Expertizing Needed

Recently My wife and I inherited a wonderful collection of US stamps.

However a few of the stamps seem that they may be of dubious integrity.We are both reading what we can, but there is an auful lot to learn. I have attached pix of 286. what is your take on this stamp?

Nice Stamp! What do you think is the issue?

Could it have been re-perfed on the bottom or top just seems to narrow.
My next question is who would re-perf a $25 stamp.

Not an expert, but...

I would agree the top/bottom margins are somewhat narrower then normal. But for stamps of that era, there could be significant variations in perforation spacing. So narrower margins are not necessarily unusual (just undesirable).

From just the scan, I don't see any obvious signs of reperfing, but a direct physical examination would be required to confirm.

I would ask the same question posed by Revstampman: What do you think is the issue?

To remove a straight edge.

Nor do I.

Thanks Kim as you can see I didn't think of that,
I'll never stop learning mate

Actually, I answered why, I didn't answer your question of who!

All I can say is, it wasn't me!

The depth of the bottom perfs are slightly uneven, but still within the bounds of what can sometimes be observed by perforators of that era.

Here's a quick rotate test on the perfs.

It's no guarantee it wasn't reperfed, but if it were reperfed, then they did a pretty decent job.

Again, final determination can only be made by physical examination.

So please let us know if there was something else that was bothering you.

Curt,

Nice stamp. Other than the dust devil on the horizon and the points made by others above, I see nothing unusual. I've added an image of my copy of 286 so you have something to compare yours with. I wish mine had your centering.

Steve

Wow, thank you for all of the replys! It is my opinion that it has been reperfed on one of the horizontals based on the margins of the 1 cent.Also there is an inclusion ( I think) on the horizon under the T.

I'm pretty picky about altered stamps. However, I think you might be selling yourself short if you assume it has been reperfed solely because of narrow margins. Undesirable, yes; suspicious, maybe -- but if you've seen multiples, then you will recognize that narrow margins do turn up naturally during the production process.

I'd be very interested in hearing from others on this. Again, this is all based on the pic, not a physical examination.



Yes, there is definitely something there! I had thought it might have been a fiber in the pic, so I didn't mention it at first.

Thanks for posting the pic and posing the question! Still a very nice stamp to own!

k

Steve, I was replying at the same time you were. Ahhh yes the dust devel dosn't belong there.
You could get better centering, if you wanted to reperf the bottom. However I wouldn't recomend that.

KHJ, that is a neat trick lineing up the perfs like that.

I dusted off my US album. The Margins on mine are just slightly larger. I doubt mine has been re-perforated as it has resided in my family album since before 1916(the year my Grandfather enlisted).

KHJ, I am picky about altered stamps as well. Naturally occurring problems like small inclusions gum skips or a torn perf are acceptable to me. However, I really prefer good centering.
Anything that was done to enhance it's appearance for the purpose of financial gain is completely unacceptable to me.
BTW how do you do the quote on this site? I am used to a quote button on the post.

Hi Curt,

Select the text you want to quote
Click on Reply to Topic
Click on the Insert Quote Icon [white page with a red arrow]
Paste text inside the codes

(or do the last two steps in the opposite order: first paste the text then select it and click on the Insert Quote icon.)

Nigel