Today we’re going to take a look at a notoriously trolled stamp on the internet. What do I mean by trolling? People that are using this stamp to get a bunch of clicks and views on their videos just because it’s a popular design.

In fact, these stamps, more often than not, are actually not worth a lot of money when you look at the most common version of the stamp that people are likely to have. This throws a lot of people off. People think that they have inherited a collection that has these stamps in it and that they’ve made a ton of money.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I’m making these videos to try to educate people on these different designs. about what they actually do have, what their expectations should be when they find out that they do have a stamp that has this design on it. So let’s dive in and take a look.

Today we’re talking about yet another one cent green Ben Franklin stamp. I made a recent video of a green one cent Ben Franklin stamp You can check it out. But this one is a bit older than that stamp. This one is from 1903, making this stamp 120 years old.

But, as we all know that just because something is old does not mean it’s valuable, right? So let’s take a look at this type of stamp, the design, and why people may be confusing it with something that’s worth a lot more money. This stamp is known as Scott #300. It is probably the most mass produced stamp at the time when it was released.

The Design Is Common

They actually printed over 11 billion copies of this stamp. You have to remember that in 1903, mailing letters and postcards was the main way that people communicated with each other, so they needed a large volume. of these one cent stamps to support the communication of the country at that time.

There’s only a small percentage of the 11 billion stamps that are still in existence today, but a small percentage of 11 billion stamps is still going to mean that there’s Likely over a million stamps still floating around out there across the country in the hands of collectors and even hoarders.

This stamp is not worth the paper that it’s printed on, regardless of what you’re seeing online. Even a mint, never hinged example of this stamp is only going to run you a couple of dollars. This stamp really is worth nothing.

However, if you have a nice, centered, superb, perfect looking margins on all sides of this stamp, with a graded certificate, it could be worth hundreds of dollars, but you would need a graded certificate in order to get that kind of money for it.

And the stamp would probably be pretty unique in terms of finding one that has those balanced margins on it and is sound at the same time. If you do come across one like that, it might be worth sending it off to get graded.

I make videos about grading stamps and their values. Go ahead and be sure to check that out.

Don’t Believe What You See Online

So just like the other one cent green Ben Franklin stamp, the #552 that I did a video on earlier, many trollers on the internet have been including this stamp in their list of the world’s most rare and valuable stamps. They’re doing this either because they literally have zero education on the subject of stamp collecting, also called philately.

And they are just going off of what they’ve read online, and what they’ve seen online. Maybe it’s what people are asking for on eBay. Just another footnote there that people can ask any kind of price they want for any item. I once saw air freshener for $500,000.

Maybe there’s some sucker out there who’s going to end up paying that kind of money for something, but I think most people who spend a large amount of money on things have done the research and actually know what kind of value it should have.

These people making the videos, they basically aren’t educated enough, they’re going off what they see online, or they’re just trying to get a bunch of clicks. Clickbait is what we call it, where they’re creating content and using images to try to get more clicks on their videos, more views, and unfortunately that’s sending people the wrong message.

It’s giving them half truths. I say half truths because some of these stamps are worth a lot of money that have this design on it. which we’ll go over in a second, but for the most part, the, these stamps have common versions of the design, and they’re in the millions, even billions of them produced, so they’re not rare.

The design itself is not rare. Certain variations of this stamp are rare, but as you’ll see, they are usually so rare that most of them are accounted for. The likelihood is that you don’t have one of these.

Watch Out For Fakes

Let’s take a look at what what to look out for. The stamp that they’re touting as being the most valuable and most rare is a version of this design, but it’s on a coil stamp.

That’s a stamp that has straight edges on two of the sides with perforations, the little teeth. They’re easily faked. You could easily cut off the perforations on a side to make it look like a coil stamp.

When you get into rare coil issues, you’re It’s almost mandatory that you have a Certificate of Authenticity from one of the major stamp expertizing services. There’s only a handful of them that most stamp collectors and auction houses will consider to be an authority in the space where the opinion of their certificate holds weight in determining the value of the stamp.

The Rare Version

So what a lot of people are saying about this stamp in terms of it being the most valuable stamp, uh, one of the most valuable stamps. is that it’s this coil version. The vertical coil version of this stamp is known as a Scott #316. So again, the one with the perforations on all the side, that’s a Scott #300.

A Scott #316 is a vertical coil. And this stamp is pretty darn rare. It’s worth, I think, over $150,000, which is an insane amount of money. But it’s that rare because it’s that scarce and there’s That little of them known in the marketplace and The ones that do fetch that kind of money have those certificates that I talked about.

It does have the same design, so again, it’s a partial truth. I’ve never seen one in the 10 years that I’ve been doing stamp dealing. I’ve never come across a Scott #316. That’s how rare that they are.

Alright, let’s talk about what to look for if you have a stamp that has this design on it. The first thing to check are those perforations or little teeth around the stamp.

Perforations On All 4 Sides

Now, if you have them on all four sides, then what you have is a Scott #300. And like I said, they printed so many of those, they’re literally not worth the paper they’re printed on. No one’s gonna blink or bat an eye if they end up in a trash can. That’s how many of them are still floating around out there.

And it may not feel like it if you’re new to collecting or you just inherited a stamp collection and you’ve never collected stamps before because you’ve never seen one before. So in your mind, here’s something that’s old, maybe looks cool, and it’s got to be worth a ton of money. So you go online and you look it up and then you see, ah, I’ve struck it rich. This thing is worth a lot of money!

But it’s just the case that it’s not so you need to hopefully follow these things that I’m listing out here to check what you have before you get too excited or contact a stamp dealer or somebody that you’re hoping to sell the stamp to.

Straight Edge On 1 Side

Next thing to look at if it has a straight edge on one of its sides, that means that it likely came from a booklet and the booklets were little blocks of six stamps, where it had a straight edge on three sides of the booklet. The stamps that came out of the booklet would have a straight edge either on the left, the right, or the bottom of the stamp.

In fact, this stamp is still considered to be a Scott #300 even though it has a straight edge. a straight edge on one of its sides, and therefore it shares the same worthless value as the Scott #300.

Straight Edges On All 4 Sides

Now if you have a stamp that is in this design and it has straight edges on all four sides of the stamp, this is the imperforate version of this stamp design. Imperforate stamps means that they were printed without the perforation holes that you see when people think of postage stamps. And instead, they were issued without that, leaving the sender having to cut the stamp from a sheet or a block every time they were going to be used.

And in fact, that’s why the perforations were eventually developed, so that way it was an easier process for people to remove a stamp from the sheet that it was printed on in order not to have to get the scissors out and do manual cutting.

There is a version of an imperforate of this design that is Scott number #314 and #314 is going to be a bit more rare and valuable than the Scott #300 with perforations on all sides, but it still is only going to be worth a few dollars, nothing too significant on that issue.

Obviously if it was graded at a high grade, then it’s going to pull a lot more value. But for the most part, if you run across this stamp in average looking condition, it may be worth a few dollars.

Straight Edges On Top & Bottom

All right, so now if your stamp has a straight edge on the top and the bottom. Then you’re looking at what would be a horizontal coil and a horizontal coil is going to indicate Scott number #318.

Scott #318 is a super rare and scarce stamp. It is not as rare as the Scott 316 that I mentioned, which is the vertical coil worth 150, 000. This one’s worth a more humbler $4,500. But still, quite a jump up from the other issues of this design being basically worth nothing.

Scott #318 is pretty rare. You will need to get a certificate of authenticity if you have one without it.

But like the #316, it can also be easily faked by trimming off the top and bottom margins. Because it’s so easy to fake these coil stamps, You’re not going to come across the dealer or collector who’s going to want to get that authenticated or certified for you. Just because the probability of it coming back as a fake or altered version of the Scott #300 is very high.

If you want to get a stamp you come across that looks like one of the coil stamps, you’re going to be on your own to send that in and get it certified. Certification is, if it’s a fake stamp, an altered stamp, if it’s been one that’s been trimmed off, may run you $20-$30 to have it looked at so keep that in mind that it may come back as worthless. Are you willing to take that $20-$30 gamble?

It could be worth thousands of dollars if it is authentic!