Selvage can bring knowledge and value
By Charles Snee
Stamps sometimes come with attachments that can often reveal clues about their origins and, in some cases, enhance their value.
Selvage: The border of paper around a sheet or pane of stamps. It used to be that it was ‘the unprinted marginal paper on a sheet or pane of stamps’, but these days, there is often wording or design included in the selvage.
SELVAGE: The border of paper around a sheet or pane of stamps.
SEMI-POSTAL: Stamps with an additional charge to raise money for charity. Cat. Designation: "B" ...
Selvage: The marginal paper on a sheet or pane of stamps. Selvage may be unprinted or may contain printer's markings or other information.
Selvage: The paper present on the margins of stamp sheets.
Series: A group of stamps with a similar design or themes
Set: Stamps which have common elements of design.
Selvage - The margin of a pane of stamps that usually includes the plate number and other markings such as copyright notices.
Selvage
Semi-Postal
Stamp from which all or part of the sales receipts go to charity or other causes.
Selvage:
Semipostal:
Stamp sold at a surcharge over postal value. The additional charge is for a special purpose. Usually recognized by the presence of two (often different) values, separated by a "+" sign, on a single stamp.
Gutter: The selvage, either unprinted or with plate numbers, advertising or accounting or control numbers, between the panes of a sheet of stamps.
Gutter. The selvage, with or without plate numbers or controls numbers/letters between the panes of a sheet of stamps.
Handstamp. Some form of cancellation or postal marking.
Gutter: The selvage separating panes on a sheet of stamps. The gutter is usually discarded during processing. The gutter may be unprinted, or bear plate numbers, accounting or control numbers, advertising or other words or markings.
Overrun Countries issues have names of each country in the selvage, blocks of stamps bearing those country names are known as name blocks.
Name Sale: auction catalog that features a person's name or the topic of the sale.
If the stamp has selvage (margins) still attached, this is the best place to start trying to read the watermark. If you discover a watermark variety such as an inverted watermark*, do not detach the selvage.
Instead of issuing stamps in large sheets of 40, 100 or even 200 stamps, smaller sheetlets with 16 or 20 stamps are issued with a large selvage area which may incorporate part of the stamp design or theme.
Any stamp identifiable as coming from the edge of a sheet or pane and showing evidence of the sheet margin or selvage. Such stamps come from one of the top, bottom, or side margins of a stamp pane.
marginal marking block with the selvage bearing the image of the "Mr. ZIP" cartoon character and/or an inscription urging the use of ZIP code. This first appeared on U.S. marginal selvage in 1964. Typically a ZIP block is a block of four stamps.
Arrow -- On many sheets, small arrow-like markings appear in the selvage, generally serving as guides for the cutting of the sheets into predetermined units. Some collectors save stamps or blocks displaying these marks.
Inverted imprints, or "inverts," most often occur when a handstamp is unknowingly picked up wrong-way-to by a postal clerk, or when a printer sets up his press to center the imprint on sheets of stamps with selvage on one side and finds some sheets ...
Number 1 has that nice "selvage" connected to it at the left and bottom edges, but again, centring is not great. Number 4 has great centring and wide margins on the sides, but is that a damaged perf top left?
22¢ Stamp Collecting, booklet PANE, folded, no selvage (1/23/86) (Joint issue with Sweden)
1.50
-- ...
So is this cover worth 2/5 of that? My 1999 Brookman values a block of 10 with selvage on a FDC at $250. So I would expect a dealer's price for this to be around $200. I think I paid about $40 for it, and it was worth that to me.
Factors include color, selvage, plate or die variations, unusual cancels, faults, hinging, gum, and markings.
 See also: Stamp, Used, Cover, Block, Margin
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