Guidelines For Stamp Appraisals And Merits

By Margaret Johnson


There are a lot of people whose hobbies are collecting. They range from coins, bugs and even to stamps. They get to admire the designs and even learn the back stories of these stamps. They can get to learn the values of the stamps by conducting Stamp appraisals. They get to appreciate the stamps all the more and can know what deals to expect if they were ever to sell them.

The first steps of the appraisal can be easily done by anyone. The first step is to make sure that the design is well centred on the white borders. This gives it the aspect of neatness. After that, you should turn over the stamp and take a look at how the glue has been spread out. There should be no creases or empty patches, it should be uniform.

A new earmark should always have a earmark hinge. This may be unfamiliar to most. It is actually the light piece of paper found in the back of the stamp. It may not seem like much but it is actually the part a collector would use to stick it to an album. Lacking this will cause the earmark to have less value. If you want to remove it, ask a stamps dealer how to without causing any more damage.

After a earmark has been used, a termination mark is usually placed on it. This too does determine the value of the cast. The more dominant it is on the cast, the less value the brand has. It should not be put across the whole design. The perforations at the boundaries of the cast are also important. The nearer they are the more attractive the brand is.

This is quite obvious that the colouring of the brand will determine the value. A brand should be sharp and attractive. A fading brand will usually not be valuable and will be fading because of sunlight, pollution among other things. The grade of the earmark is important and can vary from poor, ordinary, fine, very fine and fabulous. All this depending on the centring and heaviness of the termination mark.

Finding the origin of the brand is also important. This can be done by looking for historical events and even unique words. If you can understand the words, it will be easier on you to narrow down the country. The same case applies with the age of the earmark. You still have to find the clue in the design. The older the brand, the higher the value.

How rare the brand is also determining the value? yes. A lot of collectors actually believe that the rarity is the single most important determinant of the value of a earmark. Rarity is also determined by how many of the earmarks were printed out. Even if it is old, it is valueless if they were many of them. You can confirm with a brand dealer or use a reference book.

A kind of brand you may not know about is the error brand. At first, you may think it is not valuable. It is, however, one of the most valuable earmark types. This is because the error is not in the appearance but in the design. It is very rare to find such.




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