somewhere in my dumpster,
where a representative of Stanley Gibbons London
went for a stamp album appraisal, and was quite excited
the elderly lady had indicated numerous pages of penny blacks
and other delicious stamps of appeal.
It turned out she had cut the perfs off of every stamp,
she thought that made them look ugly.

I remember another elderly lady who was so pleased with her worldwide stamp collection ... and the stuff she bought from some dealers at rather high prices. When I asked her to show it to me one time, I was aghast that she used cellophane tape to mount every single stamp, ruining the entire collection (from a value standpoint anyway).

I guess we SCF members have to start educating elderly ladies (and gentlemen, too) who may not be philatelists!

I saw a 69 (perfed 12c black washington, oval ornaments in the corners) on ebay recently in a similarly trimmed condition being offered as a 17 (imperf 12c black washington, round rosettes in the corners). It's was as glaringly obvious as this is not a 13. The seller was suitably embarrassed when I informed him, as he had bought the stamp assuming it was a 17. The moral being, even if the original trimmers intent wasn't to deceive, deception can still happen.