Deception Of Regummed And Reperforated Stamps

Question, are stamps that are regummed or reperforated always an
attempt at deception? When stamps are regummed or reperfed doesn't
it always reduce the value?

Why are many stamps missing their gum? Is it from neglect, damage,
soaked off because of hinges?

yes, regumming and reperfing are an attempt to deceive

regummed stamps are usually valued the same as no gum stamps (lower than original gum stamps), but reperfed stamps do indeed suffer a loss of value

there are a number of reasons for stamps missing the gum - for one, so collectors intentionally soaked the gum off fearing the gum would damage their stamps, also over the years many have become stuck down and to free them they were soaked

When/(by whom?) was all this reperfing/regumming done? I, like many sellers, don't know if reperfed or regummed (yes, sometimes its pretty obvious), but I doubt much of this is done in current/modern times, is it? I'd assume some level of skill and time would be required to do it, and in today's market unlikely worth the effort, is it?

My data is 5 years old, but (as far as my data goes), you can send anything off to Europe and get whatever you want, to order...new gum, fluffed perfs. There are a handful of addresses many of us know that will hook you up. I'm not validating it, but it's a thing.

Caveat emptor.

Sometimes, stamps were sold without gum. This, mostly, happened in tropical countries.

The following is my opinion on regumming and reperfing.
Dealers have been reperfing and regumming stamps since collecting began. It has been done so frequently with some stamps that it has now less likely to find straight edged stamps (ie. high value Columbians). Anyone who thinks they can make a quick buck is attracted to reperfing and regumming. It still goes on today at significant levels and often with high skill levels. Sloppy regums with soaked perf tips are less common because air brushing with masking of the perfs is easy to do. There are many examples of lightly hinged stamp being 'touched up' with an air-sprayed regum.
Humankind does not change much over time when it comes to greed and a willingness to take advantage of others.
Don

Re no gum on an mint/unused stamp, can be several reasons as mentioned above - (won't get into the terminology discussion of mint no gum vs. unused, that's been discussed often in other threads...)

Stamp was originally issued without gum - often found described "Mint No Gum As Issued (MNGAI). Quite common for some countries/periods - e.g. North Vietnam in 1950s/60s.

Gum was soaked off by a previous collector - e.g. was stuck to the album/stock book and that was the only way to safely remove them, intentionally soaked off by collector in humid climate, etc.

Stamp was used, but wasn't cancelled on its trip through the postal system - so not mint/unused but appearing so. Usually no way to distinguish these from above category.

Related, stamp was cancelled, but cancel was chemically removed to give stamp appearance of being unused/mint. Using tools like Postmark Reveal can sometimes help find if this was the case.

~Greg

It has been done since close to the dawn of collecting, and it is done today. And it will be done tomorrow. There is the potential of making a dishonest dollar, so there will always be people ready to make the effort.

I fully agree BUT this is only true when the alteration is detected.





Correct and wrong. If undetected, it is well worth the effort.

Even reprints get mixed into the market as normal stamps. This one has been on ebay for a week or so and can be had for the $39.95 plus .70 S&H if no one bids against you.




Full sets of reprinted US parcel post stamps have been sold over the years on ebay coming from abroad. Only the description then mentions they are reprints as the stamps are not marked in any way. So once in the wild the stamps find a life and "value" of their own.

Edit: removed errant "y."

As a victim of expert regumming I can attest to what Don stated about the sophistication employed. It takes an expert in particular areas to identify regumming based upon what gum SHOULD look like on specific stamp issues. As an example many Russian stamps have gum that is of particular color and texture with some having imperfect, streaky gum as the norm. Ironically, the level of perfection shown in some regumming is what gives it away. Again, it really takes a certificate from an authority that knows the subject matter to ensure authenticity. Not practical for lesser value stamps though and that can be a real PITA.

What I find kind of curious is it doesn't seem that regummed or reperforated stamps are that frowned upon in the philatelic community. I frequently see ads by dealers like Gary Posner selling "expertly" regummed or reperforated stamps selling at SMQ pricing. Now if this was a coin that had an altered mint mark for example, a grading service will declare it a forgery and not even value it, so basically now it's only worth what melt? Shouldn't altered stamps be valued the same? Perhaps reduce the stamps value by 90%, I'm not sure why there should be a difference between an altered coin and an altered stamps value. Why do numismatics care and philatelists don't?

Bill - A stamp that has a PSE or PF graded certificate will not be regummed or reperfed. IF a seller such as Posner is using SMQ values without a PSE/PF graded cert it is sheer puffery on their part. They are inferring that a stamp is a "90" or some other number in their judgement which of course is nonsense. SMQ only applies to a stamp with a graded certificate and to get a high-grade certificate that stamp will never be reperfed or regummed.

I have seen sellers that use Scott's supplemental values to pump up value by assigning their own centering estimates and ignoring faults such as pulled perfs. One seller I followed would list graded stamps and any stamp that was less than 80 would be assigned a straight Scott catalog value even though the supplemental values for say a grade 70 would be drastically less. It was a one-way street and so dishonest.

Bill S, philatelists definitely care. Next time you run across such an ad, throw in a link and we can all take a look...

Bill - people can ask anything they want for anything and GP isn't shy. He is fishing for fools.

Cjd, if philatelists cared they wouldn't be buying these altered stamps even with a cert, my point, they don't care enough and I think they sell way over value, perhaps they should have very little value. I see ads "expertly reperfed at bottom with PF Certificate" implying the stamps credibility. I know I'm preaching to the choir.

If people cared about dogs, they wouldn't maltreat them. Since some people maltreat dogs, people do not care about dogs?

First of all: what is on offer has not been bought.

Second, of course there will be people buying them. Just as people buy replicas.
There are those who are deceived and there are those who cannot afford perfect rare stamps.
As long as the stamps are identified as such and no one is deceived, those people should decide for themselves what they do or do not want in their collections.

It has nothing to do with whether or not philatelists care. As the replies show, many philatelists abhor this practice and do care. Many of us here will be aware of the risk is these will hit the market without a warning.

Whether those who buy them knowingly would care for having genuine MNH stamps, I do not know. They are not telling me whether they do or do not. All I can observe is they fill gaps.