Which Would You Choose?

As between these two US 121, which would you choose and why?

The stamp on the left with the red cancel.

The left one. You can see the design better. The lighter postmark makes it more appealing to me.
Robert

Both damaged, the one on left, less damaged.

Stampmaster

I agree, I'd prefer the left one as well.
Caveat-I haven't lined up the perfs on either to check for any potential reperf.

A 121 will probably be on my shopping list someday as well. Good luck.

Hi txstamp, good luck with your shopping list.


Good luck.

Stampmaster

I agree. Neither is perfect, but I like the one on the left better.

The left one appeals to my eyes better than the right one.

Left. Not even close IMO.

It's a close call. At first glance, the crude reperf at the top of the right one stood out terribly, so I was leaning towards the left one. But the more I looked at the left one the less I liked it. The perfs cut into the design at right and I'm pretty sure now that it is reperfed on the right and maybe elsewhere, leading to narrow margins all around. The cancel may be lighter than the one on the right, but it is indistinct, not attractive at all. So now I think I'd go with the one on the right until I could replace it with a sound stamp.

My first 121 was a space filler, worse than either of these. But I like the 1869 issue, so eventually replaced it with a pretty decent copy. My 90 cent is still a very bad space filler, but the set is complete! And I got a nice set of card proofs that I take out from time to time and stare at. If you like this issue, check out Michael Lawrence's book on Ten-Cent 1869 Covers.

Both stamps appear reperfed on two sides. The left stamp is very small, but the red cancel and better overall appearance make it the better of these two. However neither is a really desirable example; if I were looking I would take neither.

Gr

I would take the one on the right. Centering better and I like the cancel even though its a little dark.

left by a mile