USA Trans-Mississippi Scott 292 Cattle In The Storm VF Lh Og

Lovely example...I'm so jealous!

I think we have to look at all certificates with at least some skepticism, particularly if we have serious doubts to begin with. I've posted earlier examples of stamps with conflicting opinions from the PF and the PSE, and also on certs from the same entity just a fews years apart. Neither the PF nor the PSE gives any detail on the certificate as to how they arrived at their opinion, so I find this forum useful to discuss these things.

I have to agree with Roger that the most suspicious perforations are on the top. If you align the image with the sides of the design (neither the top nor the bottom of the engraving is uniform for its full length), the top perforations can be readily demonstrated to be of uneven depth. The left and right perforations are parallel as Paul notes, and the bottom perforations are of consistent depth. Can someone explain why the top perforations are so uneven in depth? Is this quite possible even If the stamp is not reperforated?

Widglo46.

Yes, I've noticed minute differences in *length & straightness* is not uncommon, check out the Platypus left stamp perfin hole sizes on 'W' & 'S'..one could think the Pins were different diameter. Hope this helps a little.

Thank you for doing the grid overlay Lorry. That is exactly what I have been looking at.

All it takes is a few slightly bent pins for this to happen. It's 1898 technology, a soft paper, there is a war on, and a few bent pins are nothing new anyway.

1898 technology, the Spanish-American War, soft paper and bent pins. Strange how selective those issues were when affecting only certain stamps from this very limited issue.

widglo46 said,


I don't concur. If you align the top and bottom perfs so they are horizontally parallel, you will see (image below) that the depth of the perfs on both top and bottom is virtually identical and parallel to each other.

jenny100...thank you.
I asked for the certs....you shown.
Sometimes thing just look "fishy"....that is where Im at on the right perfs. To me...they look to round, deep and clean.

I really do like all the expertise shown here in this forum - totally cool to get so much information from so many very knowledgeable collectors. I am glad I joined this forum.

Regarding this stamp one thing you have to realize is the image I provided is at 600 dpi so it really blows up the image of the stamp. If you see the stamp in person its tiny.

As well I took another low value stamp of the same series (one cent) who no fraud artist would bother reperfing due to its low value and laid the one dollar Cattle on it and the perfs match identically. So I know this stamp is 100% genuine.

As far as someone commenting on what I paid. When you are at auction and you see a stamp you want you just pay what the market is at that time. Many times for nice material its over catalogue. This stamp's catalogue VF is 1.400.00 US and I paid 1,500.00 US at auction. But if I did not pay this I would not own the stamp.

When dealing with collectibles they are only worth what two people are willing to pay - the winning bidder and the underbidder. Nothing else matters and there is no specific market price that I paid over or under for. Many times nice material goes for well above what is deemed market in the past. For instance I paid 4,750.00 for a small queen Canada Scott 40e. It catalogues for 4000.00 but I gladly paid more cause it is the finest known and was exhibited by me in Capex 96 and is shown in the Gems of Canadian Philately handbook. Thx Paul

It is indeed a pretty stamp and people are free to pay however much they wish. I brought the priced up because a sale at an abnormally high price does not necessarily absolve a stamp of faults. Neither do certificates unfortunately.

Enjoy the stamp Paul. Many folks would love to have it in their collection.

Cheers

"1898 technology, the Spanish-American War, soft paper and bent pins. Strange how selective those issues were when affecting only certain stamps from this very limited issue."

It's not limited. Similar causes affect numerous stamps from many issues throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, the perf 11 W/F issue is notorious for having funky perfs. So are the Reds and Greens in revenues from the 40's and 50's.

Nice job BankNote guy! your parallel lines made more sense. I took the bottom perfs and aligned next to the left perfs and they matched up very close or near exact.

I just love these threads that go from posting a stamp, to possible issues with said stamp (guilty), to graphics, to the Spanish-American War and beyond. Let us not forget the paranormal!

The perfect pastime whilst quarantined.

The paranormal is not required. But the certs are, and have still not been posted.

Links to the certs.


http://pfsearch.org/pfsearch/pf_grd...lledfrom=lkp


http://psestamp.com/Cert/01334714/