U.S. #491 Used F-VF with WT Crowe Certificate #21320

Item Specifics

Country

United States

Catalog Number

491

Stamp Type

General Issue

Condition

Used

Centering

F/VF

Stamp Format

Single

Certificate Grade

Not Graded

Topic

People - Politicians

Year of Issue

1916

Item Description

Condition: Used, sound, certified, F-VF

Grade: F/VF (Fine/Very Fine)
This is a stamp missing from the vast majority of U.S. collections. U.S. #491 used sound in fine-very fine condition with guideline at right. Four clean margins and machine cancelled. Clearly, the left perforations have been reduced as is so common with stamps affixed by machine, which this one appears to have been. There are a lot of U.S. stamps that should never be purchased without a certificate of authenticity and high on that list is #491. First, there are fakes out there (see photo 4 for one documented example). Second, #491 is a very scarce stamp. Over the last 13 years, PSE has only certified 113 #491's as genuine (72 used and 41 mint). By contrast, they have certified 294 #454's and 189 #453 as genuine, many of which were submitted as #491 (see images 5 - 8 for a sampling of PF certs for stamps that were submitted as #491 but turned out to be various other catalog numbers). The watermarks on these old coils can be terribly elusive and require the trained eye of a true expert to certify. Many sellers also get tripped up on the design type (see photo 8). #491 is type II which means there is only one shading line in the fold at far left and in the next-to-last fold at the far right of the ribbon (see photo 9 for detailed image). Experienced sellers even have trouble with this; listings 126256707340, 386909132111 & 126439592312 (photos 10, 11 & 12) are three such examples as you can clearly see two shading lines in the ribbon making it type III, not type II. (The seller removed the first listing when I pointed out the error but appears to have sold the second one--not cool, and is trying to sell the third one.) Do your own due diligence and always check to make sure the stamp you are bidding on has the correct design type. If the listing photos aren't clear enough to tell, just ask the seller to post a better image. If they refuse, then move on. You also have to contend with sellers who probably shouldn't be selling stamps in the first place. One obvious example is item 265845519897 (photo 21), which is clearly a pair of #599 (seller finally ended the listing years after being informed of the error) and listing 375568754848 which is type III, not II. Uncertified #491's are simply space-fillers. This one has been examined by William T. Crowe and declared genuine with trimmed left perforations (see photo 3). For those of you not familiar with William T. "Bill" Crowe, I have included his bio as photo #13. He's the real deal and there's a good chance that you already have certificates of your own with his signature on them as he's signed off on hundreds of thousands of certs for the PF and PSE over the course of his distinguished career.For anyone who may be "on the fence" about the importance of expertization, I have taken the liberty of reproducing an article from the September, 2021 American Philatelist (photos 14-17) about one APS member's experiences with buying stamps at auction and then having them certified. If you take the time to read or even scan it, I think you will be shocked, as was I. Bottom line is: classic US stamps purchased without expert certification have about a 50/50 chance of being altered, misidentified or having some type of flaw or defect. Those odds might be okay for Vegas, but not, I suspect, for many philatelists. I should also point out, that the gentleman who wrote this article was buying from many of the big auction houses of the day, prior to the advent and proliferation of on-line auctions. In today's environment, where virtually anyone can be an auction house, the odds are probably less than even that you will get what you pay for when buying uncertified stamps. I've taken all the guesswork out of this one. As you review all the #491's currently available on Hip, you'll find that you can spend well over $8500 for uncertified copies (285336380665) or $325 for a really nice stamp with a good cert. Seems like a "no-brainer" to me. It also makes reselling the stamp a lot easier when the time comes.Warning on Fake Certificates of AuthenticityThere are some unscrupulous sellers out there who are using Photoshop or similar apps to create fake COA’s that they include with their listings. One example is Hip listing 315049685421(listing has ended but is preserved here as photos 18 & 19) for a pair of U.S. #595. This seller appears not to know the U.S. stamp market very well as the certificate is identified as a PSE cert in the listing, but the photo of the fake certificate is that of an altered PF cert. All collectors should be aware that the “big three” expertizing services (APEX, PF & PSE) all have certificate verification features on their respective web sites. If you check the number on the fake cert with the PF web site, you will find that the certificate number is bogus. If you have any reason to believe that a certificate is suspicious, you can find a copy of the original cert on the appropriate web site. Make sure the photos of the stamp listed, the photo on the listed certificate and the one on the expertizer’s web site all match exactly.About shipping: I combine shipping. Any other item purchased with this will ship at no additional charge. I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out by now that there’s no such thing as free shipping. Every seller who offers “free shipping” has already baked the shipping fees into the listing price. Which means you get to pay sales tax on everything including the “free shipping.” I price my items very competitively and charge a nominal shipping fee on the first item you purchase. Every additional item really does ship free as my price doesn’t include any kind of shipping or handling charges. In most cases, the catalog value of the stamps I use to ship your item(s) will exceed whatever you have paid for shipping, so in that respect, the shipping is just about a wash. A Little About Me and My Commitment to You I’ve been a regular member of the APS for over 40 years (member ID# 130461) and I’m still a collector more than anything. If you check my feedback history, you will find that not only is it pristine, but that I buy far more than I sell. One thing that really troubles me are sellers who just throw a stamp up for sale and don’t even take the time to offer a good description or a compelling reason why I should want to buy their item. As an experienced collector and seller, my commitment to you is that I will always provide a thoughtful and truthful commentary on all the relevant aspects of every stamp that I offer for sale/auction. And I will give you the bad as well as the good, though I try not to sell stamps that have problems. Where applicable, I will also do my best to impart any useful information on the stamp and any pitfalls buyers should be aware of. In the unlikely event that I have misidentified a stamp, I will gladly cover your costs of expertization* provided both the stamp and certificate are returned to me. As far as I know, I am the only seller that makes this guarantee. So bid/buy with confidence that what you will receive is exactly what I have described and if you feel it is not, that I will make the return process as pleasant as possible. You can also expect an interesting assortment of stamps adorning your shipment--no run-of-the-mill forever stamps or postage meter strips! See photo #20 for a sample of what you can expect. *I recognize the expert opinions of APEX, William Crowe, the PF, PSAG and PSE.

Seller Information

Seller

stephenwgill (234)

Registered Since

03/06/2005

Feedback

100%

Store

Ye Olde Post Office

• Offers
• Sales

Item Location

California, United States

Ships To

United States

Returns Accepted

Yes

Returns Policy

Returns accepted within 14 days on items not as described. Buyer to pay return shipping.