Benjamin Franklin - 10 Cents - Imperf Sides. Is This Common?

Hi All,

I discovered an old stamp collecting album from around 1900-1910.
Among others, it contains this 10 cents Benjamin Franklin Stamp from 1912 with imperforated sides.

Is this common or this it a rare find?

The image quality is not so good, but if anyone's interested, I will post a better scan.

Thanks,
Rob

Rob, welcome to our forum!

While your stamp's design first dates from 1912, there were subsequent printings. Do you happen to know this stamp's perforation? (You will need a template to be certain.)

There was a later flat plate printing of this design with a perforation of 11. What you might have--and I am only guessing--is the top left stamp from one of these sheets.

Others will know far better than I and will chime in soon after their coffee and ablutions!

It is the upper left corner of a sheet. Most collectors avoid these 'straight edges' examples so it generally caries less value than a fully perfed stamp.
Don

Looks like a perf 10 either 433 or 472 depends on watermark but may be a 510 if perf 11, yes it would come from a corner of a sheet and also has a perfin cancel, I would put it with my perfins if you collect those.

Thanks for the answers!
Will check the perforation.

Rob

To interpret the somewhat cryptic replies so far:

Stamps were printed in large sheets that were perforated and then cut into panes. The stamps along the cut lines had no perforations. See the images in the thread linked below, at 11/3/14 at about 12:25 am and following. Stamps on the corners had two straight edges, other stamps along the cut lines only one traight edge. Your stamp shows both cut lines, which makes it interesting as an example of how stamps were produced but does not add monetary value.

Stamps issued in booklet panes also had "natural straight edges".

A natural straight edge usually decreases value. Straight edges produced by cutting off existing perforations are damaged and worthless. You have natural straight edges.

In your case, the stamp also has a perfin (letters or numbers punched into it--companies did this to prevent theft of stamps by employees). That also decreases the value except among collectors of perfins.

So generally speaking, your stamp is worth less than it would be worth if it had perforations all around.

https://goscf.com/t/40351&

Actually, it is from the upper left corner of the pane... the lower right pane of the sheet.

it is funny that in a world were the less there is of something generaly the more valuable people think it is we consider these less valuable. if you tried to find that stamp with that perfin with the straight colored lines on the other corners you would most likely never be able to do it.

Supply and demand. Low demand means low value. Even though the supply is actually lower than one might expect, as stamps with straight edges often had perforations added to increase their value. Or just discarded as unworthy of being saved.

Interestingly, this is not the same for all countries. The Norgeskatalogen values straight-edge stamps from early booklets significantly higher than the corresponding fully perforated stamps from sheets.

And yet collecting miniature "blocks of nine" used to be popular. Here is a small pricelist booklet probably from the early 1930s.