Find The Reperf Challenge

This is a Scott #461 OG with 2 certs. However the to agencies (PF and PSE) disagree on the perfs. Rather than show you the certs, I'd like to try to get a fresh look.

Which sides if any, look like reperfs to you? (No cheating by going to the PF website.)

I have no knowledge of US stamps and perforations, but if these were British stamps, I would be suspicious of all sides but the bottom.

I am thinking that both left and right sides are possibly reperfed. Top and bottom look OK to me. But hey, what do I know?!

I think they are 0-for-4. Bottom doesn't look straight. Left looks unevenly spaced at top. Right doesn't look well-spaced, either, but it is hard to be sure since the perfs on that side are a bit short. Top just doesn't 'feel' right. If I knew one side was good, I would pick the top.

imo no sides look good.......

The perfs are generally pretty straight. I don't think that is a good case. The bottom and top are parallel and I just see one not full punched perf on top that isn't aligned.
The left and right are parallel but not exactly perpendicular to the top/bottom perfs. The right side might be a bit more uneven or more tilted in my view.



I haven't given away what the certs say yet - I will but giving a little more time for anyone else who wants to chime in.

Bottom/left/top is my guess

The one hole om the left near the top is awfully huge, but I less like the right side for not being parallel to the left/not being perpendicular to the top & bottom

Here's what I do. This might be legit or it might not be. Since perfs are done by machine and not by hand, logically, all perfs should be in a staight line wthout any of them farther in or farther out. That doesn't mean the line of perfs can't be crooked, but they should line up pretty evenly whatever direction they go.

To check this, I use a straight edge like a ruler or even a piece of paper. One one side, place the straight edge at the inner edge of the perf at the end. Move the bottom of the straight edge to the inner point of the perf at the other end. Adjust as needed. The inner edges of all perfs on that side should all be pretty close to the straight edge. None should be much farther in or out.

Applying that test to this stamp shows me that the right side of the stamp seems to have perfs not in a straight line. This may have set off alarm bells with your certificate people. Personally, though, I'm not convinced. Too many people see problems where none exist, and this stamp seems like a good example of that. It seems like a perfectly fine stamp to me.

Having said that, some of its perfs may have been "tidied up" a little or "enhanced". On nearly all four sides there are some unusually perfect perfs alonside some messier perfs. How can that happen? When you tear paper, you shred the edges of what you're tearing so there should be fibers sticking out. Some of these perfs look like someone used a hole punch or something to cut them better than they actually were. Doesn't bother me much, but it's not exactly recommended.

If this stamp has been reperfed it was one perf here and another perf there, not an entire side. Put another way, if someone did reperf this stamp, they did a darn good job and it's not clearly noticeable anywhere on the stamp. And the margins are very good. And the color is bright and pretty. And . . . well you get the picture. I'd happily put this in my album.

Left perfs compared to right, upper perfs compared to lower perfs.


Don

Not very good at recognizing reperfs, but I would guess right & bottom.

FWIW, I'm guessing the left side. Holes seem deeper than the right side.

Right side for sure, and possibly the top is my thinking.

I think that all the perforations are fake since the intent is to manufacture a 461.

That's possible, I'm not seeing much evidence of pressure ridges.

Thanks you all for giving your thoughts on this. Based on all these diverse opinions you will not be surprised at these certs I guess.

As for my opinion, I think Don's post is the way to get the best view. I did a similar thing for myself. From that I think as others have said, the perfs are aligned ok, but the top and left have rounder perf holes.

Of course I would prefer DrewM's solution, and he may well have a point, but given the certs, I have to accept that there is some kind of reperfing here. Since the certs agree it is a 461 (and not a 409) I am going to assume that at least some of the perfs are legit.

My conclusion, this stamp needs a therapist.