Stamp collecting for beginners — 04. Judging condition

Put two copies of the same stamp side by side and they can look identical at arm’s length. Under a magnifier one is well centred with crisp teeth and fresh colour; the other is off-centre, with a short tooth and a faint crease. The first might be worth ten times the second.

Judging it takes no special talent. You need three things: good light, a magnifier, and a habit of looking at the same points in the same order every time — front first, then the back.

A short kit

• A magnifier. A folding pocket magnifier of around 5× to 10× shows everything a beginner needs.
• A perforation gauge — a printed card or ruler for measuring perforations. It costs very little and settles many identification questions.
• Daylight or a daylight lamp. Colour judged under a yellow bulb is often wrong.

A watermark tray and fluid come later, if you find you need them. Use the fluid sparingly — some modern inks can run in it, so test on a spare stamp first.

Centring and perforations

Look at the front first. Centring is how evenly the design sits within the margins. On a well-centred stamp the white border is the same width on all four sides; on a poorly centred one the design drifts towards an edge, or is even cut into by the perforations. Collectors describe this with words like “superb”, “very fine” and “fine” — useful, but not a single standard, so look at photographs rather than trusting the adjective.

Then the perforations — the “teeth” left when the stamp was torn from the sheet. Look for:

• Short or pulled teeth, where a tooth is missing or torn shorter than its neighbours.
• Trimmed perforations, where someone has cut the edge with scissors to tidy it — often to disguise damage.
• Blind perforations, where the holes were only partly punched. On their own these are a printing quirk, not damage.

To measure perforations, lay the stamp on the gauge and slide it until the teeth line up with one row of dots. The number beside that row is the count of holes in 2 centimetres — “perf 14”, for instance. Two printings of the same design sometimes differ only in their perforation, which is why catalogues record it.

Gum and hinges

Turn an unused stamp over and look at the gum. In order of desirability:

• Never hinged — full original gum, untouched. Often written “MNH” (mint never hinged) or shown as ** in a catalogue.
• Lightly hinged — a faint mark where a hinge was once attached.
• Heavily hinged, or with hinge remains still stuck on.
• No gum, or regummed — gum added later to look original. Regumming is a fault that sellers do not always mention; new gum often looks too even, or has spread over the perforation tips.

Some stamps were issued without gum, and in humid climates even careful collectors’ stamps can show slightly disturbed or toned gum. Judge against what is normal for that issue.

Cancellations

For a used stamp, the cancellation matters as much as the gum does for an unused one. Most collectors prefer a light, clean postmark that leaves the design clear — ideally a circular datestamp where the town and date can be read. A heavy, smudged or inky cancellation that covers the face lowers the value, sometimes sharply.

Watch for cancelled-to-order stamps: stamps postmarked in bulk without ever going through the post, often sold cheaply in packets. They usually have full gum on the back despite the postmark on the front, which gives them away. They are fine to collect, but they are not the same as a genuinely used stamp.

Faults to look for on the back

Most hidden damage is on the back of a stamp, which is why sellers photograph the front. Hold it to the light and tilt it, and check for:

• Thins — a patch of paper scraped thinner, usually where a hinge was pulled off. Held to the light, it shows as a brighter spot.
• Creases — visible as a line when the stamp is tilted against the light, or on the back as a ridge.
• Tears, especially small ones starting at a perforation.
• Toning — brown spots or a brownish stain, usually caused by damp. Common in hot, humid climates, and difficult to stop once started.
• Fading — compare the colour with a picture in the catalogue or another copy.

None of these makes a stamp worthless, and a faulty copy of a rare stamp can be the only one a collector will ever afford. What matters is knowing about the fault before you pay, and paying a price that reflects it.

Practise on your own duplicates: sort twenty copies of one common stamp from best to worst. By the end you will see condition without having to look for it. In the next lesson: where to buy, and how to do it safely.