I recently acquired two sets from an online auction, Germany 585A-593 and 593A-599, the 1948 overprints. They were labeled as mint hinged, but when I received them discovered they were in fact NH. One other detail was they were all signed with faint initials on the reverse. What is the purpose of this initial and does this make an otherwise NH stamp a hinged stamp?
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Those could be expertizer's marks. That's common with German collecting. Can you post a scan or photo?
As to impacting whether it's MNH, German collectors would not consider the expertizer's mark as impacting whether it's MNH, though I think some American sources do.
Another thing it could be are owner's marks. Some collectors in the past signed their stamps....maybe in case they got stolen, or maybe as an informal "expertizer's mark" (themselves being the expert)?... I don't really know, but I think it does negatively impact the value if it's not the mark of an official expertizer.
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Posted 01/27/2020 6:28 pm
