It looks common, but it isn't Most collectors don't bother to check perforations on common stamps, especially definitives printed in the hundreds or thousands or more.

Maybe we should all start.

The July 13 issue of Linn's Stamp News tells of the discovery of a stamp that catalogs $25,000 in a small auction lot of what Linn's called "miscellaneous stamps."

The buyer, Kenneth R. Huskey of California, mentors beginning collectors. The group periodically pools some money and buys small auction lots to learn how to sort and identify stamps.

He said he gave about 100 stamps to a young collector to identify, and the collector identified all but one, a 4-cent brown stamp showing Martha Washington.

As the collector checked the perforations, they didn't match what was listed in the catalog.

Huskey checked the stamp and said, "It turned out to be perf (perforated) 11 at the top and sides, but when I turned it around and checked the bottom, it was perf 10."
(Perforations are the holes around stamps that allow them to be separated easily.)
Huskey checked the stamp again and asked other members to check it. They agreed the bottom was perf 10.

The stamp appeared to be the common 4-cent stamp issued in 1923 showing Martha Washington. But it was examined by experts and declared to have genuine compound, or mixed, perforations and "a tiny internal tear at bottom."

The Scott U.S. Specialized catalog lists the stamp at a value of $25,000.

Huskey said he'll auction the stamp and buy more stock for the club.

"You should never give up on the hunt," Linn's quoted him as saying. "This proves that there is no telling what you can get from a small $100 lot."

Who knows how many other copies of the stamp might be sitting in old collections or accumulations waiting to be discovered.