Grading Stamps And Perforations

Hello,

I have a question about the two stamps below:




Both of these stamps have perforations cutting into the stamp design, Ben Franklin on the left and Harding on the right. I have been wondering about the off center stamps so went to the Scott catalog and re-read the Grading section up front. So here is my question, are the two stamps just simply grade Fine? Is there something else going on with the perforations being off-center, is this common for these two stamps to have off-center designs?

Thank you so much for any feedback you can give me. Julie

It is not uncommon seeing stamps of this era being perforated that close to the design, Fine or Average centering.

Thank you Phil, the question was not that riveting, but it has been burning in my brain the past two days about the perforations on these stamps. Thanks so much, I appreciate the help so very much. Julie

Hi Julie,

Here is a Philatelic Foundation grading guide that may help. Page 11 (1922 issue) shows the series that you illustrated. Page 6 shows the descriptive terms for the grades:

http://wyzaerd-pf-prod.s3.amazonaws...-booklet.pdf

I wouldn't consider either of the two stamps shown to be "fine". Perhaps VG, but maybe not even that. PSE I believe would give them a grade of 30 or less.

Thank you Phil for the link, I will go to the link and study the information, I appreciate it the link very much.

Yes funcitypapa, I realized after I posted "Fine" was just the first description that I ran into when going over the grades that accurately described the centering and stopped there, I did not go further down the list. I am quickly realizing that the quality of what I have is not as great as I initially thought it was. Thank you very much for pointing out that the quality is not that good on these two stamps. Julie