"Growing up" as a Stamp Collector
Stamp collecting in many ways reflects the same aspects as life: we start out as "infants" grow into early adulthood, and progress on into advanced maturity. Unlike life, where the physical aspects, at least, all occur for each of us at approximately the same time, these various stages of growth are reflected more in how we view our collections, and the time and effort we spend with them, rather than in a calendar.
When we first begin collecting stamps, most of us tend to identify stamps by their appearance: the design, color, and size. That's enough for most beginners to sort stamps by country, and match them with the illustrations in a catalog or in an album. Depending on whether one collects a single country, a particular topic, or "anything and everything", and how much time and energy is available to devote to stamp collecting, this stage can last from a year or two to dozens of years. Many stamp albums, even some more advanced ones, tend to hold people to these simple means of identifying and mounting stamps.
For some collectors, this isn't sufficient. The new collector, after a short period of time, soon learns that some countries issued stamps which look alike, but which the catalog lists many, many varieties. As someone begins to mature as a stamp collector, a number of different factors begin to shape how they see postage stamps. Color, design, and size are still important, but there are new aspects to be checked out, and new skills to be learned. There is frequently a monetary motive to learn these new skills - many look-alike stamps are NOWHERE alike in value or cost!
Soon, new concepts, new words, and new processes begin to shape the fledgling collector. He begins to see references in catalogues that he'd previously ignored: perforation, watermark, shade, Die varieties, condition, and many more. Learning what these references mean and how they apply to his collection is the first step toward maturity for the new collector. The following paragraphs will discuss these concepts as they apply to stamp collecting. They will provide an explanation for those that haven't yet grasped these concepts, and serve as a review for those that have.
- Perforation
Early stamps were printed in sheets, with little spacing between the individual stamps, and no means of separating them except by cutting the sheet. These are referred to as "imperforate" stamps - stamps without perforations or other provided means of separation. Because they were printed very close together, and because many post office clerks were busy or harried (or at least felt that way), most of these early stamps exist without adequate margins - many in fact have parts of the design missing. This is usually referred to as "cut close" or "cut into". Copies that show all the design and have some marginal paper on all sides around the design are at a premium, and usually are preferred by collectors.
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