How To Identify Z Grill Stamps

How to Identify Your Stamps

How to Identify Your Stamps

The biggest reward from collecting stamps is your enjoyment!  However, at some signal you lot may want to larn the nuts of identification and condition of your stamps.  Every bit you may know, ii stamps tin expect exactly the same, and yet they are different issues with dissimilar Scott Numbers and values.  Also, yous know the deviation between used and unused, but practice you know how unused and mint stamps differ?  Let me testify you lot some techniques for identifying your stamps!

Used, Unused, and Mint Stamps

First of all – a used stamp has actually been used for postage.  It has a cancellation on it, and usually the gum is missing.  An unused postage stamp has never been used postally, just may accept minor imperfections such every bit a thin or a small tear.  A mint stamp is fault-free. Depending on a stamp'south year of outcome, it may be considered mint fifty-fifty if it's missing gum or was previously hinged.  Stamps pre-1940 can take hinge marks and notwithstanding be considered mint.  Stamps pre-1890 can have no gum and be considered mint, regardless of whether or not they were issued with gum.

Determining Basic Information

Now, getting back to those stamps which look alike… you need to determine some basic information.  To do this, you must have access to a Mystic Catalog, website or some other publication which describes the various problems of stamps.  As an example, nosotros'll apply U.S. #333 and #426.  Both are 3¢ violet stamps with the same design of George Washington.  If yous wait at the beginning of their listing, y'all'll notation the #333 is a perf. 12, with a Double Line Watermark, while the #426 is a perf. 10, with a Unmarried Line Watermark.  The only fashion to tell these ii stamps apart is to measure out their perforations and watermark them.

Sheets, Coils, Booklet, and Cocky-Adhesive Stamps

Some postage designs look the same, just have been issued for dissimilar purposes.  The just difference when you look at them may be the number of sides with perforations.  A sheet stamp has perforations on all four sides.Coil stamps are issued in long strips for use in vending machines.  They have straight edges on opposite sides and perforations on the other two sides. Booklet stamps come from a small pane or block of stamps which is part of a booklet sold at post offices or in vending machines.  These stamps can have straight edges on 1, two, or three sides.Self-adhesive stamps are issued on a special bankroll paper.  In one case peeled off the bankroll, a pre-practical adhesive allows the stamps to be affixed without being moistened.  They may take wavy, "serpentine perforations" or exist imperforate.

Gauging Perforations

Ever take the horizontal perforation measurement kickoff, then the vertical.  Brand certain the circles on your perforation approximate fit perfectly between the stamp perforations.  After y'all have determined the perforations, it's time to watermark.

Watermarks

Sometimes the but deviation between stamps that expect alike is their watermark.  Watermarks are messages or patterns impressed into the paper used to produce sure stamps.  Modern U.Southward. stamps don't take watermarks, but many older ones practice, in the shape of a unmarried line or double line U, S, or P.  See illustrations beneath.

To see if your stamp has a watermark, place information technology face up down in a watermark tray, and pour plenty watermark fluid over it to comprehend completely.  (Never use water.)  The watermark should be visible; how well information technology shows varies with the postage stamp.  Yous may not see a whole letter or design, but only function of ane.  Let your stamp dry completely earlier removing it from the tray.  U.Due south. watermarks are always letters like those shown.  (Many foreign stamps have watermarks in the shape of a crown or other symbol alone or in add-on to letters.)

Source: https://info.mysticstamp.com/learn/how-to-identify-your-stamps/

Share this post