5 Cent George Washington Stamp - Help In Identification

Hello guys. I am brazilian and new in this forum. Actually I am new with stamps too... Yesterday I found this stamp in a friend collection and I would like to know if it has any value. Can you help me? Thanks

Welcome to the forum. Great place to learn and ask questions. Someone will give you a value as I do not collect US mint.

Since you do not seem to have a catalogue, you may consider checking the local Library as they usually carry reference ones. And if you continue to pursue collecting you can purchase one later if needed.

Mike

Thanks for the tip Mike. In my city philately is pretty rare and there are no catalogs in any public library. For while I am beginning to use the site stampworld.com.

It's not going to have much value, at least partly due to its condition - missing top right corner, and what appears to be a discoloration in George's hair (though that might be just the image). Getting more exact requires using a perf gauge and checking for watermarks and things like that. There is a Washington-Franklin identification tool in the StampSmarter.com website that is free if you want to dig in further.

Welcome! I'm a newbie myself. I welcome anyone to correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like a 5 cent stamp with 12 perforations on each side. Not knowing anything else, that would narrow it down to a Scott 335 (SCV mint 45 USD) or a Scott 378 (mint 27.50 USD ). Granted, these catalog values are for the very fine condition of stamp centering, which it looks like this one might be. However, as risny said, the missing corner and potential discoloration would detract from that value, and as a general rule of thumb it's not very likely you could sell the stamp for these amounts even if all these conditions were met, due to the nature of how the catalog value is defined.

Thanks for the answers guys. The quality of the image is not the best. Tomorrow I will take new photos with higher resolution, including the back of the stamp. I don´t understand nothing about watermarks yet, but I will try to verify it in stampsmarter.com.

@fini32, you don't count perfs to identify stamps. "Perf 12" measns there are 12 perfs per 2cm, and you need a perf guage to check.

@brazil34, I agree that this stamp is not worth much, if anything. The only stamp of this design that is very valuable (with any potential value for a damaged stamp) are the experimental blue paper variety which is going to be impossible to tell without comparing it to a known "blue paper" stamp or having experience with them. your chances are not good, and even if it were a "blue paper," the condition would probably wouldn't warrant a price above $100.

Welcome.
You can learn more about your stamp here http://stampsmarter.com/1847usa/192...ntifier.html
Don

Brazil34,
We can narrow it down a lot if we know the perforation. Since you are knew to stamps, you'll need to get a perforation gauge. This will perf at either 12, 11 or 10. Doesn't look like a 10 to me, but I try to avoid making perf calls from photos.
So the options are:

Perf 12
335 - Double Line water mark - CV $120
378 - Single Line water mark - CV $70

Perf 11
504 - No water mark - CV $18

Perf 10
428 - Single Line water mark - CV $75
466 - No water mark - CV $160

So none of them are crazy high value, but it is most likely (just based on probability and number, and my "guess" on perf) a 504. Get a perf gauge, and some Ronsonol lighter fluid. Then you can ID it positively of the list I've given you above. The only other possibility is the 523C that perfs at 12 x 10, but this is clearly not that, the perfs are even on all sides.

Hey Phil,

I know how perforations are measured. For stamps that can't be measured, such as ones that are for sale online in the classics, I use a rough rule of thumb estimate by counting the amount of perforations within the design only on the vertical side. Then I give it some amount of tolerance, +/- 1 perf, and make an educated guess from there. In this case,there are around 13 perforations within the vertical design. Based on my heuristic, it can't be a perf 11, but can be a perf 12. I'm curious if this is a decent heuristic, or just a bunch of finger waving that I made up. Brazil34, would you mind measuring and telling us the amount of perforations within 2 cm?

FYI, This method can be helpful in determining perforations on W/Fs, especially on an image posted on this site.

Hi guys. First of all, thank you for the answers. The stamp has 12p both in vertical and horizontal. Is is from a friend collection and I could not examine it more carefully yet, but as soon as I can, I will put the result here. See you.