Centenary Birth Of Chairman Mao FDC With Slanding Stamp?

Hi to everyone in this forum and I am a new member over here.I am a chinese stamp and cover collector for many years.I just like chinese stamps very much because chinese stamps are too historical and interesting to me.

Here is a centenary birth of chairman mao first day cover issued in 1993.The stamp is in slanding way but the postmark is exactly in upright position on the stamp of this cover.The chinese characters of Mao zedong is clearly can be seen and readable on this postmark after the stamp placed it in a slanding way on this cover.I would think this is really something unusual to me because this is the first time I have ever seen something like this as a collector to be honest.I am sure some of you never seen anything like this before and probably this is your first time for sure.Unfortunely,I cannot confirm thing like this is considered as unusual and rare,that is why I need someone which is an expert over to help me to identify if thing like this is considered unusual and rare or not.Beside that,I also need someone to explain what happened to the position of this stamp which is not in the upright position like other similar first day covers which I am having now.My thought is probably someone purposely placed it like this in a slanding way and put on the postmark on this stamp,hopefully my thought is correct.I also think that it was not supposed to place it in a slanding way like this but must place it in an upright position,correct me if I am wrong about it.

I am not too sure if this stamp was placed by the personal hand or machine on this cover and that is why I need someone who knows something about it and explain everything in detail.I am just a normal collector but not really expert in chinese stamps and cover.I am not living in china but in oversea country,hope you understand.

Please refer to the scans below and your help is appriciated by me,hope to hear from you very soon.Thank you.

Hi Bayern1kreuzer,

My question is why was this stamp placed in a slanding way but not in upright position on this FDC and of course I know that the stamp is a miniature sheet stamp with cancelled to order because it is so obvious to look at it.Thank you so much for your comment and I apprieiciate it.

You are right Chin,
Never seen anything like this, very attractive.
I cannot help you with your question, but I did enjoy looking at your photo.

Mortimer. YSC.

Welcome aboard to both Chinesestamplover and Yorkshire stamp club..

Ray,
Thanks, has the H.M.S. Community enough lifeboats
Yuri-YSC.

Hi yorkshire,

Welcome to this stamp forum and nice to meet you.May I know are you a chinese stamp collector from china there?You are definely right that thing like this is very attractive because I have never seen anything like this before beside you over there.I have only discovered one like this from thousand of the similar FDC and I bought it later on.Would someone tell me if thing like this considered as very rare or common?I would like to know right now.Thank you for your comment over here and I apprieiciate it from you.

Sorry Chin,
I have not found anyone who does save Chinese stamps, have you looked for the like in the members lists in this club?
Ghu-YSC.

The stamp is Scott #2480, and the 2008 catalog value is $2.00 mint or used. The FDC may have a little more value but probably not much.

BeeSee,
What is that in Chinese currency?
Come to think of it, what is the unit of currency in China?
Yuri-YSC.

Yorkshire,

I am not chin but a chinastamplover,just to let you know.I thought you knew alot of people who collect chinese stamps and also you know something about chinese stamp,it is so unfortunely.You are welcome over here and nice to know someone like you.Thank you so much for your reply and comment.Goodluck to you.

Raywrio,


Thank you so much for saying that and you are welcome to comment here.See you.

Hello Chinesestamplover, welcome!

I am not collecting Chinese stamps so do not know how often or how many times something like this happens to first day covers produced by China (I do not even know if the government or a private individual or company produces them!).

However, having seen some FDCs from various countries from various years I have seen stamps / mini-sheets placed incorrectly on the covers to varying degrees. It is more of a rare occurrence than the stamps placed correctly upright.

This does not make them valuable though, in my opinion, as most collectors wish their covers to be appealing to their eyes and have a good appearance.

I know some collectors are enjoying having and collecting errors or varieties or mis-cuttings or mis-placements of overprints, perforations, inks, etc., so a misplaced stamp oriented incorrectly on a cover may fall into that collecting sphere.

I do not think it might be something that would be valued highly by many collectors because even though it was produced incorrectly by the proper issuing authorities, the reason for the misplacement cannot be traced back to a certain reason that happens every so often or so many times every 100 produced or such like. Therefore there is no Obvious rarity that it has.

It may indeed be a one time happening but because it also looks like a mistake that could happen if someone was not paying attention or a minisheet became caught in a machine somehow it will not be worth anything more than a usual FDC and probably less.

Any valuable error or variety should be able to be explained (which is what you are indeed trying to bravely do, bravo) and pointed out to others that it happens every so often in this printing run of covers because of ???? so there are only xx so many and they are rare because xxxxx were produced.

I know my explanation sounds a bit like what could possibly have happened to your cover and thus make it OK to collect and it should be listed in catalogues but your cover is not of that sort and it is only our hopes that makes it so. And all stamp collectors are full of high hopes as we all know.

Hi puzzler,

This stamp was placed in a slanding way done by the chinese government officer in the national philately department because I was told by someone else who worked at there before.They sticked every chinese stamp on the FDC and put on the postmark properly on the cover before taking out to sell into the public.My question is does it command some special value since this was done by the government officer but not done by the public or private company?I really enjoy to look at this slanding stamp on this first day cover very much to be honest.I apprieiciate your comment with your personal opinion very much as usual and hope to hear from you once again later on.Thank you.

Hello,
I do not think it would have any extra premium in value attached to it because the stamp was affixed in a slanting manner. It would not matter who did it really, whether it was postal employee or not.

To you it is a curiosity and that makes it collectible and worthwhile, but perhaps to others it would not seem so.

If it could be proved that this slanting placement happened every so often (say every 100 covers) because of an error in some machine then yes, it would be a constant error, happening constantly at a predictable interval, and thus could be catalogued and priced accordingly. But it is not and so falls within the collecting sphere of errors, freaks and oddities (EFOs) and is then worth whatever someone wanted to pay for it as some collectors enjoy these types of things (like me).

It is human error and interesting in that way but not, I fear, in a stamp collecting way, except to a few. Similar to a misplaced postmark or a well placed postmark, if it was pleasing to the eye then the demand would rise and the price also.

Part of the reason stamps and their errors are priced so highly at times is only because it is interesting to a collector, or more than one, and thus supply does not meet demand and the price rises.

As far as I see, there is no demand for this type of error that I know of at this time.

It is valuable to you but to be worthwhile paying extra money for to someone else, well, you will have to find the buyer.

You make a convincing argument for it's interesting properties but not for the constant type of recurring error that most people like to collect.

Hi puzzler,

Thank you so much for your effort to make everything clear to me and maybe it is only interesting to me but not most of the collectors that you know there.I bought it just for a few dollars and I dont mind to keep it as part of my collection for many years.

It is good to collect stuff. But also good to be realistic about what you have.

Of course, there is always hope and dreams.