How Would You Grade This 1c Franklin?

I'm guessing 90, but I'm not real good at this - I only know nice enough when I see it. Its a little wider at the left than right and even though the cancel is interesting, it might be a bit too much.

Secret mark, so 156 or 182 (sold as 182, but I'm not sure and I lack comparison examples)

And I don't need to hear from the grader haters.

Eye, I think that is very nice stamp. No clue about grade

Peter

It's a bit to the top and a bit to the right. It might make 90, but it also might only make 85. The cancel is pretty typical. It's a nice stamp, the kind that shows how silly grading really is.

I would guess 85 myself. Lovely stamp if you ask me.

Grading is more than centering. I will be a contrarian, but you provide no indication of the soundness, a view of the reverse side, or a view in fluid.

Back



don't have the ability to show it in fluid

I would guess 90. Very nice stamp.

I would guess 85. 90 for centering, -5 for heavy (but still nice geometric cork) cancel. Yup, a very desirable stamp, with some give/take for grading estimate.

Looks like a 156 to me.

The grading scale does not go to 156.

You could fit in a cocktail straw what I know about both US philately and grading, but that is a gorgeous stamp in a fabulous state of preservation. Maybe a shortish perf at bottom, but certainly not pulled or missing. And the perfs are broad, e.g. 10 or 11, so to have 99% of them is such great condition is likewise fabu.

It's actually a fairly common stamp, although with better centering then is often seen. It's perf 12, but having all the perfs is not unusual.

I would also go with a 90. I don't find the cancel at all offensive. That's a nice stamp you have there!

eyeonthewall - The grade you will get from either the PF or the PSE is unpredictable, but you can get a good idea by looking at how they how they recently graded the same Scott#. Out of curiosity, I looked at the last 10 years of both the PF and PSE database for Mint and Used #156's that were graded XF 90 on the cert. At least from the standpoint of centering, I think your stamp falls well within the spectrum of XF 90's. I also looked at VF-XF 85 examples, and I could, on average, easily judge them as inferior compared to your stamp. I don't think there was much difference either between the PSE and PF examples.

The perfs are all nice on your stamp and the cancel is heavy but certainly not ugly. So overall, I think you have a solid XF 90.

Thank you for all of your responses. So 85 for sure, good chance of 90. Either way I am pleased - I needed a good one to make up for some others in the purchase that had small faults I didn't see when I bought them (it was too long ago to return them).

"Looks like a 156 to me" I am leaning that way too. I thought they might be going for a "negative" A in the cancel, but there is more going on below the apparent A, so I guess it is just a random pattern.

Here is another I bought at the same time, Obviously bot as well centered, but I liked the Chicago cancel. I am one of those people who would rather have multiple nice example of a cheaper stamp than one meh example of a more expensive stamp. (typo fixed)