Can Someone Identify This Green 'Stamp'

I recently came across this little gem pictured below. I'm not sure if this is a label that is sometimes printed with a stamp or if it is a misprinted stamp of some sort. It is mint and has a watermark (#35 in Scott's Great Britain section) Crown and Block GVR multiple.

Dear rrogers

See here: http://goscf.com/t/16818

It is a british test stamp.

Best regards from Switzerland

André

Collectors sometimes refer to these as "poached eggs."

Thanks André and CJ I've never encountered one of these before. Are they rare or common? This one isn't mine, just researching for a friend. Realistic sale value?

how does one post a message on this stamp forum

Scotty, could you elaborate a bit? What kind of message?


Peter

You just did. If you want to email an individual person, then click on their name and hope that they have email enabled. You may not have much access until you have 50 quality posts, though.

Or did you mean a new thread / topic?

Go to the buttons at the top. Click the one that says 'home.'
Click on the relevant forum: the one you want to open a new post in.
At the top of the list are two buttons. One says 'New Topic.' Click, enter the thread title, enter the text and below the input box, click 'Post New Topic.'

If you already are in the correct Forum, go to the top of the thread and look for the 'New Topic' button. From there, it is the same as above.

It might depend on where you are. Here in the Central U.S., I see them from time to time. Every dealer in the UK would know what they were. Not every U.S. dealer will know. I bet if you went to any medium-size bourse, and showed the dealers a picture on your phone, at least one would say, "oh, I have a few of those...now where did I put them?"

Certainly online they're easy to find. You can search for test stamps, testing stamps, dummy stamps, "poached egg" and others.

You won't be surprised to hear that there is a group (at least one, maybe more) that studies dummy stamps.

This green one and a black/grey one with text 'for testing purposes only' make between less than a pound to a few pounds each.

Yep, they're often on a dealer card for $1 here - the nearly-universal asking price among small-show dealers for "I don't know what it is, but, it's gotta be worth a buck."

Nearly universal, because some dealers put those NOIDs ("no i.d.") at $10 or $25.

An eggceptional post here
http://goscf.com/t/22654 br /