While the money demanded by the act was quite low and the act was repealed the following year, the damage was done. The “stamp” was applied to paper to denote that the tax had been paid. It was levied on American paper used for legal, official or everyday useful documents: ship’s papers, business licenses, calendars, declarations, inventory, etc. The Stamp Act, passed by British Parliament in 1765, often cited as one of the immediate causes of the American Revolution, was, in fact, a tax. Get expert advice on your stamps by visiting our shop at 399 Strand.(Courtesy of Siegel Auction Gallery) The Battle of Yorktown (Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) Knowledgeable philatelists are able to assess fairly quickly how these factors and others determine the value of a stamp. More about damage Speak to the experts about your collection Tone spots – the brownish spots encountered on many stamps which have been stored in damp conditions – especially in the tropics – will also reduce the value of a stamp or cover. Seriously faded stamps are viewed in the same way as ‘washed’ examples – more common items being ‘virtually worthless’, rarer ones rating up to one-fifth of catalogue, providing that the fading is not too serious. Demand from specialist perfin collectors has pushed up the price for ‘proving covers’ that is, covers which show which organisation used a particular set of initials, while some commercial perfins are sought after and command a premium over the price of an unperfined stamp.Ĭolour change due to water-damage or sunlight can sometimes have a very significant effect. Stamps bearing official perforated initials can carry a price higher than they would as normals. Even a torn example of a desirable stamp is still collectable and can, therefore, command a price.Ī crease is clearly evident on the surface of the stamp and will result in a more common stamp being worth between one fifth and one-tenth of catalogue, depending on the harshness of the crease and where it is – a crease across a corner will be less significant than one right across the middle, for example. "Selected for neat circular disc cancellations"īeginner collectors are advised from the outset to avoid torn stamps however, not all torn stamps are worthless. Here, you would want to have as full a cancellation as possible, although it would still be preferable to have it lightly applied. This is particularly true where the cancellation is more significant than the stamp, such as a Wotton-under-Edge Maltese cross. Also desirable are well-centred examples displaying all, or nearly all, of the cancellation on the stamp. For this reason, it would be unrealistic to suggest that a slightly off centre perforated Penny Red was less than ‘fine.’ To command a full catalogue price, the perforations should not touch the design.Ī ‘fine’ cancellation should be lightly applied if possible leaving a substantial part of the design clear of the cancellation. A stamp slightly off-centre could still merit the description ‘fine’, but if it is visibly off-centre in more than one direction or the design touches the perforations, then a discount from catalogue price could be expected.Įarly stamps are seldom found perfectly centred. On a perfect stamp, the space between the edge of the design and the perforations should be equal on all sides. Anything more than this will take the stamp into the ‘very fine’ or ‘superb’ categories, with the stamp’s price rising accordingly. ‘Fine’ stamps have ‘approximately one half of the distance between two adjoining unsevered stamps’ – on all four sides. ‘Good’, ‘fine’, ‘very fine’ and ‘superb’ examples of the first postage stamp. The Commonwealth and British Empire and Great Britain Concise catalogues have developed a few categories to define the marginal positioning of a stamp. If the stamp has been mounted on a number of occasions or if there is a heavy hinge still attached, the price would drop to about half catalogue and from there on would decline fairly rapidly. Heavier hinging is acceptable for stamps issued before 1890 but the majority of the gum would have to be clear and ‘unblemished’. This can mean a single hinge mark, although, two or three might be acceptable if the hinges have been lightly applied and carefully removed. Prices in the Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps Catalogue are for “lightly hinged” examples of unused Queen Victoria to King George V stamps. The absence or presence of adhesive gum on the stamp’s reverse can be evaluated in a few different ways.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |