Russian 1866-70 Black & Yellow

Hello,
I have recently come across this particular stamp from a collection I've acquired. I know nothing about stamps so I have come here. I have provided a scan of the stamp with a card of information it was with. The reason I seek more information is due to the price that was paid for it, $1250. Any information would be appreciated, description, if it is the stamp described on the paper and price. Thanks for the help!

This stamp exists in imperforated form, but would ordinarily be sold as a pair, and Gibbons catalogues it on that basis. This has been been so cut down that it would, I think, be impossible to tell if it were originally genuinely imperforate, or if the perforations had been trimmed to give it that appearance. I can't imagine that anyone but an eccentric millionaire would have paid $1250 for it.

The price on the card doesn't necessarily mean the price that was paid. It could simply mean the owner hadn't identified it yet, but narrowed it down to two possibilities. Or, it could have been added to deceive a potential buyer. That stamp is in very poor condition and I bet wouldn't sell for more than 5-10% of a decent copy, which in all probability is plain old #19.

To identify it properly, you need a catalog. Once identified, to get a going price try ebay and reduce the value properly due to the poor condition. If it really were a #19a you'd need to get it expertised. Even so, it would be nearly impossible to determine it was genuine as mentioned above.

Cloose..Welcome to the forum.

I think the guys are correct in saying some one might have trimmed off the perforation to make it appear imperforate...you may have a hard time identifying it as such.

And here my stamp which I think is a Scott #3 or Scott #17...Trim it and you will get approximately what you have.

Thanks everyone, this is definitely good information to know!

Cloose,

this is definitely a trimmed copy of Scott 19. The imperf variety of this stamp (Scott 19b) is usually found with shifted or inverted background. Below is an example of 19b with shifted background:



Here is the information on Scott 19b provided by Zbigniew Mikulski, one of the foremost experts in the field, in his article "Imperforate varieties of 19th century imperial Russia" (http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00076781/0004...post-rider):

2 sheets of this imperforate 1k are known to have circulated. The first sheet used in Moscow and in the mail van of the TPO Moscow-St. Petersburg in 1869. The second sheet had all its stamps with a shifted background and was used in the mail van of TPO Warsaw-Granitsa in May 1874.