10 Cent Washington Imperforate - #13 Or #16?

I recently purchased this 10 cent Washington Imperforate and was labelled a #14. However using the swedish tiger and Scott catalog, the bottom outer line is not broken indicating either a #13 or #16. The top outer line is cut off. Would like any other thoughts before I spend anything for certification.

The scan is somewhat low resolution so it is hard to tell, but I would look into seeing if this is a Type V. Despite the large sheet margin at the right, I see a lot of #35s with perfs trimmed being sold as the more valuable imperforate varieties.

Trimmed 35.

Kent, everyone who has responded is correct - this is a trimmed #35. Don't waste any $$ on certification. In the Scott Specialized look under #35 and you will see that the main feature of this number is the incompleteness of the side ornaments, especially the pearls. On genuine imperforate examples of this design the side ornaments are complete with three full pearls on each side. Your stamp lacks these.

One trick I've learned, is if I see a strong bottom line on a 10c stamp, I first assume it may be a Ty V, and proceed from there in continuing to analyze it. Then check side ornaments/pearls, etc as dudley explains.

Thank you everyone - I purchased this stamp at the Nashville Stamp Show earlier this year and finally got around to verifying it and putting into my little collection. Appears I was duped. As a beginner or intermediate collector I am very disappointed that a dealer would falsely sell a trimmed #35 but sell as a #14. I guess you even have ot be careful at dealer shows. This is the stamp in the original package.

In defense of the dealer, dealers are not omniscient. Like collectors, they all have areas of expertise and ignorance. The dealer may not have known or suspected a trimmed stamp either when similar-looking imperfs exist.

Gaining knowledge is important, before spending too much money in this hobby.
This forum is a good place to start. A few more -

https://stampsmarter.org/index.html

The Neinken book on the 10c stamp is here -
https://www.uspcs.org/resource-cent...nic-library/

Many dealers would likely not be able to properly identify this stamp. It could well have been an honest mistake.

A sad but true statement. Just as there are some very sharp dealers, there are also some who know much less that they think they know.

We had several US dealers, several of which I could vouch for as knowledgeable in the classics. We had one guy sitting at a table with a bunch of 11 and 11A's, claiming they were 10's. I took the time to show him a couple of 10's (plated copies) and explained to him a little bit. He came back with "I got $50 each for these earlier today". Guy had no earthly idea of what he was selling and shouldn't have had a table.

I have a table every year to sell world classics, and I only wish you would've stopped by. When you have 50 posts, get a hold of me on SCF email and would love to chat. Also, our President is a poster to this site, and maybe we can help you with this the dealer you bought the stamp from. Sorry this happened, Ray

CollectorKent, I just looked at your profile, and I was going to ask Bobby if I could contact you about trying to help you with this dealer, and your profile shows that you do not wish to receive email.

Can't help you if you don't want to be contacted. You might want to check your settings.

Ray

Nice of you to offer up your assistance Ray.

ray.mac

I updated my profile to receive emails but I do not have enough posts yet to email you directly. I am still searching for a 14. Will reach out to you once I have enough posts as well.

Thank you for your honest and truthfulness.
Happy collecting...

Kent, you can find any number of nice #14's on ebay or HipStamp.