Question On Mint With Gum, Unused & Regummed

Contacted a reputable dealer recently who said that an unused GB 5 shilling QV classic without gum is valued at just 10% cv and a regum would make the stamp worth less than an unused, is that true? I know that people have taken the risk to regum high cv stamps, is it worth that risk?

Regumming is faking the stamp, making it look like something it is not.

the risk of getting caught you mean?

i don't bother with gum on stamps, I collect the front side not the back side.

Hi pennyblackie,

It probably is true but there's two points I can think of that need consideration:

1) The dealer would have to be able to pick a regum, not always the easiest thing to do.

2) On classic issues, original gum can ultimately ruin the stamp. Many classics have had the gum removed for this reason I'd say.

Bobby, I would have expected the original gum to be maintained as far as possible for a classic, but you are right in that cracked gum can cause a stamp to crinkle and warp. I actually prefer unused stamps to mint with gum.

I think regumming is just like repairing a stamp, it is dishonest if you try to pass the stamp to someone else as having gum. Yes it is gummed but it is not the original gum. Original gum or nothing I would say. Remove the gum if it is damaging the face of the stamp, but leave it off.

For surface printed gb classics, regumming was apparently a norm, as values differ greatly between one with gum and one without. Once upon a time, values don't differ much between mint with hinge and mint without hinge, but as demand for mint stamps without hinge surged, the gap between the value of MNH and MH widened, spurring many to regum their classic stamps. Regumming is usually followed by reperfing as regummed stamps are easily detected with gum traces found on small paper fibres sticking out at the perforation.

Regumming stamps has gotten so good that the experts are not sure .

Stamps that are really MNH that come into contact with certain plastics ,the plastic will change the color ,the look and feel of the gum .

Removing the gum from a low value stamp and putting the gum on the high value stamp of the same set ,can be sold as original gum ,it is original gum .

original gum can be different depending if the glue is put on during the warmer months or in the winter when the room temperture is different . ------I learn that while in college when I worked the glueing machine at HORNER-WALDORF in Denver and was gluing cracker boxes on a glue machine .Room temperture .

The Stanley Gibbons catalogue defines the abbreviation o.g.as "that which was present on the stamps as issued to the public" It doesn't even differentiate in price between lightly hinged unused and never hinged for stamps before 1887, presumably they believe that stamps from such a long time ago are so unlikely to have never been mounted in a collection.
The crime is in doing a thing, not in getting caught.

floortrader, I feel that regumming however expertly done without reperfing is useless if the stamp comes with perf. Not all stamps are suitable candidates for reperfing, depending on the size of the margins.

Sorry, but floortrader is absolutely correct. The few very skilled regummers in the last 40 years or so are really that, and are well aware of the telltale signs of regumming like you mention, and know how to avoid them. It is only when you see a stamp that is hinged up close and see the very same stamp never hinged up close later that you appreciate how dangerous their work is.

Possible to escape detection if these expert forgers regum and reperf as well. Just regumming without reperfing, the expertisers can easily detect the regumming. Perf stamps have their perforations cut only when the gum is laid, so there will be no traces of stuck gum to any 2 paper fibres at the perforation edges under under strong magnification. If the forgers regum without cutting or trimming the perfs in some way, it is very easy to detect regumming by just looking out for stuck fibres at the edges out of the thousands of paper fibres that line the edges of the stamp.

Seems silly to me. I'll buy the regummed stamps, give then a bath then sell them as No Gum and get rich, right?

KRelyea, it is interesting you brought that up. I am actually planning to get a regummed classic and do just that, the only problem is I am not sure whether the regumming was so botched that the gum can't be washed off. The stamp in question is so horribly regummed that some gum has even appeared in front with patches of fake gum behind. I suspect someone at some point may have tried to wash off the gum with no success.

They probably used a glue stick like I do!

To repeat, this is not true at all; reperfing is not necessary to do an undetectable or virtually undetectable regum job, and the expertising groups have been fooled before. So it's not always "easy" for them as you seem to think. Why then does every expert group render an opinion rather than willing to state absolutely that a stamp is never hinged/unmounted mint?