Does Sheet Margin/Plate Number Add Value?

These remaining stamps were mounted in a collection and were overlapping not only each other but other spaces on the page. I am thinking about breaking off all the selvage and mounting them neatly like the rest of the stamps on this page. Does retaining the sheet margin and plate number really add value to the stamp?

In my opinion, leave the selvage alone. Removing them decreases value (mostly the plate number singles), increases risk of damage.
Don

Ok so if PR118 & 119 have 2018 catalog values of $20 and $25, respectively, what would the add be for the selvage and plate number? 10%? 25%? My cost for these is $0.

If you're concerned about look, don't use printed albums, or add a blank page for the items with stamp-edging.

Leave it. These are not inexpensive specimens, Removing the selvage may or may not lower the economic value, but it definitely won't improve it. They're certainly much more uncommon with selvage than without. And philosophically/curatorially, there's no going back once your tear the selvage off.

In the picture you show, you have stamps with a plate number or with the top right selvedge attached. Consequently, the position of the stamp can easily be determined.

Sometimes, positional selvedge adds value. Sometimes it does for a specialist collector only. Sometimes, the added value is purely philatelic. If there is a constant flaw, knowing from what position your stamp is helps identifying it. If you find a flaw, you can identify the position and other collectors can check whether it is constant.

If there were multiple plates or cylinders used to print a stamp and some are rare, a plate number will help you determine whether you have the rarer printing. Still, many collectors may only be interested in the basic stamp. You should not expect them to pay more than the value of a basic stamp. The question, then, is whether you can find a specialist collector who wants to pay extra for a stamp from a plate or with a certain inscription he does not yet have.

I don't collect these but after a quick look at the sold section of ebay, I found this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304384379012

It's not identical but it does show that the value increases with the plate number and selvage markings.

Dan

Thanks for the input. I'll look for examples of these 3 without selvage to finish the series.




Too late for that, I have far too much mounted/invested in a vintage National Album.

According to Durland, PR124 only has plate #135, and PR119 has plates 109 (imprint 3) and 259 (imprint 6). Plate 109 is more valuable.

If you don't want to keep them for the album, you could sell them and buy the replacement singles and maybe have a few dollars for other stamps that you are missing.

My approach to this has been to remove them from the page you show, then take a blank National page, separately mount the stamps there, and insert the new page after the existing page. Sometimes I write up a short statement about the significance of the plate number or imprint, on a computer, add framing around the text, print it, and affix it to the page. Then, optionally, collect singles without selvage and mount them in the preprinted spaces. The existing mounting that you show definitely offends my OCD, but I like preserving things "as is" and showing them on added pages because I know that when I'm gone they could have value to a specialist.

I'm not sure if it's OCD, but I dislike mismatched mount sizes and overlapping mounts. It just doesn't look neat. Unfortunately, these pages were designed when hinging and PM Mounts were the thing and everything fit with the borders of each space.

This is the original page. I put the 3 stamps back until I decide what to do with them.

I would certainly leave them alone, on stamps such as these they do add some value. You can always add a blank page here and mount them on it.

You comment is not uncommon. The issue became more pronounced with the advent of "hingeless albums" where the pages had mounts preinstalled. Such pages makes it near impossible to add any stamp which has anything other than just the stamp design.

Now stamp collectors tend to collect stamps, fill holes and want eye pleasing album pages. One copy of just the stamp satisfies the need.

Then there are the philatelists, who study the stamps and now they got to be, understanding how plates were produced, plate layout and the like and thus value examples of stamps with this additional information attached. Such does not allow for making pretty pages on pre-printed fill the space albums. The blank pages are for making pretty pages of these stamps with extra goodies and thus information attached. This is why, after 100+ years these stamps still have their selvage attached.

You need to, for yourself, decide which you are or want to be. Yes there are folks who just remove the selvage (shuttering in my boots as I type that) and happily add the stamp to the page. But once the selvage is gone, it cannot be replaced and with it goes the special information the selvage conveys about the stamp.

My choice is to leave items as I received them for while they are "mine, mine, mine" it remains that I am only their caretaker while they came to me from an earlier collector and pass on to a later one.

Now if I handed to you a stack of documents with those newspaper stamps attached to them showing proper use would you want them? If only a collector of mint the answer is no; if a collector of used, would you soak them off the documents? Or would you become a postal historian and begin the value used stamps displaying their actual use? This hobby allows for a wide range of actions and interests, both quite personal as well as part of a greater whole beyond oneself.

Edit: Me? I would pay more for the selvage, especially with plate number(s) and corners. That is the same reason I would buy full sheets when I can.

Edit #2: Added missing word. (See quote below for comparison.)

Very much so;they are VERY scarce, even rare.