3 Cent Locomotive Stamp. Worth Soaking To Look For Grill?

Essays- Thank you very much for your time and expertise! I will not soak this stamp until further expert evaluation. I will taking a few more pics of the perfs and post in a bit. I appreciate your help!

Here are better pics with better light conditions and closeups. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Why would anyone regum a used stamp?

@maverick
Save your time and energy. When the grill was not strong in the first place, and its points did not break the paper, it gave a perfect opportunity for a stamp to be softened up with soaking and then pressed flat until all the points were flattened out. This is the method by which fake non-grilled stamps were produced, and precisely why the presence of original gum is necessary.

@anthony-beast:
Welcome to the list.




2 reasons in this case: 1. to practice regumming technique. 2. If the regumming is so expertly done as to be virtually indistinguishable from original gum, then faking the presence of gum on this particular kind of used stamp is useful for the fake artist (as implied in my answer to maverick.)

However, today there are advanced tools available to detect the presence of a grill that has been flattened or to determine whether the gum is original. The lab at the National Postal Museum has some of them, and invites qualified philatelists to come in and see for themselves.

Just a follow up: I took this stamp into my local coin and stamp expert this afternoon while on lunch. He took some very close looks at it under magnification and seems to think this stamp is original, with original gum. He couldn't find a grill on it. He recommended sending it out but I don't have high hopes and I'll keep you posted.

This discussion shows what a service bill Weiss provided--and at a nominal fee