You never know what you might be passing by.
I bought a miscellaneous worldwide carton locally today. A few random vintage albums, some cigar boxes and old approval books. The dealer and I took a while to negotiate to a price, but in the end I was happy with the price I paid.
So tonight I'm doing a brief perusal of the lot and found some nice items I hadn't initially seen, but nothing major. I'm going through a blue Scott International volume 1, found some sets cataloging in the $40-100 range, but many of the sets are missing high denominations or key values.
As I'm going through Japan I see a stamp that has been taped down rather horribly, covered with multiple strips of brittle dark brown tape staining through the paper. I sigh and start to turn the page... and the light catches a glare off a non-taped portion of the stamp. I look closer and see that the stamp had been encased in cellophane BEFORE being taped down! The cellophane had protected the stamp.
I carefully remove the cellophane-encased stamp from the page an gently unfold the cellophane, holding my breath the entire time.
When I was done, I was astounded to reveal the stamp below, one of the keys to 20th century Japanese philately, with full original gum and just a small hint of hinging.
I haven't decided what to do with it yet, as I don't collect Japan. I may put it on
ebay or send it off to the APS store.
Had the lighting not been right or I hadn't looked closer, the stamp would have went on to the album's next owner, possibly to never be removed from its plastic tomb...
Posted 08/27/2016 01:12 am
