Which Do You Prefer To Look At Mint Or Used?

Good one Terry

Hi TinMan,

I think Remington got it about right, unlike some of the movie industry efforts. He should have a set of stamps based on his best paintings. The guy is a National Treasure.

Terry

Yep I think you and he are both right.

I chose used. While it is most certainly a pleasure to behold a mint stamp that is beautifully design, most of the stamps of the world leave something to be desired, and therefore are far more interesting to look at if they are used.

TinMan: Having just started collecting again, and having lost all of my previous collection from over 50 years ago, I decided to concentrate on US Stamps. I have Mystic Albums for Mint Commemoratives, Mint Definitives, and the 3 volume album that I use for "used" stamps. A lot of this has to do with the price of the stamps. There are several stamps that I would love to have in mint condition, but can't afford. Depending on the stamp, however, I can still own it as a canceled stamp, and place it in an album I still pay attention to centering, and light cancels, to allow the artwork on the stamp shine through. The way I see it, it's the best of both worlds. Larry

My reply is to wait until there are more OPTIONS in the survey.
Until then, as a TEST SURVEY try the SURVEY below:

With more OPTIONS you potentially gain more information for statistical analysis for those philatelists curious about the results. CHOICES could include but not be limited to the following. TRY THIS SURVEY: [**READ ALL FIRST BEFORE FILLING IN YOUR RESPONSE**

[NUMBER your choices in the ORDER OF PREFERENCE with the number "1" representing your first choice and so forth until you have filled in all the spaces to the left of the OPTIONS given]: --> _Mint (coverless stamp); _Used (coverless stamp); _Mint stamp on OFDC (no selvedge); _Mint stamp on FDC (Private Cachet, no selvedge, but with the official "Day of Issue" postmark cancel); _postally Used stamp on FDC; _Mint stamp with partial selvedge in tact on OFDC; _Mint stamp (not souvenir sheet) with all selvedge in tact on OFDC; _Mint stamp with partial selvedge in tact on FDC (Private Cachet, with the official "Day of Issue" postmark cancel); _Mint stamp with all selvedge in tact on FDC (Private Cachet, with the official "Day of Issue" postmark cancel); _ (here, write in ONLY ONE OTHER 'Option' that has not been stated and place your "order of preference number).

Save the above TEST SURVEY here and I will occasionally come back to this TOPIC Forum to collect the data.

Thank you

SaveBigBlue Why are you jumping my poll? If you read my second post you would see my explanation as to why there weren't more options. I didn't want all the stuff you suggested I add. I wanted to keep the poll simple and plain.
If you want all this stuff then start your own poll.

That's a very tough one, I love the look of a clean criap unused stamp, but am fascinated with the stories behind something used and where it may have been and who may have handled it, so as usual I end up very non-commital and liking both.

Both. And that's not a dodge.

Mint is great, especially for the engraved issues. But I like used stamps, too, when they are carefully selected.

If no particular care went into assembling a page of used stamps, I'll probably prefer to see the mint page, instead.

I voted Mint.

I concur with Cjd regarding engraved stamps.

I prefer to scan stamps with no postmark covering
any part of the design.

I voted mint as well. I too have recently start to collect again and have focused on Mint US and Canada and am very interested in the BOB stamps.

One aspect that hasn't been mentioned is that depending on what you collect, either mint or used may not be a viable option.

For example, on the 1st-3rd issue U.S documentaries and the 1st & 2nd issue proprietaries, actual mint copies are very scarce (and in fact not even priced in Scott) as the stamps were never released to the public. OG examples are few and far between; the vast majority of uncanceled stamps found are NG and are in fact used, having been sweated or soaked from documents. If you try to put together a set of actual mint examples it will take you a LONG time.

In other areas, collecting mint just isn't an option due to budget constraints, i.e., 19th-century Great Britain.

In still others, the used stamps you encounter are likely to be faux (inflation-era Germany, many German colonies and states) or CTO (eastern Europe, certain pockest of Central and South America), so you have to decide just how "used" the stamps need to be to meet your collecting criteria... if you insist upon postally used, that again may be virtually impossible.

Used is always better. They tell a story that mint can not. Used stamps some of which have been around the world and mint can't say that