Would This Cover Be Worth With The Stamp More Than The Cancelled Stamp Alone ?

hi

I had a question about the cover attached here.

its a #26 3 cent usa stamp on cover

would this be worth more than only the cancelled stamp. or the standalone cancelled stamp is more valuable ?




just wondering about this , so thought I would post here.

thank you for your help.

anil

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Such a nice cover. This is Postal History. Stamp on the cover tells a beautiful story.

The stamp on the cover will always be more valuable anil

thank you , I will try to work on keeping more covers going forward.
I personally prefer covers than just stamps.

Here's a cover from c1855 with an imperforate version of the same stamp. If soaked, the stamp would be worth a dollar or two. On-cover, it is worth more than $100 because the envelope is addressed to "A Lincoln", as in Abraham Lincoln in Springfield Illinois a few years before he was elected President. The full cover tells so much more "story" than a soaked stamp, not to mention the potential added financial value of "postal history" for cancels, rates, senders, recipients, etc. Thus be reluctant to soak covers for their stamps.

A stamp's purpose in life is to pay the fee for transmitting information between sender and receipent. Its journey through the postal system is its legacy which is lost once the stamp is removed from its cover. Like in life, the journey is more important.

Presuming that there's no controversy about a stamp's identity that could only be solved by removing the stamp, I can't imagine a case where the stamp alone would be worth more than the stamp on cover. In my experience, the worst case is a "six of one, half dozen of another" scenario; at best, you have the above "A Lincoln" situation.

"The full cover tells so much more "story" than a soaked stamp, not to mention the potential added financial value of "postal history" for cancels, rates, senders, recipients, etc. Thus be reluctant to soak covers for their stamps."

Great cover John Becker.
I too, try to collect covers with "Who's Who" senders or recipients. Makes you feel you're touching a document that was actually "handled" by the sender/recipient. Places you back in time, until daily life puts you back into reality today. That's part of the enjoyment of the hobby. (My opinion only). I've posted a few covers in SCF, including my oldest cover dated in 1827.

In postal history auctions sometimes you find XF jumbo stamps on ugly covers that sell for a song. The auctioneer, to encourage bidding, will say "That's a soaker." The single stamp, off-cover, graded, should sell for more than the what the cover is going for. Collectors of single stamps are often willing to pay a higher premium for exceptional quality stamps versus cover collectors.

No doubt true in some cases, but this is one reason postal historians bemoan the grading aspect of the hobby.

We can only hope that wiser heads prevail in most cases.

The things that people will do to fill the spaces in their pre-printed albums. Browsing through this week's Kelleher auction, I saw multiple multiples broken down into single stamps. A used #78 that comes with a certificate from when the stamp was once a nice used pair with matching fancy cancels.

A hinged 73 single, with acceptable but not great centering, that comes with a certificate from a mint block. (Geez guys, the single stamp has a CV of $350 and the mint block is $2750 (687.50 per stamp). The single stamp(s) are now worth about half what they were as a block. Opening price for the single is $120 and not worth a huge amount more than that, IMO.

I found the block where this stamp came from on SAN, it sold at the Rumsey auction last April for $850. About right. PF graded the block a VF 80. One or two of those other singles must need to grade at least a 90 to recoup the cost of breaking up the block, but I don't see it.

The Kelleher sale also has a 163 (15c) mint single with certificate for a block, and a 166 (90c) mint single with certificate for the block it came from.

There is a beautiful 191 (90c) mint margin block that is fortunately still intact as a block. (Although when I scroll down the page further I see the certificate that it came from a mint block of 8!) Someone must be downsizing their collection.

Fortunately I didn't see any examples of single stamps that came with a certificate for the cover.



I thought of another example.
Recently someone on this board had a big pile of first day covers and wanted to know what to do with them. They are bulky and not worth much to anyone. There was a suggestion to soak them off cover and end up with a large group of lightly cancelled stamps that would probably be easier to sell (and cheaper to ship) than the first day covers. Are the single stamps worth more than the covers? Possibly yes, in terms of cash flow.

But in general, I totally agree, it is better for the future generations of collectors to keep things as close to their original form as possible. If you only collect single stamps, then only buy single stamps. Don't buy covers or blocks and break them down into single stamps, leave them for the collectors who want the covers and blocks.

Even modern covers are going to be collectible someday (we hope there will be future generation(s) of collectors). The 66 cent rate was in use for one of the shortest durations in history. In 50 years it may be a challenge to find a properly franked non-Forever stamped piece of mail for each of the recent rate increases.

I hope so, I have been saving interesting covers since the 1980s.I have boxes just waiting for my kids to throw in a dumpster when I croak. Good point about the short 66 cent rate.