Small Circle Stamped On The Back Of My Seahorse

I'm almost afraid to post again after the last one. haha

Nonetheless... I wonder whether anyone knows what this small circle stamped onto the back of my King George V seahorse stamp means? It looks to me like the numerals '26' at the bottom of the little circle. Can't tell what the top is.




This is the front of the stamp, if that's helpful at all.



And if I'm in the wrong forum with this, I hope the admins will forgive me and point me in the right direction.

possibly a "verification" mark from an expertizer.

Thank you for looking kuhli! I guess it could be that, although I'd be surprised that a fairly low-value stamp would need authentication. Can't think what else it could be, though.

It is an ownership mark,

Pagoda

As already mentioned ,it could be an expertiser mark or even an owners mark. Your stamp was printed by one of three printers any time between 1913 and 1918... only closer scrutiny can determine that and thus the value too as the different printings have differing characteristics. That MIGHT explain an "expertiser" mark.

Seriously?! My mind just boggled at the idea of a person who has their own tiny personal stamp to mark their stamps.

Hi scotzm -- I think it was these very forums where I found some tremendously helpful information about identifying these Seahorses. I have 8 of them in varying denominations / shades, and was able to get them all identified. The 179 on the back of this stamp is the correct Scott number, at least assuming I followed all the info correctly.

Examine the stamp closely, it may be a variety, either printing, perfing, or paper. Sometime specialists put their owner's marks on the backs of certain stamps.

In my collection, I have two stamp varieties with similar marks on the back, The small mark in the scan below is on the printing variety and the half dozen marks below that are on the paper variety.

Yes...it is a Bradbury Wilkinson printing. They used 18 plates to print the stamps of that denomination.

littleriverphil,

the mark at the lower left is a dealers mark.

Gebr. Senf, Leipzig,


Pagoda

Thank you for that information. It is on an intermediate Continental Bank Note paper, a 24 cent Agriculture, U. S. O8.

Polimom, is that missing ink on the King's cheek?

littleriverphil,


re your comment,

" Sometime specialists put their owner's marks on the backs of certain stamps ".


should be

Sometime collectors used to put their marks on the backs of stamps.

Pagoda

littleriverphil - no, on close examination, it looks as if there's a little bitty scrape on the face of the stamp there on his cheek.

Polimon,

that little bitty scrape on the cheek puts the value down from about $ 2.00 to zip,

Pagoda

pagoda -- that's fine. Not very different from my view of that first KEVII I posted with the destroyed color. I had assumed it had little value (although the 2007 catalogue price I show was quite radically different from $2).

Polimom - some collectors write the stamp i.d. number on the back and some "collectors" do it in ball point. I once bought a large world used collection not suspecting a thing and discovered that the entire lot was back marked in ink. This is akin to someone soaking the stamp off a century old cover - simple brutality.