Early PF Certificates

For those of you who have your stamps certified or buy stamps previously certified, what is the lowest # (oldest) certificate you have and what stamp was being certified
(PF or APEX)?

1996 PF for Scott 742E (only known large die essay).

American Philatelic Expertizing Service
# 112386 Jul 17 1990 O1Sb

Apex
# 144578 Nov 15 2002 O57xSD
PF
#0410414 Apr 19 2004 O35SDa

1968 PF Cert for 272a

I bought this stamp a couple of years ago, not because it had a PF cert, or because it was a mint 64b rose pink, but because the person who submitted it was Herman Herst Jr., and thought that was pretty cool!

PF 17,986, November 11, 1963.

I haven't been able to find it in searches on their website- it has a 5-digit number, and doesn't have the normal white tag that the certs have today at PF, or in the old cert lookup:



Ray

Very cool Ray.mac

Oldest: PF cert #34608, issued 12/07/70 for Scott #364.
First: PF cert #61198, issued 04/21/77 for Scott #366.
Both of the above stamps were purchased along with the certs.
For a very long time, 366 was the only certified stamp that I owned.
And no, I don't have all of the bluish paper issues ... not even close. Probably never will be close. I bought the 6-cent many years ago, just so that I could claim ownership of a "rare" stamp. Since then I've added the 10 & 15 cent stamps ... so my definition of "rare" has shifted only slightly over the years. I suppose "uncommon" would probably be a more accurate description of the stamps.

Although I do not have the stamps, someone gave me two 1935 APS certs signed by Eugene Costales, J.M. Bartels, and George Sloane, three of the giants of philately. I wish I did have the stamps, one was for a 2 cent Parks block of six imperf vertically and the other was a block of 8 of the Wisconsin stamp imperf horizontally; both were genuine. Alas.

My oldest is from 1991...

Interesting Info from Paul Weiser (Long Island Philatelics):

"Never hinged" was never mentioned in the early certs. They were always quoted "Unused OG".

I came back and checked in PFSEARCH and as he mentioned, the result said it is a NH stamp.

Does any one know more about that fact? Was that entirely true?

I don't remember exactly when the switch occurred; I'm thinking it was around 1990 or 1991, when NH was actually called on the Certs. The shown stamp with pencilled in addition to the printed opinion I'm sure is probably correct, but would never be accepted as such in that format. Without the additional descriptionof the stamp being signed or initialed, who is to say whose writing that is.

The 1936 cert signed by several greats of philately is the kind of item that led me to start this thread. In the old days (APEX as mentioned; PF close to its origins in 1945), the Certs were signed by all of the committee members not just the chairman, and those committees contained many philatelic luminaries.

I buy a lot of collections/estates (full-time dealer since 1997) and occasionally get stamps with pretty old certs. The earliest that I can recall handling was a Guam Scott 13 ($1 type II 1899) with a 1937 APEX certificate (#633). Note the submitter & signers -- some well-known names in philately! My image of the cert is below:

The Foundation officially started using the phrase "Never Hinged" with certificate # 275,000. However, certificate 275,000 does not use that term as that certificate was for an unused block of six of Scott 2 with part OG. Using the PF Search website the earliest certificate using Never Hinged that I can find is certificate 275024 which is for a Scott 250. Prior to certificate 275,000 the PF would imply Never Hinged on a certificate by just stating "Genuine" with no comment on hinging. It would state Previously Hinged on a certificate for an OG stamp. It had this policy from certificate 156,000 through 275,000 and prior to 156,000 it made no comment on hinging. The PF changed their policy and started using the term Never Hinged with an idea of creating clarity in wording on their certificates.

Further Comment: My memory about the start of using the phrase "Previously Hinged" may be fuzzy. It was in the time period of certificate 156,000 to 158,000 which was some time in the mid-1980's. The concept of using that term on certificates was due to Herbert Bloch who was Chairman of The Expertizing Committee at that time.

Very useful information Bill. Like me, I'll bet a lot of collectors did not know the approximate date of demarcation when what the PF was trying to imply was actually stated in fact. Thanks.

Great post Bill!

And as far as Paul Weiser goes, he's one of my favorite dealers and a great guy.

I just saw him Tuesday.