A "Condition Rarity"...

The term "condition rarity" is a numismatic term that refers to a coin that, while is not in and of itself rare (which would be an "absolute rarity"), is in a grade or state of preservation that makes it rare.

In other words, a condition rarity is an item that is rare in high grades, whereas an absolute rarity is rare in ANY grade.

Philatelically speaking, a U.S. C3a, 1869 invert, or Pan Am invert would be an absolute rarity, and a common 19th century stamp graded a 100J would be a condition rarity.

This past weekend at CHICAGOPEX I picked up a stamp that I believe falls into the category of condition rarity. R21c, the 4-cent Playing Cards, while not itself very rare (it catalogs $800; I have about a half dozen examples), is almost always found either faulty or very poorly centered.

Sound examples with nice centering come around... well, almost never.

Nice explication. I do have a few (probably dumb) questions here. I see on the R19, for example, that there are listings, minor numbers, for the imperf., perf, and part perf, but on the R20 and R21 there are only listings for perf. I'm am assuming with the way the numbers are there must have been a time when the other types were listed? Or, as I seem to have noticed that the "c" just happens to be the number assigned to represent any item with perfs and the stamp, or stamps, without other sub numbers just never existed?

I'm not too familiar with the revenues and am just attempting to learn something here.

Some questions for this particular stamp: is the half square around the right top ball supposed to be there? (I am on my phone, so I may be seeing things)

Is there an extra line, or ink spot, on the left scroll just left on the "U" in US?

On the last "E" of revenue there appears to be a little extra white coming from the lower left. Is this normal as well? Or a spot created by other means?

That's all I got for now. Beautiful stamp.

Sirrus

By the way, I just saw your listings here.... That 505 block and number one are making my mouth water. I need a second job.

Not all 1st issue revenues were issued as imperforate (a), part perforate (b), or silk paper (d). The square at upper right appears to be residual guidelines.

You will see all sorts of anomalies, inking, plate scratches, etc. on these first issue revenues.

Thanks for the information.

Rev you always come up with the most amazing examples of stamps. Critically nice piece!

They are not quite as scarce as "almost never", but it is a nice example and they are not common in this condition.
One of the interesting things about this stamp is that there were close to twice as many 4 cent Playing Cards stamps issued as 3 cent Playing Cards stamps, 697,170 to 368,106. However the 3 cent is the much more common of the two, with a much higher survival rate. Possibly this is partly due to how the stamps were applied by different companies. The tax was based on the price of the cards.