I am just starting to catalog my German Collection and have several stamps that look like they are mint (no cancellation marks on front of stamp) however the gum on the back has been removed.
Are these still considered Mint?
Also if you use a watermark fluid to see what watermark you have, does that remove the gum from the stamp?
If the gum is missing from an otherwise mint stamp, (That is un-used, not canceled) it is then call un-used, Mint means "as if came from the printer/post office".
Keep in mind that some Third Reich stamps were issued with gum which included a small amount of acid, so the gum would be removed to protect the stamps. For these stamps (such as the 1936 Hindenburg issue), Scott's unused values are for stamps without gum.
Rholmes376, welcome to this forum. There are other possibilities for stamps to have no gum. One of the main ones would be that they were used but not cancelled. The above reasons are also very good, so it is imperative that you be a little more precise about what stamps you are talking about. A scan is always better, a picture is worth etc.....!
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Posted 08/05/2015 11:46 am
