Value Of Stamps With Rounded Corners

Anyone who collects Denmark knows this is a very common problem.

Because of the combination perforations and types of papers used, early issues of Denmark have a very large portions of their stamps with rounded corners. It is not really damage... it's just the way the sheets separated.

Question is: how much should these stamps be discounted in catalogue value because they are not perfect examples?

Not necessarily. It can happen from bad storage/handling also. Unfortunately it is consider damage by most collectors.

Using Scott, the stamp has lost 80%-90% of its value depending on the degree of roundness -- it is faulty. Using Facit, the quality requirements are much higher and this one would only be collected for its cancel.

A stamp is not "worth" any particular price except what someone will pay for it. Despite what the catalogue says. Condition determines the price, and a stamp with any sort of problem like this one will sell for less. So I'm going to guess -- and it's only a guess -- this would be worth 50-60% of its normal value to some collectors because of the missing perfs and rounded corner. But no one knows until it sells. By "normal value" I don't mean catalogue value. Stamps don't sell at catalogue value very often. I mean its normal selling value.

yes you're partly correct Timm, rounded cornors is an issue with early danish issues but only those with KI or line perforation.

yours is a KI perforation, however yours is defective because the missing cornor is not due to "seperating the stamps" the SV cornor is also missing one perf. and then perf 3+4 on the south (these are likely to be from seperation)

perforation varies alot on KI, the attatched picture shows an example of how a stamp from 9th and 10th row could be born without the SE cornor perf. Notice this is not due to seperation.

there are also examples of stamps with a cornor perf that is so weak it would almost certainly break off at some point.



even in denmark most do not know this, and this stamp would be considdered defective (which it also is) and the desirability would suffer along with the price.

your stamp would cost between $0,5 and 1,5 in Denmark, even a stamp which clearly is just a perforation issue wouldn't cost more, because most lack the insight.

Depending on the method used for perforating a sheet of stamps, a rounded corner might just be normal. So you have to know the production circumstances before making a decision.

I collect British Colonies from 1900 thru 1950, so I am speaking in reference to that area.

Two different perforating machines were used on these stamps - a line perforator and a comb perforator.

The Line perforator punches one line of perfs at a time. These do not always line up at the corners and a rounded corner would be perfectly normal.

A Comb perforator punches three sides at a time. It tends to produce crisp corners and in that case a rounded corner would indicate some damage.

Some of the British Colony issues can be found with both types of perforation because at one time they were perforated using a different device. A prime example is the King George VI issues that were line perforated after the factory was bombed in 1941. These are known as the Blitz Perfs and are quite valuable. You will find examples for Bermuda and Jamaica in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue.

Thanks for the interesting discussion.
I'm learning from reading your posts.