What's Wrong With This Stamp?

area66 - I live in Michigan but went tp public school in Quebec, which clearly explains away my poor counting ability. Looking now I see three or four decent holes.

I did not say "cut," and "hard and straight" is not synonymous in either English or French. If you remove the tilt from the stamp image you will see no high or low perf tips at bottom. Tips are uneven on all other sides. Please note that I am referencing relative length and not whether they show signs of fibers. There are several on the stamp which do look cut-and-pulled.

revcollector - Isn't it rather grubby to have started life as a proof?

As for being grubby, we have no idea what has happened to it over the last 120 years. And the faker might have done some of that to make it appear more like a stamp. So that is not particularly significant, especially from a scan.