Imperfs... I Found Them - National Parks

But... hinged:(

A few more

very nice

scott prices
1c green 1500.00
2c red 600.00
3c 700.00
4c 1000.00
5c 600.00
6c 600.00
7c 800.00
8c no listing
9c no listing
10c no listing

make sure they all have gum on the back
8 9 and 10 must be from the imperf sheets.

And some funky "selvage" for Kim... and not hinged! Yea

you need to slow down... I am having heart palpitations..

OK, I checked... there's no gum. Still, pretty, just the same.

But interestingly enough this block does have gum.

Don't worry, the special printings were issued WITHOUT GUM. Post office would gum them for you if you sent the whole press sheet back to them. But most of the special printings you see of these sets are all without gum -- so it doesn't matter if they have been hinged or not (unless there is a hinge remnant or a hinging stain).

SV, I don't think those catalog values you posted are the correct ones.

2008 scott specialty catalog.. for MH with gum. imperf pairs..

OK, I think I understand why those catalog prices were posted. There is a little confusion.

The stamps Barb showed are NOT imperf errors. They are special printings made in 1935 of selected previously issued sets. They were also sold as complete uncut press sheets, instead of the standard panes and S/S sizes that are purchased at the post office. The Scott catalog numbers of these special printings are #752-771.

The fancy "selvage" mentioned is what is referred to as "gutter pairs" or "gutter blocks", depending on the configuration.

As I mentioned, normally the full press sheet is cut into 2 to 20 panes. There is a gap between the panes for the cutting. This gap is known as the gutter. When cut through the gutter, that part becomes what we normally call "selvage". It is these panes that are normally sold at the post office (what we today often call mint sheets or souvenir sheets).

Since the full uncut press sheets were sold for these special printings, collectors were able to make "unusual" pairs/blocks, by cutting between the stamps and leaving the gutters intact. That's what you see for some of the stamps in your pic.

Very nice!

k

gotcha... I feel dumb.. I really didn't look at the outside edges...
my bad...

Thanks for your reply. Just to clarify, those prices are NOT for imperf pairs, they are for imperf BETWEEN pairs. It's a special type of error. The stamps are imperforate between, but normally perforated on the remaining three sides. These errors stamps ARE rare, and that's why they are so expensive.

On a side note. Genuine imperforate pairs DID exist for some of the original printings. But once the Special Printings were made, it was nearly impossible to distinguish between an original imperforate pair error and something cut from the special printings after gumming. They unintentionally killed the market for those early imperforate pairs. Unless you happened to have an original imperforate error pair tied to a cover by a dated cancel, or had it certified beforehand, you were basically out of luck.

That's why all that's left of the error listings for the original issues are the imperforate between errors.

yeah, I know what an imperf pair is.. I just wasn't paying attention..
I blame it from being at work without my reading glasses.

Don't feel dumb at all. More than a few people have made this mistake.

Here is dumb -- when I got my first look at a Scott stamp catalog (already had collected for many years), I saw "3" listed in prices next to many stamps. I thought that meant 3 dollars each. I had seen prices such as 1.25, but didn't see any 1.00 or 3.00. I figured they were trying to save space/ink, and not print "3.00". I thought I had a ton of $3 stamps! After a while, I finally figured out it meant 3 cents, not 3 dollars. The catalog information in the front verified that.

Well, the feeling was good while it lasted!

k

Hehe. Since these were sold as whole panes, some people collected a pair or grouping of stamps from two different sheets with the selvage in between. These are quite collectible and worth more than just regular blocks.

Come to think of it you could probably sweat the hinges right off them if you really wanted too, if that was really important to you. I wouldn't do it myself, though. I am fine with hinges, if they are already there. Hinges are a sign that someone had been caring for a stamp (best they knew how, anyway).

Very nice selection of pairs. I see a few gutter line pairs mixed in as well. I really like the National Parks set of stamps.