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Monday 7 March 2016

Notched Bars


During the last few days I have been sorting out a small collection of single Machins which have been sitting around in a box for a couple of years.

I will admit that I had forgotten most of what I had learnt over the years and had to revert back to catalogues and lists just to verify what some of the stamps were. Quite a a few were ex booklet singles and had notched bars.

Checking through the on line Connoisseur catalogue I was amazed at some of the prices they quote for certain stamps with notched bars. Up to £15.00 for a single stamp in some cases.

Notched bars can be obtained with several values from certain mixed value booklets, others from prestige panes, and a few panes with a slight phosphor shift.

 To describe these (in layman's terms) the phosphor bars have small notches or a step in either one of the top or bottom corners. It should also be noted that stamps exist with inset and notched bars. These are very desirable stamps to some and are overlooked by a lot of collectors, they also fetch a premium over normal side or two bar stamps.

I have no doubt that some of the varieties that are listed in the Connoisseur are a little over priced but at the same time I feel that several of them will be rarities of the future. I have several of these that are duplicates and have placed a few on eBay to test the market. I will keep you informed as to the outcome of the sales.

 
Above notched bar to the top right
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3 comments:

Ian - Norvic said...

How many notched bars are intentional and how many are actually just downward or upward shifts?

On a prestige stamp book pane which has a label in the centre (and no, they don't all), the phosphor bands over the perforations between stamps columns 1+2 and 2+3 are narrow on the stamps in the centre row so that no phosphor falls on the label. To prevent vertical shifts placing phosphor there accidentally, are there not notches on the top and bottom rows over those perforations?

Machin Man said...

YES Ian as I stated

Notched bars can be obtained with several values from certain mixed value booklets, others from prestige panes with a slight phosphor shift

Muthoni Wanyoike said...

Thank you ffor being you