- October 27, 2010
Collecting graded duck stamps has become popular in the last few years.
Those who have an eye for quality have come to realize that some issues are quite difficult to find in a high grade.
This year's offering is set to be one of those issues.
The basics of stamp grading were introduced by Professional Stamp Experts (PSE) in 2002.
The PSE Grading Guide can be viewed and downloaded from their website at http://www.psestamp.com/intro.chtml.
Basically to grade a stamp, start with a centering grade, adjust for any faults and then add in eye appeal.
For the 2010 sheet stamp and souvenir sheet of one, well-centered stamps have been difficult to find.
This is primarily due to two factors.
The first factor is that the average margin size this year is much smaller than in recent years, so slight shifts in perforating have more visual impact thereby affecting the centering grade.
The second factor is that the stamp doesn't have a defined border in some areas where the design blends into the overall background color of the stamp, giving the stamp a visually unbalanced appearance when it is technically centered.
The approximate points of measure are shown on the souvenir sheet (Scott No. RW77b) below.
The self-adhesive pane of one (Scott No. RW77A) is slightly different from the sheet stamp in that the design extends completely across the die cuts.
This leaves the outside border as the major factor driving the centering grade.
All in all, a beautiful and challenging stamp issue.
Good luck and happy hunting for those real gem graded stamps.
This will certainly be one of the tougher ones.
Article provided by PSE at www.PSEStamp.com