What's Going On With My 3 Cent Jackson?

I have a mint Scott 302 that I'm slightly thrown off by, because the top edge appears to cut into another stamp, but is also not perforated. Would anyone care to explain whats going on here? I was under the impression that if there was a stamp above it, it would be perforated, or it would simply be the top stamp, but it doesn't appear that way. Any help would be much appreciated!

I suspect this was the top stamp on the bottom pane of the full sheet. These stamps, I believe, were printed in large sheets of 400, then cut down into four panes of 100 each for retail sale. The top row would have a straight edge and the straight edge should have been cut along the guideline. This one was cut too high.

PhilPhil,

Interesting! So this is likely a guideline for another sheet.I'd call that a neat bonus..thank you!

You can learn more here http://stampsmarter.com/learning/ID_RareLines.html
Don

Thanks for the helpful article Don. It's interesting, because the article does hint at a discrepancy between things that are less common and things that are desirable. For example, in a full sheet of stamps, only 4 would contain two sheet lines on their sides, yet it's not more desirable than a more common one with full perforations. There's probably an important life lesson to be learned there, but I'm not sure what exactly, haha.

It is a near miracle that that stamp hasn't been reperforated!

Fini32,
In general, a "natural straight edge" stamp is philatelically considered a "fault", even when the edge is natural, the philosophy being, for majority of collectors, it's just not desirable.
You can see in your stamp as well that the perforation is into the bottom of the design. So the overall size of the stamp remains reasonably the same. (Sometimes, you may get a "Jumbo" if it's near an edge, with big margins around the stamp). So it's not a surprise to me that you see a small portion of the top stamp in the horizontal block line.

Note these were also made into booklet pains, so straight edges are not uncommon.

Here's a few I just plucked out of a stock book.

Forgot to add, the two center images have the vertical line at the straight edge. The 6c in the bottom is virtually identical to your 302 with perf in the image at right and vertical line more visible due to the perf shift.

Straight edges can be a fun, less costly area to collect.

Re-assembled pane


1935 dealer catalog




True enough...and if collecting straight edges were one day to become highly popular, the scissors would come out and we would see all kinds of stamps with perfs trimmed off.
Don

Thanks alot guys! On the bright side, it's probably genuine considering it can be made to look more aesthetic. And that's a pretty pane you have Don.