Centering Versus Gum

As for the World Classics 1900-1920 would you prefer very fine(vf) centering hinged or fine(f) mint never hinged(mnh)?

Why choose?

Classics are usually seen as ending in 1900 at the latest. Irrespective of that, I shouldn't pay a penny more for unmounted mint, so centring, I suppose. With my budget, the choice doesn't ordinarily present itself.

Assume the collection is 90% MNH and whether to continue and how far to go that way. The remaining stamps are difficult to find vf MNH and fine MNH are more available. At some point price not so much but availability will mean stopping or Very Fine hinged.

If one were to restrict oneself to, say, GB unmounted mint classics, one would have to be a millionaire to indulge one's tastes.

This is not the case here about cost.

Since you started this thread referring to 1900 - 1920 stamps: if cost is not an issue, very fine MNH tend to be available for basic sets.

I prefer to look at the front sides of the stamps rather than the backs, so VF hinged or VF lightly cancelled is preferred over Fine NH. Also NH with the classics I have to wonder/worry more about regumming, plus some of the older gums are ugly even when genuinely NH. So VF all the way, to answer your question.

Depends: how heavily hinged? How F? No real answer here, without a actual example.

For pure enjoyment I consider centering first. If I plan to sell in my lifetime, VF MNH is the only way to go, as even a few hinged will decrease the interest in the entire holding as a unit.

A stamp is either NO Hinge or it is not, there is no debate on magnitude. There will always be an opinion variation on how to define the gum of a NOT NH stamp due to the contact of one or more hinges when gum remains.

It also depends on what you, eventually, want to do with the collection. Adding hinged to mainly unmounted might be fine if you hold on to the stamps, However, it might be a bad choice if you want to sell them. Certainly for early twentieth century European issues, if you add 20% hinged to 80% unmounted, you lose those who collect unmounted and may struggle to find interest for unmounted among the hingers,

in my world you either collect MH, or MNH you can't mix.

i collect MH, and I don't care if there are gum or not, I don't want faulty stamps and I want perfect centering.

i have a budget of X, and some stamps is out of reach, some stamps are very hard to find in perfect quality. but I will not settle for less.

rather have an empty spot than something i'm not pleased with.

For me, VF hinged over F-NH. Looks better on the page. When I browse through my albums, I rarely take a stamp out to look at the back.

I originally only collected Commonwealth, although not GB. After selling my collection about 10 years ago, I started on WW MNH definitives from about 1900-1970, though I do collect many definitives later if I like them. For many areas MNH has been relatively easy, for example French Colonies, Netherlands and all of the Colonies, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Some are much more challenging 1900-1920, for example Portugal and Colonies, Spain and Colonies, Italy, Romania, Norway, Thailand, Argentina, and Mexico.

All that said, I find Commonwealth material very difficult to find MNH before 1938. With persistence one can find the long KGV pictorial and anniversary sets MNH but of course some are more difficult than others. But the small format definitives are extremely difficult to impossible to find truly MNH. For this reason, I have not delved into the small format definitives prior to 1938 as I simply can't find enough material to make it worthwhile.

It's odd to me that for the period 1900 out to 1938, so many countries stamps can be reliably found MNH yet the Commonwealth definitives are scarce to rare MNH. This is at least in my experience.

Maybe it is not so odd. Europeans held the wealth in Europe and its colonies. There may have been sufficient collectors in Europe for dealers to hold stocks, probably, in part sheets. In the colonies, collectors would, mostly, have been a limited number of colonists that would not attract dealers.

If the collection is 90% MNH to start with, it is unlikely those colonies were an important part of the collection.