I am continuing to fill in a whole world album that my dad initially began to add to before he passed away. I think this stamp must have been in the album when my dad bought it as the question mark is his writing. Is it a forgery or something I should investigate further as I have no experience of US stamps. Thank you for your help.
The paper is probably going to be more important in identifying if this was truly an issued stamp (39 or 47) or not. Obviously if the image is an issued stamp the margins and therefore the perfs have been trimmed off—although why someone would mutilate a used 39 or a 47 (? Known used) is beyond me
I once saw a collection which an older gentleman had brought in to sell while I was chatting with a local dealer in Jacksonville, Florida about thirty years ago.
The Scott album was pretty much complete and looked absolutely marvelous - except for one teeny problem.
The gentleman didn't like perforations. Every single stamp in the collection had had all perforations trimmed off. This included the 1857 era up. Imagine looking at page after page of classic stamps which were without perforations....banknotes, Columbians, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Bureau issues, airmails....
I wanted to cry. My friend, the dealer, graciously advised the gentleman the it was an amazing collection but that he, as a dealer, had no clientele who would be able to do the collection justice.
I have always thought that was probably one of the classiest passes I'd ever heard given a collector as to why he didn't want to buy his collection.
I don't know if I could have said that, personally....
Very nice stamp. Going to require some research & work to properly ID & certify...
Most obviously, the stamp is supposed to be perforated. Yours isn't.
If it is a stamp, it is supposed to be either Scott # 39 - or as mentioned - it could be Scott #47, which was a reprint of #39 & not valid for postage.
Used examples of #39 are extremely rare. Forged cancels are the issue and you will certainly need to send this to an expertization service to verify the authenticity of the cancel.
Used examples of #47 are not known to exist at all.
Scott catalog does have a note that examples of #47 exist imperforate.
(please take a high quality scan - 600 dpi or more - and post that picture!!)
Based on the existing picture, the paper does look odd for a #39. A bit too white?
The other possibility here - which could be likely (?) is that it is a 'proof' - not a stamp at all. Still a very nice item, but much less desirable/valuable than the actual stamp. If a proof, it shouldn't have a cancel at all??
Some others with much greater expertise than I possess will chime in & offer opinions. But at the end of the day, my guess is you will need to send this to the Philatelic Foundation for expert examination...
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Posted 04/14/2018 12:31 pm
