Young, Ladd & Coffin Imperfs Or Not (Rt26, 28, 30, 32)

I'm guessing that with many imperforates, telling whether they are true imperfs vs. perforated stamps that have been trimmed can be a challenge. This is certainly true for the Young, Ladd & Coffin private die perfume stamps. I've seen plenty of copies of supposed imperfs that have clear traces of perfs along the cut edge. These two are not that easy:



Are there other means of determining the authenticity?... Perhaps a microscope to look for stress lines in the paper? MRI scan?

Alas, the perforated stamps of this company tend to have fairly large margins. Also the used imperf examples often were cut close around the outside edges based on numerous pairs I have seen. The two cent shows evidence of perfs along the right vertical margin. The three cent has another problem common to trimmed stamps, multiple cuts on each margin. They are small stamps, so one cut with a scissors or razor would be enough, but these margins were carefully cut a little at a time as if someone was trying to remove the perfs but leave as much margin as possible left. I strongly suspect that using a 15X or 20X glass along the margins would show at least some evidence of perfs.

i echo revcollector on these. the only way to go with a single is if it had traces of adjacent stamps showing, or as pairs imperf vertically between and even then the rest of the margins will be small to cut in.

At the very least an example must have two large vertical margins. Genuine imperfs also tend to be a slightly different shade and impression, but that is very difficult to see unless one has multiple examples.

Thanks for the info.

I can see what appears to be disturbances in the paper from perforations in the 3c under magnification. Nothing on the 3c, but I'm treating it as an imperf. I have several of these issues and the only ones I am certain about are the pairs.

I will compare the pairs to the singles for differences. Though I'm not sure what I would be looking for and how definitive any difference would be.

comparisons are a good idea. the size of the margin on the single stamp will help in deciding if it is a true imperf. the perforated singles are almost always large and in my experience seldom cut into the stamps. I have not seen vertical multiples of any of the y l & c stamps, but the spacing was probably similar.