How Can You Tell If It Is Original Gum?

Reading the posts and researching prices I kept seeing OG. Looking it up I found that means original gum right?

Then I read that a stamp had been re-gummed.

How do you tell the difference?

Thank you,
The gummed-up brain

It's often very difficult, Tonya, but an expert can usually tell by the color, texture, skips, etc. Sometimes the gum just looks too good compared to genuinely gummed copies.

Someone like Kim, KHJ, can give you a more detailed answer.

Tonya......


When someone re-gums a stamp often they get gum on the edges of the paper.......original gum is applied before perfing so there can never be original gum on the edges.

If you look at the perforations under magnification you will see gum on the edges of the perf's. You may also see some on the face of the stamp. when a stamp is separated their are tiny fibers on the edges of the stamp perf. looking at these under magnification will also give you a good idea. This is assuming that they haven't been blunted over time. On Imperforate stamps you will see it on the edge and/or the edges of the face.

Great. Thank you. I see those fibers on most of the singles when I scan them. The first time I saw them I almost freaked out!

I'm off to add a very good magnifier to my shopping list. The one out of my son's toy box just isn't cutting it!

You might want to get one of the ones with the built in(but removable) mm scale. I know Carson makes some(I have one) and they are not expensive.

That would be awesome! Would you mind posting a link to one?

This is one of the ones I have.

http://www.carsonoptical.com/Magnif...Loupes/LL-20

Fantastic, thank you!

Thanks for the plug, Greg. But as we know, many of the SCF members are more knowledgeable than I, and have overlapping areas of knowledge/experience.

The replies already given are better than what I would have posted. Well done!