The Start Of An Expensive Phase In My Collecting

Sigh. Just realized that when I finish the Jubilees, all I have left is Large Queens and the Province of Canada issues. I have been buying proofs for the Province of Canada stamps but the Large Queens are pretty scary.

Hi Tom, I agree. I have about half the normal set mint. I am going with un-gummed with certificate if possible. Simply because so many of them show up as used stamps cleaned and re-gummed. If I decide to do the Pence and Cents Issues I will do the same thing. My mint cut off point at present is the Large Queens. I do have a proof of #3 the rest are used in the Pence and Cents except for a couple unused varieties. Mint on a lot of the Pence and Cents Issues are way too expensive for my budget. Do have a few proofs scattered about with varieties such as re-entries though.

Watermark, I have a question about certificates. If I buy a stamp with a certificate, can the stamp be taken out of its holder (assuming it has one)? I have never seen a certificate before and just assumed it was like the coin holders with graded coins. When I get a stamp, I want to put it in my album. Can I do that with graded stamps?

I don't really know anything about the Large Queens so the cleaning thing is useful. I am going with proofs for the Pence and Cents because I find used stamps dirty looking (heresy to many, I know). Proofs are awesome because they look so clean. When it comes to stamps, I am quite vain.

Most expertizers do not encase the stamps, they do provide a photograph of the stamp on the cert. This performs the same function of encasement on coins, poof that the coin/stamp is the same as the one certified. There is one service (IIRC) that will encase stamps, but there have been issues with getting the stamp properly centered in the case. It's unlikely that you'll have to deal with one.

I recommend certificates that have photographs of the stamp certified. Usually the newer certificates tie the photograph to the certificate with an embossed seal so the photograph cannot be reaffixed to a different certificate. For Canadian stamps, I would recommend the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation for certification. There are others that also will certify stamps as well. The age and period the certificate was issued affects the quality of the picture provided and on a high value purchase with an old certificate I would recommend getting a newer certificate as they have improved the equipment used to examine the stamps over the years. I would always ask the seller if they would allow time for certification on large purchases in case a determination comes back as unfavorable. That way you could possibly return it for refund. This should be agreed to with seller prior to the purchase.

What about purchasing Large Queens at legitimate auctions? Do they do due diligence when posting these stamps? ( That is a crazy sentence to say out loud). I notice that my main auction site will regularly state that they believe that a stamp has been regummed or trimmed. Is this common?

A lot of the reputable auction houses do their best to describe stamps accurately, but they can be fooled just as a collector can be. There are some very skillful people out there that re-gum,remove cancellations, re-back stamps, and do other alterations. Then pass them off as genuine copies. On expensive uncertified stamps, I would ask the seller if he would agree to a time frame to allow for certification to be sure I was spending my money on a genuine unaltered stamp. I do have a few certified copies of some rare stamp I have kept where they were genuine but altered slightly. An example would be a small sealed tear one like this would receive a pink certificate from the VG Greene Foundation stating genuine but sealed tear. A normal unaltered stamp would receive a green certificate from the same foundation. Pink certificates are also issued for fakes and more extreme alterations of the stamp with explanations. This is just how I approach buying very highly priced stamps as I work hard for my income and in a large stamp expenditure I want to be certain of what I am getting.

For reputable Auction Houses, you can bid based on a good certificate. For example, if you make a request before the sale, you can bid and if you win, you can take the purchase only if the certificate matches the description. You still have to pay but your money is returned if the certificate is bad. There is a description in the Terms and Conditions section. Note that the auction house usually pays for the certificate if it does not match the opinion of the auctioneer.

Here is what HR Harmers states:

"Where an opinion of a generally recognized authority is desired, payment is still due within ten (10) business days of auction. We will hold the funds while we send the items to the recognized authorities."