Perf'd Out Perforations ?

I picked up this :

1879
NH
Perf 12
Pale Brown
J-4 One Cent Postage Due Stamp from a reputable dealer . The perforations on the left side are very exaggerated almost
stretched out. Has any one seen this before , is it common , does it have a name ?

I suspect that someone added some perf tips to some short perfs, but I think the perfs themselves are genuine.

How would that be done? Also, it looks like they missed perfs 1, 6, and 7 on the left hand side and a number of others on the rest of the stamp.

I have a few stamps like this. Long perforations on one stamp correspond to short perforations on the adjacent stamp, perhaps as a result of carelessly folding the sheet or part of the sheet before tearing. I see no reason to be suspicious. It could be faked, I suppose, but wouldn't anybody who was trying to improve the appearance of the stamp have done a tidier job?

Perhaps, but it is surprising how many "alterations" are not really well done. And it might also depend in part on whether the gum is genuine or not.

I'd just call this "shaggy perfs" and I'm surprised in all these years, no collector has pulled out their scissors and trimmed them. Come on, we've all done that once or twice! I admit it.

How could this have happened and are these perfs, for some reason, faked?

Here's the bidding so far:
1/ It could be that a straight edge was perfed.
2/ Or maybe someone added "perf tips" to some short perfs.
3/ Since many alterations are not well done, that may prove there's been some funny business.

My thoughts:
1/ If the left side's longer perfs were created from a straight edge that had perfs added, they sure did a messy job. After all the trouble they went through to add perfs which must have taken a very long time, they left it like that? I don't think so.

2/ Adding perf tips is a new one on me, but if someone did that, where does anyone see that on this stamp? I sure don't. Adding extra paper to the tips of the perfs means gluing something to what is there, so where is that on this stamp? Where is the edge between the two? Also why do that? Why add perfs that are unnecessarily long? What purpose does that serve? Absent a magnifying glass or microscope, I don't think so.

3/ But many alterations are not well done, so doesn't that prove these perfs were altered? That's kind of backwards, don't you think? It's kind of "he doesn't look guilty, so he must be guilty" or "something that doesn't look altered suggests it's been altered". Why not say "these look so odd it proves they were NOT altered since no one who altered something would intentionally leave them this long or this messay"?

These perfs might have come apart this way because, as pjr says, the sheet had been folded there.

Or maybe someone held down the stamp to the left with a straight edge (we've all ripped paper this way), then pulled the right-hand stamp away from it. Try it. If you mistakenly hold closer to the edge of the left-hand stamp than you intended, you may get longer perfs on the stamp you're pulling on. I think the postmaster held down a straight edge and yanked on the right-hand stamp to separate it, leaving longer perfs here (and shorter ones on the left). To me, this is genuine and not all that surprising.

Also why is no one upset over the top perfs which are unusually regular? Hmm . . . I wonder . . . . I'm not inclined to doubt every odd thing I see. I just put them into my album.

I have had a few stamps where added perf tips were called out in the opinion. The tips are not pieces glued on, but the mechanic mixes up a paper slurry and adds it to the tips that way. Really hard to tell it was done sometimes.

The tips in several cases are a different color than the rest of the stamp. And perfs are added all the time, I have seen dozens of examples. Often it's only one or two on a valuable stamp. And as I said earlier, if the stamp was regummed, it might help hide the fact.

DrewM, I'm shocked that anybody would trim untidy perfs with scissors. In many cases, torn versus cut perfs establish the difference between sheet stamps, booklet stamps and coil stamps, and that difference is interesting to some of us.

rogdcam, it's one thing to repair short perfs nefariously, as you describe. It's another thing to add unattractive extensions to perfs that are already good.

The stamp isn't a rarity, is it? So why bother faking? And, as Lalo.Man says, it comes from a reputable dealer.

and there is no reason to believe that the tips were added.

I see several, but since the stamp is not in hand, it's just supposition.

Here is an example of presumably genuine perforations on the bottom showing what might happen if the stamps are separated without first folding along the perfs. That's my guess what happened to your stamp, the selvedge was yanked off quickly without any care taken for a clean separation.