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Wednesday 12 May 2010

What A Difference A Nick Makes


Security background codes and security cuts seem to be the topic of the week. Here is another e-mail from Kevin Baldry who advises me that the cuts on the FDC panes from the Prestige Booklet are different to the ones reported.

"I see from the blog the cuts on the recent PSB are T1 & T2, if you have any FDC from Tallents House with the booklet pane you will find they are again different all stamps are T2."

Thanks Kevin for the report.
Do you think specialists are their own worst enemies by recording every detail on new issues? It certainly makes life harder ( and more expensive) for those who collect at Deegam Level 3
Are we not going just that little bit over the top by taking to much notice of these different types of slits? What do you think?


3 comments:

Charlie said...

As to whether "Taking note" of these tiny variations in the security slits as reported recently is going over the top, I think that may be so.
If some flyspeck variety enables the collector to differentiate between printers or printing run and there is some significant reason for doing so, I suppose they are worth noting. But lately, it just seems to have become an exercise in needless complexity.
Collecting things as a hobby, stamps, coins, Matchbox cars or strips of barbed wire, seems to be the only human endeavor where the discovery of a production error breeds excitement and a faultily produced product becomes a treasure.
What a strange hobby, and I guess by extension, what a strange bunch of bedfellows.

Anonymous said...

I think that it is important that these details be analyzed and documented. As Charlie notes, they may be useful in identification or in understanding production processes. That, in turn, can help us identify forgeries.

As far as the expense of collecting, I think that anyone who gets to this level of specialization is making a conscious decision about what to collect and the financial ramifications thereof. If you want to be "complete" according to Deegam Level 3 or 3A, or to Machin Collectors Club, or to Connoisseur, then you must be prepared to follow wherever they lead.

Personally, I decide on a case-by-case basis. For example, I chose to ignore the R-shaped/S-shaped varieties of ellipses some years back. On the other hand, I enjoyed trying to get all the various De La Rue ATN papers, with date blocks to prove the paper, and that cost me quite a few pounds.

--Larry

Anonymous said...

Talking about "tiny variations"...the May/June issue of The GB Journal published by the GB Philatelic Society has an article titled "Measuring the Diameters of Perforation Holes," complete with a picture of the author's desktop setup for making the measurments.

--Larry