I Want To Play A Game (Enter Maniacal Giggling Sound Effect)

Which of these two stamps is a genuine used imperforate stamp and which one is fake?

And why do you think it's fake? List your reasons.

Posters with "rev" in their name not allowed to play, just beginners.



Jim

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-U-...AOSwnOFZ3R9a

I am no expert on these stamps at all, so I'll play.

The right stamp is off-center in two directions, and might even show the remainders of perfs at lower left -- not sure there.
In that sense, the right stamp appears as though it could well have had the perfs cut off.

Also, on the right stamp, the 1872 date --I forget the exact year of issue, but this seems like it might be a bit late for the imperfs. I may be wrong.

The one on the left appears to be the correct shade but I personally would be hesitant to buy it regardless.

The one on the right is an obvious trimmed stamp. The margins, date of usage, and color make it an easy call.

Looks to me like the handwriting is too smooth. Like maybe a roller type or ball point pen was used on the right hand stamp. Problem is, the ballpoint pen wasn't patented until 1888 and the date written on the right hand stamp is 1872.

I'd say the right hand stamp is a fake.

You are correct in that one is genuine and one is a fake.

Yup, couldn't ask for a better, side by side comparison of what a genuine imperf. looks like versus a trimmed perforated stamp.

The ink color, margins, date of the cancel, and of course the paper all point towards the stamps being ok, or not so ok.

Thanks for playing.

Another Halloween-themed game coming soon.

Jim

The red "cancel" on the genuine stamp also helps. It's a DEPOSIT DUTY EXCESS custom house marking commonly found on imperf $1 stamps. I put the cancel in quotes because it's really a marking being used as a cancel.

But not SOLELY imperforate stamps (for the benefit of the non-revenue collectors here). While it might be a positive indicator, it is not in and of itself a determining factor. This cancel is also found on perforated stamps (I just received a very complete strike on a pair of 25c Entry of Goods perforated).

You see this cancel frequently on the 50c part perfs as well.