Used postage stamps torn off cards - why?
Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 4:13 pm
Why did people tear used postage stamps off cards and envelopes? I expect that all of us have seen examples of this, with cases of the removal spoiling a nice postmark and of part of the stamp (often a few perfs on one side) being left behind.
There can't have been much, if any, value in the removed stamps (unless, of course, they bore no sign of a postmark and could be fraudently re-used).
Mind you, I can recall tearing stamps off envelopes and sending them "on paper" to charities. Again, I wondered what value hundreds of definitives for the standard postage rate(s) had. But I can understand doing this with higher-value defins and commems - I still do it myself, wash the stamps off and store them in a stock-book.
(Just looked for "kiloware" on eBay: one kilo of GB for £12.95 and the photo suggested there were a very few worthwhile stamps included in mostly dross.)
There can't have been much, if any, value in the removed stamps (unless, of course, they bore no sign of a postmark and could be fraudently re-used).
Mind you, I can recall tearing stamps off envelopes and sending them "on paper" to charities. Again, I wondered what value hundreds of definitives for the standard postage rate(s) had. But I can understand doing this with higher-value defins and commems - I still do it myself, wash the stamps off and store them in a stock-book.
(Just looked for "kiloware" on eBay: one kilo of GB for £12.95 and the photo suggested there were a very few worthwhile stamps included in mostly dross.)