A [censored] Greek Tragedy...

I'm ill over what this could have been, were it not for a VERY ill-advised storage decision.

In a box lot I bought today, a complete set of the last newspaper stamps, Scott #PR114-PR125, mint full gum...

Every stamp a plate # single...


...with the plate # selvage folded under the stamp and hermetically sealed inside those evil old mounts constructed like little envelopes, causing all the gum to glaze and the plate # selvage to effectively be arc-welded to the underside of the stamp...

... and at some point someone tried to "fix" them, and only resulted in separating the plate # selvage from the stamps.

Instead of a showpiece set of full gum stamps with plate # singles, the only thing that will be left will be a bunch of no-gum stamps with detached no-gum plate # selvages.

UGH.

Recently heard a story of someone finding an unused set of Canada Jubilees locally here (value of approx $3500) that someone had decided to "protect" by laminating them. Makes me cringe.

Really? They laminated them?? I once bought an album online and a few 1970's stamps was laminated in it. I still have them as a curiosity.

@ Revenuecollector- That's a terrible loss. Was that group part of a larger lot or was that what you was bidding on alone?

Luckily it was part of a larger lot, and I didn't know when purchasing that they were all plate # singles.

Still...

Yeah no doubt I would have been quite sick about it too. It's not too often you see newspaper stamps with plate/selvage marking of any type.