Why Did I Buy This Damaged Business College Revenue Stamp?

I specialize in collecting all kinds of weird stamps, and one of those groups is college and school stamps.

I have only seen the one and two cent denominations of this particular type. I've never seen this five cent denomination before.

So, despite it clearly being faulty and fairly expensive, it may be a unique stamp.

Sometimes you have to settle for what you find, as you may never see another.

Jim

Interesting, but my question is why this damaged stamp would cost so much? How much is the catalogue for one in good condition?

Well, since I wrote the catalog for these stamps, I would place a value of $500 on it, if it was in good condition.

But, as I wrote, I have never seen this denomination before. This may be the only known copy.

Jim

If its one of a kind, then it is priceless.

Jack Kelley

I have never seen one either. But one would have expected a 5 cent and 10 cent to exist, they were common tax rates. Possibly even a 25 cent.

These denominations were addressed by making provisionals with rubber stamps.

They're more scarce than the regular values, but they can be found.

Still, you're right, those denominations may exist as regular issues, but I haven't seen them (10 and 25 cents).

Jim

Further to what jkelly mentioned, if it is the only one, it would be in the same league as a 1 cent magenta or treskilling yellow whatever the condition it is in.

In the same league but not in the same price range.

As Rodney would say, "No respect."

There are a number of stamps known that are unique, and several more where there are 5 or less known. They don't have the value of those great rarities because there are FAR less collectors who know or care, and they don't have a famous backstory (don't underestimate how important having a 100+ year old story is).

I would go as far as to guess that in some cases, the number of serious collectors may be even more rare than the stamps.

Scarcity, without corresponding demand, is not valuable, merely interesting.

If you found a rare stamp with only one in the world, it isn't difficult to come up with a story to say how you discovered , such as finding it among some junk in the attic or that it has been sitting in your collection unnoticed for years until you were moving house and chanced upon it when some stamps fell out of a box. I don't think the story behind the discovery of the treskilling yellow was that spectacular anyway.

It's not so much the excitement of the story, but the fact that the story is 100+ yrs old. In the case of the treskilling yellow, for example, the story was about an error, which prompted a frantic search to find another. The fact that many folks have been looking for another, for over 100 yrs, and that none have been found, is what makes that stamp legendary.

Other than James Drummond, and perhaps 4-5 of his close friends on this site, few people have been searching for business college revenue stamps!

Hi,

I would like to respectfully disagree with that observation.

I have sold much, much more than "4-5" copies of my book.

Jim

Mdroth, I think what you meant was a 100 year history with some famous people owning it. The treskilling yellow was in the hands of one royalty if not mistaken. So was the 1 cent magenta which was owned by du pont family and now in the hands of a shoe magnate. But is it just famous people that should cause a stamp"s value to soar? To be honest anything that famous people touch turns to gold, just look at what a box of cigars owned by JFK sells, not to mention proper collectibles like stamps.