I Have The Rarest Stamp In The World

Confirmation Bias - the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

Confirmation bias is why we should always start with the assumption that we have the most common stamp instead of assuming that we have the rarest stamp.

Don

Now if you ( we ) can just get the right person to read and believe this..............

Peter

The problem of telling people they got a fake or a lower price variety of the stamp ,is they think your lying to them and trying to get the stamp from them cheap .

Paging 608K... please pick up the white courtesy phone. Paging 608K...

And the stamp neophyte, when they look at a catalogue, they not infrequently stop at the first (earliest) stamp that matches the description. Often, that stamp is the most valuable of all the varieties of the stamp.

"OMG, I'm rich! Let me share my discovery at SCF!"

It falls on us to tell them that the stamp "worth thousands" is, in fact, a $3 stamp.

And it is best to be respectful, remembering that we too were once at the beginning of the learning curve.

Great idea Don...I was going to do the same...so I'll just add to yours!

(revenuecollector...that's mean?!)

**

For all new collectors / those who think they've discovered a wildly rare & valuable stamp!

Please consider the following 2 stamps:

(if one of you photo geniuses could make these photos the same size, and put them side-by-side - or tell me how to do that - it would be great!)




They both look very similar, correct? Both are US postage stamps, printed in the late 19th century. Notice both are used - and very clearly - both have distinct cancellations from Philadelphia, PA.

The 2nd (smaller) stamp is a priceless gem. It is only one of 2 copies in existence - and the only one in private hands. The last time it was sold - app. 10 yrs ago - it sold for app. $3 million dollars.

The 1st stamp - belongs to me. It is in my own personal stamp album. You too could own one of these - for likely as little as $5, if you were willing to search online for it. For $10-$15, you could get one immediately.

The first one is Scott #85A. Catalog Value: $3,000,000
Mine is Scott #63. Catalog Value: $50

So: what's the difference??

From the front - what you can see - absolutely nothing. The 2 stamps are identical.

But on the back, they are very different.

The valuable stamp has a very distinct 'grill' - an embossed pattern of broken parts of the stamp - originally intended to prevent re-using of postage stamps. There are a small number of different types of these 'grills' - which take significant expertise to correctly identify - and this particular 'grill' pattern is extremely rare.

My stamp - the 'cheap' one - has no grill pattern on the back.

SO:

Just because you've found a stamp that is old - and you also discover that there exists some version of it that is 'rare' & 'valuable' - understand that the differences between stamps is extremely subtle, and takes expertise to determine. Just because it looks like a valuable stamp does not make it so!

When I saw the title of Don's post "I have the rarest stamp in the world," I thought it was going to be "an actual correctly described and ID'd stamp bought from ebay."

Your an IDIOT, Rarest stamp in whole world, Who cares, only rare stamp collectors, like me, who gives a

Oh, the irony.

Sam your* command of the English language is breathtaking.

LOL Rev... :-)

I hope, Sam is not writting seriously and apologizes to Rev, at once. If not, IMO he should be banned from SCF. Insulting, is not an issue here and should not be tolerated.

I don't think Sam's post was directed at me, rather at Don. Actually, come to think of it, I can't tell who Sam was directing his/her ire at... the universe maybe?

No grill on left. Grill on right.

Grill is distorted due to poor image when enlarged.




No grill reduced to same size of grill.

Wow - BlackJag - awesome! Thanks very much for the photo work!

If you don't mind, I'm going to steal this image and use it on some Facebook groups that I'm a member of...

"I have a 596"

No you don't

"But I swear it's worth like $100,000".

No you don't, its flat plate for starters you idiot.

"Rotary stamps can have offset on the back".

<~~bangs head against wall.