My Two New Blue Benjamins

I just acquired these two stamps. What I believe are a Scott #24 and a #63. I am happy with them but after inspecting the #24 I see the edge a little cracked and funny looking. I noticed it before I bought it, I think the price reflected it and doesn't bother me that bad, the oval picture of Ben is perfect. It was called mint by the seller, I thought that it actually may be called a fault or worse a repair? I don't plan on re-selling it but I think from now on every stamp I buy will be flawless. If I ever sold this stamp I don't think I could call it mint. Any thoughts, what is a mint stamp? I know in high school your car was mint if there was not a mark on it. Are cars and stamps the same?

Mint is defined 10 different ways so it all depends on who you ask. The purists consider mint to be "Post office fresh" meaning full original gum, never hinged. Others see mint as unused meaning never hinged, hinged or no gum. I consider a stamp with no original gum that has not been used as "Unused".

Thanks that make sense, I like the idea of mint being post office fresh. Of course that is probably rare for issues this old.

As a general rule, I never buy a damaged or altered stamp regardless of the price. That's just me. I would rather save my money until I can afford what I want/need. That does not mean that others have to follow the same principle.
Although I have been a lifelong collector, I also know their is intrinsic value in my collections & when I go & pass these on to my family/kids, if they want to sell them, I can reasonably presume they will be able to recover most of the expenditure in the collections if I have purchased "wisely". Please do not tale this as a criticism of your purchase.

Marios

That 24 isn't mint... it looks to have been repaired. I would send it back.

Thanks I thought about that, but the defect was evident in picture. I will just take it as lesson learned. Look at the picture more carefully and make my own judgement not just believe sellers description.

The 24 also looks to me to be repaired. I recently acquired a stamp in an auction lot that looked very much like this. Looking at it with a jewelers loupe it was an obvious repair. It is otherwise a very nice looking stamp that will display well in your album. Consider it an unusually nice space filler.

And I have plenty of space to fill, especially in those dates. I like those old stamps but they are expensive.