New Designs Lack the Common Cents

Question: We recently purchased a strip of 10 4-cent Father Flanagan stamps but they only have the number “4” printed on them in the lower right corner. Neither the mark nor the $ sign is indicated anywhere on the stamps. Does this make these stamps valuable? --R.&M.C.;

Answer: The U.S. Postal Service no longer prints the word or symbol for cents on stamps below $1 denomination. You will notice that all current 22-cent stamps bought at the post office have only the number 22 on them, without the addition of the mark.

Your stamps are normal and worth face value.

Q: In a recent column you estimated the value of a particular stamp to be greater for a canceled than for a mint copy. I always thought that mint issues were more valuable than their canceled forms. Please explain what factors make the canceled issues more desirable. --R.L.

A: Some stamps have been sold and saved in large quantities in mint condition. For example, Nazi Germany issued many stamps before and during World War II, but some of the later ones, because so few were used before the war was over, are quite rare with genuine cancels of the time period.

A relatively common stamp, such as a 3-cent U.S. 19th-Century regular issue, may be worth $20 mint but $100 with a rare Wells Fargo Express cancel or with a Japanese foreign usage cancel. Also, an old stamp with a first-day dated cancel may be one of a kind and therefore quite valuable compared with its mint counterpart.

Q: I have a large box of stamps left by my late husband. He started collecting in about 1933. I am not a collector and know nothing about stamps. I have been told that it would be very expensive to have the collection appraised. Also, how could I be sure that the appraiser is honest? --B.P.

A: Any honest, reliable stamp dealer will look at a collection for free and tell you after a few minutes if your stamps seem to be valuable, average in price, or worthless.

If the collection is disorderly and hard to examine, then the appraisal may take time, and time costs money. Typical charges for a professional appraisal of a stamp collection might be 5% of the wholesale value (the price at which the dealer will buy the collection), this fee to be refunded if you decide to sell the stamps to the dealer doing the appraisal.

It is a lot of trouble to run around town with a large box of stamp albums, trying to find a dealer who will buy. The telephone book Yellow Pages is a good place to start to find out which dealers are located closest to your home (listed under Stamps for Collectors).

Generally, if the dealer has any business ethics and morals, he will tell you if your stamps are worth appraising, and whether or not he is willing to buy them immediately.