New Guy With A Question

Hi folks...I am very new to this hobby, and I have had a box of old stamps for 40 years in my room and I am just now looking thru them. One stamp I was looking at brought up a question for me, what does it mean when a stamp only has three sides perforated and are they valued differently etc? See my example below..

Sorry for the blurriness...

Stamps are printed in sheets and then perforated so they can be separated. This stamp was on the far left of the sheet.

In general for 20th century used US, sheet position doesn't make a significant difference in value. In most cases I'm aware of, the stamps that are fully perforated are more valuable because there are fewer of them per sheet.

A good illustration of stamps that have a "straight edge" was provided in another recent thread at this link:

https://goscf.com/t/25008

Thanks for the info, this was helpful. I have a few more images of a few nice stamps I found in this old box...

I'm sorry but I don't see any straight edges on your examples. But that's beside the point. I think perforations all around the stamp, as opposed to one or two straight edges, comes down to collector preference, more than anything else. A collector will pay more for what's desirable.

Yes, eye appeal. Sometimes you can't get away from having a straight edge because the stamp came from an older booklet or a smaller pane.


Hello Chuckdet, welcome!

If you wish to edit a previous post you've made just click the little paper and pencil icon above that post.

I see the pictures are named differently ( the vertical pair) so don't know what went on there to get the same picture. On the same day if you upload two pics that have the same name the second will overwrite the first.

The first picture disappeared and was replaced with a different picture, this can happen if pictures are not named or as Puzzler said, if they have the same name.

Steve

Talking from a UK point of view... booklet/coil stamps can be machine "cut" on several sides giving a "straight" edge and the other side/sides have been pulled apart giving a "fluffy" appearance. Inspection of the sides gives the type and position within a booklet or if the coil is sideways or vertical.

Once in a while, a sheet-edge copy (especially with a printed guide-line) will pinpoint the stamp's position in the pane for a known error or printing flaw; this is especially true for flat plate printings.

In general, however, sheet-edge copies sell at a substantial discount; also, in some cases, the straight edge helps identify stamps from a booklet pane.

Hey Doug, nice to see you find your way over here :)