A Self Adhesive Blank Stamp

Just a curiosity, but I wonder what one can do with a blank self-adhesive stamp?



Actually, this is the selvage result when you tear apart the weird format used in the recent US issue of the Romare Bearden Stamp. It's the one position (third row right) where you have no printing on the selvage and yet it contains die cut perforations on 3 sides (with straight edge at the end of the pane). Not surprising, under a bright light, you can see the tagging on the stamp also, which makes me wonder if automated post office equipment could mistake that "blank" stamp for legitimate postage.

Anyway, the one slight variation (other than size) from the actual stamp is the unique die cut perforations at the locations shown below, which is carried through on all positions of the pane where the stamp meets the selvage:



While this is nothing spectacular, I just find it an interesting curiosity that I'm sure some creative stamp collectors will put to use in one way or another.

You could always draw your own stamp on it (make sure you give it a proper denomination) and send it to yourself on an evelope, see if it gets through. Just an experiment.
I wouldn't put a return address on it though.

Maybe it's worth a try, but I'm not sure I want to cheat the post office out of 44 cents as it just might make the difference between digging the US Postal Service out of their financial difficulties!

On the other hand, as I think of it, I've tried on two recent occasions to get a mailed cover sent back to me with a first day dated postmark of a recent US issue but when I received the covers back in the mail it contained no postmark, so I've been able to re-use the stamps. But in my view, the USPS was given the opportunity to cancel the stamps properly but elected not to.

I recently (as an experiment) put on a non-denominated self adhesive stamp from the 1980's on a cover I mailed to myself through a local post office box. While it went through "no questions asked", I did find it interesting that while the mail I send locally goes through the Brockton, MA postal facility when I used the under-valued self adhesive stamp, the cover came back to me with a Boston, MA cancellation. My guess is that the piece was spit out of their sorting equipment as containing questionable postage and went to another office for verification before it was delivered.

So maybe the post office is a bit smarter than we think on such things ... ???

If you were going to do that, you should put appropriate postage on the back using stamps with water-activated gum that can later be sweated off.

That is NOT selvage it's the new Marvel Comics Series Invisible Man stamp!

You could put it next to a regular one of these stamps (from the same sheet that is) and get them both cancelled at the same time by the same postmark.

Or a unique opportunity . . .