Marks On The Back Of The Stamp

Sometimes when I bought on ebay I found pencil marks on the back; usually a price or occasionaly a Scott number. These pencil marks erased successfuly and did little harm.
But recently, I found the Scott number written in ballpoint on several stamps from different sellers. It makes no difference to me when its posted in the album,but it destroys the value of the stamp if I ever want to sell or trade it.

While I agree that the pen marks hurt resale value, particularly on high catalog items, I don't think it destroys the value. I would buy such a stamp if it fit my needs and the price was right.

And don't forget that common expertising practice in mainland Europe is to make a permanent mark on the back of the stamp, mint or used.

Personally, I view an expertizer's mark a little differently than a novice collector's heavy pencil or ballpoint pen marking. While the expertizer's mark may not make any difference to me, I would definitely pass up the stamp collector's freehand catalog # markings except in some unusual case.

How about people who degrade postal history items by writing commentary on covers about the usage, etc. Also those who think nothing of folding a cover to mail it to a buyer.

I rather like old dealer's handstamps on the back of stamps, done, presumably, as advertising. Around 1900, some vendors of cigarettes would remove the plain-backed cigarette cards from the packets before sale, and give them an advertising handstamp before returning them to the packet. These usually carry a small premium.

From GeoffHa:



You learn something every day - Thanks

Rene

That is why MNH-OG stamps, or used pristine lightly cancelled stamps with perfect centering, no pulled perfs, no markings of any kind, etc. are the ones that collectors are willing to pay the most for. On the other hand, a damaged stamp such as one with an ink marking on the back that shows well from the from is a good space filler especially if you cannot afford a perfect example. Space fillers command only very small prices compared to perfect example stamps of course.

Kimo
what about GeoffHa's post from GB ?????

.....and I would not hate to hear his impression on this.....I have stamps with #s on the back and they do not affect the integrity of the stamp.......

Rene

As I read GeoffHa's post he seems to be talking about cigarette cards rather than postage stamps. Collectors of those apparently appreciate advertising that was stamped onto the cards back in the day when the cards were being distributed which makes sense to me. Writing or stamping in ink on the back of a postage stamp is done long after it was used and so is not a part of its use. People should collect what they like and pay what they think things are worth. My comments are only from my experience in postage stamps and seeing what the vast majority of collectors are willing to pay or not pay.

Kimo

Geoff said:

Is that actually still being done? I know that when fakes are discovered by experts they are typically marked on the back as being fakes or facsimiles so that they will not fool less expert people in the future but who in particular is actually putting ink markings on stamps as expertising? Also, I know that a long time ago sometimes stamp owners marked the backs of their stamps because they were afraid they would be stolen and they wanted to be sure the thief could not sell them but I don't think modern collectors do that anymore as it decreases the value of the stamps significantly.

Personally, ball point pen is a big no-no especially on a genuine stamp. Marking a fake might be a good thing? Valuable old covers that have passed through many collectors over time have often been cleaned or "restored" to a greater or lessor degree by their pervious stewards of ownership. Pencil notes documenting this provenience is useful in documentation authenticity and any changes over time.

Expertising Rules
of the Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer
As at 15.07.2014

https://www.bpp.de/en/Expertising-R...3%BCfer.html

6. The marking or "signing" of genuine expertised items

6.1. In the case of items found to be genuine, the expertiser may mark these on the back with his expertising mark in the position described in Paragraph 6.5. The mark includes the name of the expertiser and the addition "BPP".

6.2. With multiples of postage stamps, the expertiser may apply his expertising mark on each stamp.

Se-tenant stamps are marked over the stamps or the empty fields, advertising, diagonal crosses, etc. In addition the left-hand stamp (for horizontal se-tenant strips) or the lower stamp (for vertical se-tenant strips) are marked as shown in Fig. 1A and 1B and 2A and 2B (Paragraph 6.5.) with the proviso that the position of the mark must reflect the quality of the entire se-tenant multiple.

6.3. Stamps on piece are signed on the back of the paper to which they are affixed.

6.4. Covers are usually not signed, except according to Paragraph 5, unless of course, they are inferior.

Non-postally used as well as incorrectly franked covers may be marked, along with pieces of covers. The expertiser is entitled to open the cover to apply the mark.

6.5. The marks will basically be applied in indelible black ink as follows:

etc...

you have complete info on the link...


https://www.bpp.de/en/Expertising-R...3%BCfer.html

It's often possible to identify expert signatures. I use the website

https://www.filatelia.fi/experts/

However, many collectors will annotate the stamp themselves either with catalogue number, perf. or watermark variety.

Anyone who annotates a cover or rear of a stamp with a pen or indelible pencil should be dropped into the abyssal plains, head-first. Worse than criminal!

Thanks Filipo. I am astounded that any philatelic society these days would not only condone such permanent damaging of authentic stamps but actually participate in it.