Running Isn't The Only Thing You Shouldn't Do With Scissors...

Keeping them away from stamps comes in a close second. This stamp has a beautiful shade of red but appears to have had a close encounter with a misguided stamp collector who thought scissors would improve its appearance.

There appears to be the slightest remnant of a Schermack III perforation along the lower left edge and it shows full height of a typical coil. Thus the top/bottom margins are a relic of the coil-making process and the closeness of the side cuts is likely natural from the affixing process and not the result of any later butchery.

I see what may be part of a Schermack perforation. There is plenty of reason to believe this is exactly as the stamp existed when affixed to an envelope.

Edit: I see Mr. Becker posted while I was typing.

Well on the subject of keeping things away from your collection.....here are three others....staples, paper clips and scotch tape. The first two rust (faster than you would think possible) and the latter one melts. Having been a lifetime collector, and also having had the privilege of working in a public archives for a bit - I can assure you many many artifacts and ephemera have been ruined by these materials. Keep them away from your collection.

It's cut so close on both sides I suspect they were trying to get rid of those pesky Schermack slots and turn it back to a "pure" imperf.

It could have been done by the Schermack Mailing Machine, but my bet is on scissors.

I think you've all hit it right on the money. Comparing it to other Schermack stamps of the same issue I can see similarities in stamp size minus the Schermack perfs. Were Schermack perfs the black sheep of the stamp world in the past?

I suspect they were thought to be of inferior quality for stamp collecting. Perfins were looked down on too! Now the stamp you show on the far right has a catalog value of $45. The others are less than $1

Just like baseball cards, no value until everyone else threw them away. Think of all those Mickey Mantle rookie cards kids put in the bike spokes.

Don't forget about that random cup of coffee! Much better in the cup than on your collection!

I was going to say softdrinks or any liquids but Moyock13 got there first.

But also do not use rubber bands, especially to store. They will decay and dry up and ruin anything paper with most leaving behind only a stain and remnants of brown.

It kills me to see collections in those photo albums.

Rogdcam

I've come across a few of those. Leave little lines on the back of all the stamps. Figured the collector must have thought it was safe and a cheaper alternative to a stamp album.

You also should never put stamps into an album as I did when beginning at about age 9 or 10!!!

DOH!!!

Totaly agree

Was sorting on the weekend and found many that had close encounters with sisors

Dianne

And ESPECIALLY do NOT use scissors as tongs as this guy did in a YouTube video!! It was supposedly a super rare stamp with only THREE in existence (I guess they printed stamps in sheets of three in India) so why wouldn't you use scissors on it???