Question On Imperf National Park Issues Of 1935

Why does Scott list prices for original gum stamps for the imperf series 756-765? Aren't these all NGAI? The 1847USA app in Stamp Smarter says they are no gum as issued. Were some issued with gum?

I don't see this issue addressed there. It's a great thread, but I haven't found anything about this yet.

Gumming is mentioned several times along the way in that amazing thread. Not wanting to step on Stampman2002 toes, I'm sure he will fill in the story.

Anyone with a full sheet or sheets could send them to the BEP and they would gum them for free. Not so common to find. It's also why fake imperf between errors crop up from time to time.

Thanks all for the feedback. That's quite interesting. So now I understand. They were issued without gum, but could be gummed on request. I'm sure it's mentioned somewhere in that thread and I missed it. I don't see any sold on Siegel's power search and nothing comes up on ebay at the moment. I wonder exactly how rare they are. The catalog values are not very high, so "not so common" might be the right description - I'll keep an eye open. I find it highly unusual. Are there other NGAI issues that the BEP would gum for people on request?

I came across an article mentioning that dealers, speculating on higher prices, bought so much inventory that, when demand evaporated, they lobbied the gov't to gum the stamps just so they could at least be used for postage.

Kelleher sale 702 Aug 2017. Two group lots with gummed sheets.

https://stampauctionnetwork.com/v/v70294.cfm

Actually, the reason there are some gummed imperforate National Parks sheets is because of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. In 1940, he consigned some of his gummed imperforate stamps, which were NOT from the 1935 Reprints, but the original 1934 first printings. He, unlike Farley and Roosevelt, had his presentation sheets all gummed.

If you look at the thread I wrote on this, you'll see that several of the production sheets list two sets of sheets sent to the POD as gummed. These are Ickes' sheets.

When the stamps were sent to the charity auction, it created an uproar. The answer by the USPOD and the BEP was to allow anyone who had FULL SHEETS only to send them to the BEP for gumming. Not many people did, which is why the gummed variety is rather pricey now.

Thank you so much. Very interesting. Thanks for the auction link too.

Out of hundreds of sets that I have seen over the last 6-8 years, I can only remember a couple of sets of singles and one set of blocks of four that were gummed. I don't think that they are as scarce as that, but they are not common at all.