Admiral Scott #116 Certified In France

ebay.fr featured this gentilhomme as one of their success stories.



One or two of you will crush on one of his assistants. I won't say which one of them. Or which one of you. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Note that this is the second of at least three of his ebay personas. There may be more. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Wait, in this case, that might not be so...

I had some emails with him today and he was quite feisty until I mentioned a couple of his other accounts and then he went silent. The Queen's stamp is regummed. I asked him straight out if he guaranteed that it was not and why did his cert say otherwise, and could I get a Graves cert for it, and he just burped and stammered. Crook.

Just to give you an idea of what a clown this guy is I offer the following of his listings.

He has four listings for blocks of four, with his certificates as genuine, for Honduras C33a and C33b (two blocks of each). Sanabria states that only one of each exists and Cherrystone has sold the same C33b twice. They are multi-thousand-dollar stamps.

The big problem is that these "certified" genuine C30B and C30a stamps were first overprinted in 1924 with a diagonal "Oficial". His stamps are actually Scott C20b and C20a with catalog values of $3.50 each. WOW What a difference. His certs are toilet paper.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125174935496
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125174935989
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125174936442
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125174936966

Lots of good options in Canada to buy great MNH Admirals and other early issues - auctions such as Maresch, Sparks, Eastern, Vance, Weeda, other established vendors. You'll definitely get what you expect in those cases, although bidding can be understandably spirited for truly XF items. Or do what I usually do - buy a good quality collection, keep the the few I'm looking for and sell the rest.

I have to agree with gmot on purchasing. There is much material at home and usually more economical, just select the price your willing to pay and wait, it will come up. As for that particular stamp you show, it is not xf, vf at best and it does definetly appear regummed. Not to be harsh but truthful, I dont even like the way the perforations look. The ultimate decision is yours!

I noticed that collections coming from Europe do occasionally contain regummed, reperfed stamps. They are in some of the larger lots which cannot be returned, " because they contain 10 or 20 stamps". So unless viewed you never know. Could be the previous owner was also unaware when he purchased them. Good Canadian dealers that have and want to retain a good name, will mention that there appear to be some possible regummed, or note on pages; or not count in value. I would not depend on a cert issued by the seller as they have a vested interest. Independent certification by organisations like Vincent Graves Green Foundation are held in high regard and best received by North American and Canadian collectors.
Mike

I really appreciate everyone's opinion and thanks to all.
I asked about the validity of the certificate because the stamp never appeared to be EF to my untrained eye from the get go.
I've had a hard time finding this stamp at a reasonable price that is MNH OG and in VF grade.
I've added a couple pictures comparing it to my three cent brown I have not adjusted the pictures but I did crop them.
The first picture is with the Scott #116 0n the left and the second picture I switched them around and the Scott #116 is on the right.
Theses are photographs not scans and if you enlarge these pictures both stamps will look like they could be regum's but I think it's just the poor quality of my pictures.
I looked at the prefs with a 20X loop and I can see no glue on the fine strands left from the separation of the adjoining stamps.
I agree there is a suspicious looking accumulation of glue on the one corner with the extended point however this tab was very close to separating with one of the adjoining stamps.
Would it not be possible for the glue to be a little thicker in this area enough so it was stronger then this thin strand of paper, meaning the glue held together and some of the paper under it went with the adjoining stamp.
In hand it just looks normal and the same as my other stamps from this series.

Cheers, Bill

Hey Hounddog Bill, here is my opinion

First picture, top left with the whitish gum. I think it is a regum because of the whitish color. Also the very top left perf and the 2nd full perf in the bottom left looks like extra gum. Since 116 was printed using the wet printing process, you shouldnt be able to see the embossing from the other side that clearly.

First picture, Scott ???? right stamp, looks like original gum
I am assuming the right stamp is Scott 106c 3c Brown, this looks like original gum.

Second picture - the back ground is not the best to determine.
I think the left stamp is a Scott 115 8c Blue. The 3rd full perf from the top right looks questionable. Also there doesnt seem to be a lot of fibres extending from the perfs either. Some would pull off those fibres to remove the glue.

Second picture - right stamp is the same as above.

Would it be possible to see the front of the questionable stamp?

Trodent

As a follow up to my comment above regarding bad Honduran stamp listings, I reported each listing to ebay one by one citing the actual Scott numbers and values. Nothing, Nada, Zilch. Still up and running. I detest ebay. They do nothing to police the listings even when other people do their freaking work for them.