New Stamp Collector Question

Hello- I'm new to the hobby and have a question. I bought a pack of stamps from the 60's to add to my catalogue. Some of them have extra pieces? above or to the sides of the perf. Should I leave those or tear them off? Do they add value to a stamp? And if so, why? I'm enclosing a photo as an example. Thanks for any help, Jeff



*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Tear off, carefully, the blank ones. The ones with a number are more difficult. That number is the number of the plate from which the stamp was printed. Some collectors make a fuss about plate numbers, others couldn't care less. I tend to keep them on the stamp.

It will be interesting to hear what collectors with much more experience than I have will say about this.

Don

jkjoller, welcome to the forum. As Don said, the "tabs" are usually adding value to the stamp. The catalog calls these "plate number singles" and you can look up the value in the Scott catalog.


Peter

I tend to come and go on stamp-edging. A stamp with edging is, by definition, less common than one without. So should I preserve it? But mounting a stamp with edging in an album tends to give a messy page. So do I remove it? But I do keep edging on older stamps.

Welcome.
I throw all common plate number singles into a box and every few years trade/sell them to other hobbyists; I prefer consistent album pages. For much less common stamp I tend to put my OCD aside and keep/mount them.
Don

I remove the blank tab and after a few, lot them as special 'missing ink' errors & rarities for eBay

By the way, the 4 cent Winter Olympics has an "electric eye" bar on the selvedge. I would definetely keep it, if only to trade.


Peter

When you save the plate number singles (Japan, BSA), save all of the selvage, including the two blank pieces.
When a stamp has a single piece of plain selvage attached, you can remove it (see final caveat).
The single tab with the electric eye bar is a pretty specialized area. There are people who collect them, though it might be a slog finding many to trade with.
In all cases, if *you* like the stamp with the selvage attached, then by all means keep it that way.

It depends of what you want your album look, in an Album like Lighthouse, I will not put them with the tab, it will not be pleasant to the eyes….. But I keep them on vario pages or stock book and place a stamp without tab in the album if they don't have much value, I put them in a Lighthouse special pages ( looking like vario ) if they have value let say over $ 50 , or if they offer significant way to ID a stamp , like I do with the block .

If I come across ones with the plate number, I usually keep the selvedge on. However, if the selvedge is blank, I carefully tear them off being careful not to get any fingerprints on the stamp.....front or the gum side. But, reading this forum, I did learn something in that people collect those with the electric eye bar. I think in the past, I've removed a few with it on there without giving it much thought.

I would recommend keeping the selvage. I hate to tear of any part of the stamp after I bought it.....

To each their own policy.

Btw- there is another thread in this forum that talks about the same topic too !

http://goscf.com/t/18122

Interesting discussion. I always thought selvage was junk. I will have to reconsider.


Don

Sc#1288 Coil.
Curious as to the RH separation ?
A young lad having fun with pinking shears? or any other explanation?
Thanks.

Many coils were applied by machine, maybe this one was mis-aligned and the machine didn't pinch it off correctly?

Oliver got cut by a vending machine or affixing machine.

The post office vending machines of that time (and now) would spit out however many stamps depending on how much money you would put in. The stamp or strip would hang from the machine until the customer tore it off with help from a cutter bar in the mouth of the machine. Misaligned feeding of the stamp roll would get you stamps like this, though I don't remember if the cutter had teeth like this.

Per TheArtfulHinger, the other way this could happen is from private companies doing relatively large mailings but not big enough to make the minimum for cheaper bulk rate. They had machines that spit out coil stamps from large post office rolls and stuck them down one at a time. Misalignment was pretty common. You'll find straight cuts, too.

There's regrettably nothing special about this one.

Thank you very much, AH and HB.
Nothing special, but will be on an album page with your comments.