Is Expertizing Necessary For An Obvious Rarity?

I recently purchased Scott #142 from a fellow in France. The grill is clear and in my humble opinion, it is genuine. However, the stamp's color is faded. Would expertizing really enhance its value? www,theswedishtiger.com indicates that there were only 2,000 issued. If expertizing is recommended, to whom should I send it for expertizing?

If this is the US Scott #142, purple, .24, Gen. Winfield Scott. I'll say WOW at first.
Expertizing would enhance it's value, but if found not genuine, of course a loss.
Go to the American Philatelic Society site www.stamps.org
at the site click on services/then Expertizing and read through.
If you got this stamp at a good price expertizing will give you a greater
future return on your purchase.

Good Luck & Good collecting!
Welcome to the Forum!

Mike

For any stamp or cover worth $500 or more, it pays to send it in for an APS or PF certificate. Reputable dealers will refund the cost of expertization plus the purchase price if it comes back not genuine.

My own personal preference is to have any stamp with a cat value greater than $100.00 expertised. This is not based on any science or published recommendations/criteria except my personal comfort level.

While you're deciding, you might as well post a scan of it

Yes, it is Scott #142 24c purple Gen. Winfield Scott with grill. The person I bought it from could only send a poor quality scan and said he knew nothing about grills; so I took a chance and bought it along with one marked as a Scott #127. The #127 is iffy, it has a large thin and I've seen enough of the 1869 series to know that an advertised non-grilled stamp, did in fact have an almost undetectable grill. Give me a day or two to upload a photo.

Sounds good!

If you plan on keeping the stamp for your personal collection and are convinced it's genuine, then I say put it in the spot for #142 and enjoy it, and forget about getting it expertized (that's my opinion -- I don't send stamps in my personal collection out for certification either).

If you plan on selling the stamp, then I strongly recommend that you get it expertized in order the get the best price. Just because it has a grill does not mean it is a genuine #142; this stamp can be forged by putting a fake grill on #153, which has the same basic paper type and was produced by the same printer. Don't be fooled by the premium on #153. Most of the #142's are faulty, so you don't need a decent copy of #153 to make the forgery.

Assuming the grill has no obvious problems, it is almost impossible to ID this type of forgery by scan, because the details of the grill and the paper type have to be examined under a good magnifier.

If the stamp turns out to be genuine (and I certainly hope it does), the cost of certification will be insignificant compared to the value of the stamp.

Just my opinion. Either way, enjoy your acquisition!

https://www.stampcommunity.org/uplo...429_142.jpeg

Since I use Linux Ubuntu and not Microsoft Windows, I hope the image comes through OK. I'm not sure what the tiny black spots are, but they are not pinholes. Also, what appears to be a tiny horizontal tear to the right of the right "24" is not a tear. Centering appears to be VF for the issue.

Thanks khj for your advice, your feelings are pretty much mine but I am very curious to know if the stamp really is genuine. I have seen faked grills and mine doesn't at all look faked. If the photo is clear, maybe you and others could make your opinions known. I may go ahead and have it expertized in case I need to sell the stamp when my daughter goes off to college in about 3 years. I will most likely wait until I can have someone I know hand carry the stamp to the USA to be mailed from there. This is not a put down on the Guatemalan postal service. It is actually quite good but insurance is not offered.

I have heard some negative reports on some expertizing services but I don't recall which were not well received by many collectors. I will look into the one(s) recommended by you all.

By the way, what is the difference, if any, between expertizing, grading and certification?

The terms tend to be used rather loosely. But technically...

Expertizing is when you get a professional opinion.

Certification is when the professional puts the opinion in writing and signs it.

Grading is when the professional assesses the centering of the stamp, whether by S/XF/VF... or numerical.

At least that's how I use the terminology. I'd be interested in how others use the terminology.

I guess to put it in a sentence...

You want it expertized if you suspect it is likely a fake, certified if you want proof that it is genuine, and graded if you think it is an exceptional copy and want to prove it is a cut above the rest.

I took a quick look at your scan. Although a bit faded, it's pretty well-centered for a #142.

It looks like the right side may be reperforated.

If you have any other of the 1870-1871 Continental Bank Notes with no grill, you should compare the paper and make sure the paper is the same. That's the easy way to rule out the possibility that it is forged from a relatively inexpensive proof.

Another quick test is to measure the size of the grill and make sure that checks (not just the number of points). It's clearly too big to be an I grill, so check to see if it doesn't exceed the size of an H grill.

That's all I can tell you from just a scan. I've never had a #142, so I can only defer to others...

Sorry to take so long to get back to this post. I'm becoming less sure that the 142 grill is genuine. I check paper type with other 1870 stamps without grills. They look similar to me. The biggest problem is the grill size and the number of points. Width measurement and number of points is correct. However, it is 17 points vertical instead of maximum of 16 and it measures 13.5 mm high instead of the maximum of 12mm. For comparison, I have included photos of the back of my Scott 141 and the 142 in question. As you can see, they are very different. What I am considering is having the supposedly 142 sent for a Weiss certificate since that seems to be the least expensive and fairly reliable from what I have heard. If he identifies it as fake, I won't be loosing too much money. If it proves to be fake, I won't be loosing much, and would have a nice example of a very well made forgery. By the way, I paid less than $20.00 for the stamp, shipping included.

Another doubt on the genuineness of the 142 is the impression of the grill; it is very strong on both vertical sides and quite weak in the middle. I'd appreciate any comments.

Oops, sorry! It looks like the photo of the back of the Scott #141 didn't come through. So, here it is.

I believe it's possible that this stamp as been certified you may not have paper documentation, but that chop in the lower left corner the square enclosing 2 initials could be a mark of a expertizer.

Or it could be the sign of a previous owner. I have some Heligoland stamps that got signed by their owners

Here is a list of expert signs, maybe you can find it there: http://www.filatelia.fi/experts/