Is This #243 Original Gum?

I bought this from Anthony's ebay store described as OG. But by looking at the gum and the perf, I am not sure. You opinion?

My hobbyist opinion...
Strike 1 - Anthony's
Strike 2 - Curling
Strike 3 - perf tips

Don

I agree with Don. Virtually no chance this is OG.

Thanks! It is not that difficult to tell its OG or not. But why they are so loose on this? Are they good at return and refund? Their customer service is slow and sometimes no respond.

Zero chance of it being OG.

Don,

Could you please explain how to judge the OG based on curling? I found that stamps from different countries and different period use different types of gum. The curling is slightly different too. I have a 10c Columbus issue and it does not show any curling. The gum shows a lot of small break lines (just like the land without watering for long time). Is that how the typical OG looks like for this set?

I cannot speak to non-US stamp curling, but regummed US stamps will sometimes exhibit curl. This is especially true if you place them 'gum up' in the palm of your hand and allow your hand to warm the stamp. The theory is that the surface regum coating will change temp at a different rate than the rest of the stamp, causing it to curl even more.
Don

Don

Thanks for the info. Thait is very interesting. I know for China stamps, the curling is a characteristic of OG. For some ROC (aka Taiwan after 1949) Stamps, the curling is very strong. See attached photos. Are you saying that US stamps do not curl up if it's OG?

They key here is two points:

1. There should be no gum on the fibers of the perforations. None. The gum was applied before they were perforated and separated.

2. Compare the gum with a less expensive Columbian stamp. My guess is if you are buying a $3 Columbian OG you should have some less expensive stamps from the set to compare. The gum should have the same texture, color, reflectivity, etc.

@alub

Yes, I do have a comparison. That's why I brought up this issue. I just cannot believe that such a big seller can have so many errors in description.

Tang - Input Anthony's into the SCF search engine and see what this POS is really all about. At least you found out quickly that he took you. The number of collections seeded with his cancel cleaned, reperfed, regummed, misidentified, doctored, fixed and fake stamps has got to be enormous. The sad part is all of the collectors and their heirs will one day have the unpleasant experience of going to sell the precious Anthony's gems only to find out that they were taken, swindled, ripped off, snookered. Big on ebay means absolutely nothing other than quantifying the amount of something that was sold whether it was genuine or not.

In my opinion this is the worst ebay seller I have ever encountered.

Unfortunately, this ebay seller will likely never go away. He has touted how great ebay is for years and is one of their favored sellers. It is a real shame that ebay has been so taken with this guy.

Someday, one can hope, we'll see an end to this kind of snake-oil selling as it hurts everyone - except the seller - in the long run.

For the record, US stamps with original gum will curl with some heat and also high humidity. It seems to sometimes depend on how the stamp was previously stored. Example: coil stamps often have that kind of curl "memory". It's the combination of factors that Don notes that show the stamp is regummed.

Dealers and collectors who sell things like this without noting flaws seem to deliberately not educate themselves and basically do not care about alteration and damage. They mostly seem to be discount sellers besides -- no wonder. They also sometimes do the "highest price possible" thing since they've "never seen one like this before" -- bad memory and no research, I suppose. So what do you think they pay for stamps? It's not much.

Dealers like this won't go away so long as people will think they're getting a bargain and continue to buy their wares.

Regummed for sure.

Yes it is regummed just look at the fibers if the stamps. As alub mentioned there should be no gum on the fibers as it was gummed before being perforated. 7