Nova Scotia - Scott#9 - Weird Perfs.

Hi guys...Take a look at my Scott#9 from Nova Scotia..It has perforations on left, top, and right side and a bit on the bottom of the stamp inside the design of the stamp..I darkened the picture to get a better look at it...Any ideas how or why this was like this..?
Thanks, Robert

ORIGINAL STAMP


DARKENED STAMP

To me, it is just the effect of stacks of newly printed stamp sheets one on top of the other that gives this impression

Hi Wert,
Very interesting that you should point this out. I do not collect or know anything about Nova Scotia stamps but I have noticed this effect on many NS stamps seen on ebay when I am browsing for other Canadian stamps. I had always assumed that this was a semi-standard embossing effect on the paper of this issue since it seems so common. A quick search on ebay for Nova Scotia this morning reveals the image below on the first page of results. You can clearly see the additional perf-like indentations at the top right and bottom left. I enhanced the image slightly to make these more obvious.

I can tell you that you definitely do not have anything rare here, but I would be very curious if anyone on the forum knows what this is about. Does it show through on the gum side of the stamp? Let's see if anyone chimes in.

Yes Scottamer...It does show through on the gum side to.

So this does appear to be some kind of embossing phenomenon that exists on these stamps. I would be really curious to see if anyone knows more.

I notice that the image I supplied above also has a strange period after the word "cent". This very unusual use of punctuation appears on the one, eight & one half, plus ten cents values, but not on the others. Strange!

that is impossible to give the stamp this affect Coriandre

Scottamer...I think you are looking at Scott #8's and not #9 like I have posted.

Scott #8 is one cent and Scott #9 is two cents.

I am not looking at any particular stamp at all. I have seen this embossed perf-like effect on several stamps in this issue. The original post showed a two cent and I have shown a one cent from the same issue with exactly the same effect for comparison purposes.

Are these comb perforated? They look to be. I am not at home to look it up myself. If they are then what occurs to me is that the person in charg of perforations placed a sheet in the perf machine, pressed down the comb perfs very lightly to test for position, which left visible indentations, then repositioned the sheet or the combs to get better (if still not ideal) centering. As usual my idea has no basis in fact and so should be taken with a grain of salt.

The only problem I see with all these theories of accidental occurrences is that I see this issue on ebay with these strange embossed circles all the time. Unless I have accidentally seen numerous auctions with the same strange variety from different sellers, this must be a relatively common occurrence that it not likely caused by accidental perforation errors or storage of the stamps.

Is this stamp printed on a particularly thin paper that would be more susceptible to impression damage?

No Scottamer the stamp appears to be regular thickness.
smauggie...Your theory could be correct, we were not around when whatever caused it was done...The perfs are half way through the paper and are seen on the back of the stamp.

Hey guys...I have 2 mint Scott#9....and 1 used Scott #9....The used one shows no perf indents, and my other mint #9 has a couple of very faint indents....I am not concerned whether or not it adds value to the stamp, it has been a mystery for months and would love to find out why/how they were caused.

Agreed wert,

My reference to the stamp not being rare was not meant as a comment on its value, only that there must be a significant number of these so there should be a logical explanation of how they occur. If these indented circles appeared even remotely regularly on a Canadian issue, they would surely be catalogued in Unitrade. I find it very strange that there seems to be no mention of any paper variety or texture for this series of stamps when I know I have seen them online many times. Surely there must be a Nova Scotia collector who knows something about this?

I still think that the marks are from the perforation holes on the sheet that was stacked next to this one on the pile :-)

Hi Coriandre...I am sure it wasn't caused by another sheet of perfed stamps laying on top of it...Look at the picture below that I ran through my software and the blue arrows point to perfs punched half way through the stamp..Other stamps laying on top of it cant cause that.

I was hoping some perforation expert could give me an idea what caused it..So far Scottamer has given an explanation that is possible..

I think the Smauggie theory is correct. There were obviously plenty of problems perforating this issue, as the stamps of this series are often seen way off centered or roughly perforated. It seems there was a Test-Shift-Press method for perforating.