Help Identifying This Stamp

Hello everyone, I'm new here. I inherited an album of stamps as a gift from my grandpa and saw this stamp that looked special. I think it might be the Scott #596. Could you help me further?

Best
serace

This is a classic example that appears weekly on stamp websites. "I found a rare Scott 596".
In all cases it turns out to be either Scott 552 or 632.
The back of the stamps will tell you if it's a Scott 552 (or generally, a flat plate stamp). Hence one should always include a scan of the back of the stamp.

Here are a few thoughts while looking at your three images:
1. The first image shows nothing.
2. The third image shows nothing.
3. All images are out of focus and show lens distortion.
Lens distortion is the efect that rectangles turn into odd shaped things because a cell phone camera is just not suitable for photographing stamps.
4. The first thing you do is get a precision perforation gauge and measure the horz and vert. perforations.
5. Light green stamps usually turn out to be Scott 632.
6. Use a graphics program to cut down your images. As is, they mostly show white areas of no interest to anyone.
7. Using a ruler to measure the size of the vignette is problematic. We do not know if your ruler is precise or how thick it is. It is also badly aligned with the stamp. It looks like the vignette starts around -0.8mm and goes to around 18.5mm (guessing without knowing the thickness of the ruler). Note: when placing a ruler on a stamp, the scale should always be in contact with the stamp and not on top. This way, you can eliminate parallax error measurements.

Most points gravitate to your stamp being Scott 632.

hello serace,

yes, I can help you a bit further.
Scott 596 should be perforated 11 on all 4 sides, measured with a perforation gauge. Perhaps you have a gauge. If not, you could search for a similar stamp that matches exactly the top of this stamp and then compare to the side, should also match then at perf 11 - but probably will not :).

Hello again, attached are better photos. I'm sorry that the previous photos were so bad. I will try to find such a perforation gauge.
Best
serace

By the way, thank you very much for your efforts. :)

Just try to find a stamp that looks like that and compare the top and then the side.

If you want to learn about stamps, folks are giving you good advice here. If you just want to know if you have a 596 or 594, the answer is a simple, "no."

Hi Serace,

Although I see you've not logged-on in over 3 months.

As you have figured out, there are several look-alikes of this stamp type varying by sheet, coil, and booklet; as well as flat vs rotary printings; and lastly by several perforation rates.

The first reply to your thread included:



However, these 2 images provide exactly the information needed to positively identify your stamp. Specifically, the rate of perforation is the number of perforations per 20mm or 2cm.

If the lines for 0 and 2cm are extended to emphasize them, one can easily see there are 10-1/2 tooth/hole cycles in this length:


The top is a bit more tricky since it is narrower than 2cm, but when the 0 and 1 cm lines are extended for emphasis, there are exactly 5-1/2 perf/hole cycles in the this length, which must be doubled to obtain 11 for the entire 2cm length.


A formal perforartion gauge will make this much easier in the future, but your illustrations are more than satisfactory here today.

Thus by catalog convention of listing the perforation rate at the top first, then the sides, your stamp is perf 11x10.5 which can only be Scott 632. The rarer varieties we all hope for have a different perforation rate, sorry!

edit: to correct a minor typo.