Expertising And Pencil Marks Behind Stamps

The back of the 1c magenta is much more interesting than the front.

@ Pennyblackie




the point of the R stamp is to be able to prove that it's the owners stamp (owners mark).

there would be no reason to ever forge an owners mark?

I myself working on stamp 295 shifts are numbering all stamps in my study. hope not to damper values over time

its a claim to owner ship and will never detract the value

Actually Richar, it can and does detract from the value for some buyers.

I think owners marks are not as desirable as known expertising marks. If I am the owner of a rare stamp, it does not serve anything by stamping an image of Donald duck behind the stamp if your name happens to be Donald.

Ownership marks do detract from the value. A mint NH stamp with an ownership mark on the back, is not NH anymore. It is not in the form, that it was released from the post office in its day.

In those collections of mine that are strictly MNH, a stamp with ANYTHING on the back, expertizer's mark or not, shall never darken any of my album pages.

The back of the "1c magentai" s great...more appealing than the front.

The word 'provenance' comes to mind. The Google definition is, "a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality."

If owners had marked the backs of "inverted jennies" would it have lessened value? I think not. But for lesser stamps it makes a difference in the minds of some people.

The plate position was written on the back of each of the C3a Jennys, I believe. The one that sold recently was position 49, which was still visible on the back, in spite of the stamp otherwise being Unused/OG/NH and a very nice copy.

In this case, since you can't get one that hasn't been marked as such, its hard to say that it detracts from the value. It actually kind of adds to the well-known history of the sheet.

This really does show how collecting practices can differ. As a Germany collector, I'm used to the German practice of placing expertizing marks on the backs of stamps, and I frequently pay a premium for stamps so marked.

Still can't stand seeing owner's marks on the back, though.

I think those plate markings on the back of the inverted jennys are in pencil. Expertising marks are always in ink and permanent. I am certain a MNH stamp when marked at the back with ink would detract the value, same goes for the inverted Jenny.