Penny Black With Black Cancel In Psc Folio I Bought. A Decent Example?

I am afraid the stamp has a hole just left of the base of the Queen's neck and above the left most part of the base of the bust.
And there appears to be something just in front of the diadem.

@NSK
Thanks for taking a closer look.... did I circle the correct areas?
With that, what would you grade as? Did I still do okay with the price?
I'm very happy to have it, but I want to take off my "rose colored glasses"..

I think with the nick on the right margin, you'd have been okay, price-wise, but the rest of the damage is concerning. (Some may say that the nick alone reduces this to spacefiller status. To each their own.)

That said, you bought it without the ability to see all of the damage, and it wasn't silly money, so you might as well keep it without feeling too bad. But in evaluating future purchases, this much damage would cause me to pass by.

ETA italicized addition. If it had been silly money, you still might as well keep it, but you'd have reason to feel bad about it.

@Cid Thank you for weighing in. A gamble for sure, not being able to examine very closely before bidding.... I'm okay with getting my hands on a flawed one with limited funds, but will be more careful on the next one. The price of an education, but I'm willing to learn.

Pin holes like that aren't uncommon on old enough stamps. When collecting was in it's infancy dealers would often show their wares by pinning them up on a board. These days a dealer who tried that would be drawn and quartered...

Bill is correct ,about the pin hole . That stamp was on a sales board at the Paris Bourse in Paris France . A lot of early stamps have that pin hole . Many have been repaired but still a few are still being found .

In this game we all have to pay a price for our education, so don't feel bad

Maybe...

The two on the left were the ones I was looking at. The one on the right (central one) I am not sure about. That does like it could be a pinhole. The two at left may have been caused by pins. There are signs of tears around those holes.

If you bought this as a single lot at an auction, the auction house should have noted the stamp showed signs of damage / had multiple pinholes.




I have seen far worse stamps offered at higher prices. This damage became visible when you provided us a scan that shows as an enlarged picture.

The damage may not be so obvious if displayed in an album. Since you know about it, you will have a feeling they are visible from the moon. But keep in mind no one (including me) caught these before you posted yesterday's scan.

I think British dealers would qualify it as a space filler and add "with visual appeal." But, please, do not look at it from my viewpoint. You got that stamp you wanted. It has visual appeal when not looked at very (very) closely.

One piece of advice: do not take it out of the pocket and keep the folder. I, personally, abhor this type of folder. But for many people it remains a cheap way of owning (one of) the world's first stamp(s) and can be collected without having a GB album.

@NSK
Well said and I understand.
Thanks to all for talking me off the ledge.... I will live to collect a better Penny Black another day.