Us: Is This 291 Reperfed?

Gary Posner offers this #291 on ebay at this listing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-SCOTT-2...383397195125
There is no certificate. I am mildly suspicious that it could be reperfed at the left. On the one hand, the perfs look rounder and cleaner than the other sides; on the other hand, this forum appears to be training me to see reperfs everywhere. Am I wrong?

I would vote a strong no to the stamp being reperforated Chris.

I don't think it is either.

The margins are balanced, tho a bit askew. Looks good to me too.

Perfs look OK to me also but I don't have the stamp in hand.

My question is about how Posner lists this stamp. He grades it F-VF which seems fair. And then it looks like he pulls an SCV which I take to mean Scott Catalog Value of $600. Am I reading that correctly?

When I look in my Scott specialized catalogs, I see the following:

291 Mint Hinged Original Gum F-VF '14 $470, '19 $415 '20 $450. I suppose he could be using a year where the SCV was $600 but I doubt it. And I see this from many sellers on ebay. An OK grade but where is the SCV coming from? Now he has in parens (DFP 1//29/20) and I have no idea what that means. Any other explanations?

The (DFP 1/29/20) indicates the listing date. As far as using bare Scott cat values, that is common issue that drives me nuts. In all fairness since it is not a numerically graded stamp Posner is using the bare Scott cv, not the SSV table.

I can see that the hole shapes are different but as a line perfed stamp this can be expected, especially in the 1890s. The shapes don't bother me, I don't think the stamp has been reperfed.

Of course if you do opt to get 3 certs for it, you run the risk of getting 3 differing opinions about 3 different sides being reperfed, or any combination thereof. Based on discussions in this forum over the past half year, I've become convinced that the certification process for US stamps is beyond broken.

The grade of the stamp would be "Fine", not "fine to very fine". The left side perforations are very close to the frame line at the top. The left side perforations are cleaner than the rest but are not round. The perforations would require examination with a 10X or 15X loupe, preferable with measuring reticule to look for fibers and pressure ridges. The measuring reticule can be used to verify that the vertical perforation rows are parallel by measuring and adding the distance from the frame line to the top and bottom perforation holes with 0.1 mm precision. Alternatively, a scanner and Photoshop can be used to do measurements if the scan is at least 1200 DPI.

The Trans-Mississippi issue was printed in sheets of 100 divided vertically into panes of 50 leaving 10 left or 10 right straight edge copies in each pane of 50.

cfrphoto said,


Could you explain in more detail why you think the grade (centering only) is Fine rather than F-VF?

This series of stamps seems to me to have abnormally small margins in general.

This is what PSE uses for these two grades:

Fine-Very Fine

Visually, with the unaided eye, the perforation holes are
easily seen to be clear of the design, but one or two
margins will be narrow. For stamps with rectangular
frame lines like the large or small Banknote stamps, the
first Bureau issues or the Washington-Franklin stamps,
the minimum margin should be approximately 0.4mm.
For small margin stamps such as the Jamestown issues
or later rotary press regular issues, the minimum margin
may be a bit smaller.

Fine

Fine centering is when the perforation holes on one or
two sides come very close to the design, but some white
space remains visible to the unaided eye. For white space
to be clearly visible without magnification, it must be at
least 0.2mm wide. With 10X magnification, one can
discern margins as small as 0.1mm, but to the unaided
eye a 0.1mm margin will appear to have the perforation
holes touching the frameline of the design.

Seems to me like it is more F-VF than just F based on these definitions. What am I missing? Are there other definitions for grades?

From the PSE website:



Scott also has illustrated examples in the front of the US catalog.

The PF and PSE utilize grading software to establish centering values, not just the naked eye.

My own take on this stamp is Fine. If somebody showed it to me as F-VF I would have a hard time with that. Just my opinion.

This is a stamp that I owned at one time and it has been described as Fine by a couple of well respected dealers:



Edit Add: My stamp pictured above had a cert as MNH with a cv of $1800 and last sold for $350 which is a fair price.

cjpalermo, Gut impression ... Your original post answers your own question. You point out features which are unsatisfactory to you visually and you seem to want us to convince you to buy it. I would recommend that you find one that fully satisfies you and buy that one instead.

I don't care for the US habit of dividing grades, the practice furthered by numerical grading.

I agree that one should examine the perfs at left with a loupe before making judgement, they are inconsistent with the right perfs yet should have been cut by the same stroke perforator.

They were cut by the same device, but not the same pins. That accounts for the slight variations.

.

Line perforators with rows of pins around the circumference of a cylinder were used. Pins helped pull the sheet through the perforator creating a pressure ridge on one side or each perforation hole. Fake perforations are generally punched by a small multi-pin stroke perforator or manually, one hole at a time. Neither will produce a pressure ridge or pulled fibers characteristic of the dynamics of a line perforator. Tips of fake perforations are often filed to resemble natural paper separation.

I initiated the topic to test my knowledge. I'm grateful for the replies which help advance my knowledge. I received a lowered-price offer from Posner and bought the stamp at $180. I'm satisfied with all aspects. When I receive the stamp, I'll try the inspection recommended by Clark. Thanks all.

rogdcam said,


OK. Take a look at the stamp below. Not mine. [Btw, notice the seemingly similar perfs and perf alignment to the one originally posted here.]

My question is would you grade this one Fine also?