Help In Identifying 90 Cent Perry Date Of Issue

Blocks from Siegel Power Search:

https://siegelauctions.com/lot_grd....ubmit=Search

Proving once again the utility of Siegel Power Search. What a great resource! Does not, however, take away from the beauty of the OP's block of 4.

Taking photos or scans of everything sounds like quite an undertaking.... That block is a fabulous start.
Assuming there is an album forming the principal organization to the collection, maybe a snap of the early pages might give us a taste, too.

And welcome to this forum.

Here is another group of four from my dad's collection. His description was: 1916 2c Washington unused, mint, never hinged, Shermack perf. It's all a foreign language to me! Posted photo of back of stamp. Photo doesn't show that the back is shiny with original gum.

Nice strip. If his identification is correct the catalog number would be Scott 482. Can you take a scan / picture of the back?

Back at the turn of the century the USPS would print up imperforate stamps that were then sold to one or more of a half dozen private companies which then would then sell the stamps out of proprietary vending machines or as supplies for stamp affixing apparatus in offices. The stamps put into those machines needed to have some sort of separating point, and these companies used their own private perforation schemes. A rather interesting window into the history.

Schermack (later Mailometer) was the most successful and long lived of those companies and their Schermack type III perforation you have is one of the more common on a variety of stamps over several years. Very neat and very different. That is a nice strip.

Here is a thread on these private perforations:
https://goscf.com/t/57427

And more information at StampSmarter:
http://www.stampsmarter.com/1847usa...tePerfs.html

- Jonathan (edited to add successor name for Schermack)

Here is another stamp from the collection: #293 $2 Trans. Miss. used.

Happy Jack: Nice one with nice light cancel.

Rodgcam: Yea, I checked the Siegel search as well before I posted. Last sale was 2015 and my cat is 2014, so I am guessing that someone paid 2000 for it at another auction? Nice increase in value.

Welcome to the wonderful world of stamp collecting. Just out of curiosity, how complete was your dad's Colombian collection? We are all (or rather some of us) after the dollar values. BTW, nice 2$ Trans. Wolf-==-

Hi Stampwolf,
I am a real neophyte with stamps. What do you mean by "Columbian stamps"? Stamps from the country of Columbia or historic U.S. stamps? Any help is appreciated. Everyone on this forum has been super helpful.

The "Columbians" is a term commonly used for the US stamps issued in 1893 for the World's Columbia Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The values range from 1 cent to 5 dollars, which was incredibly expensive for 1893, and depict Christopher Columbus in various scenes. The values for Mint items have dropped over the years, but it is always nice to see good copies of the higher valued items (50 cents and up). I'm currently stuck at 50 cents and can't quite pull the trigger for anything higher yet.

Okay, I Googled Columbians! There are multiple copies of #230 to #237 in the collection. Records show that he sold the higher denomination Columbians to Apfelbaum over ten years ago.