Lot 172 Canada #68 2c Bright Purple Queen Victoria, 1897-1898 Maple Leaf Issue, A VF Mint Single On Vertical Wove Paper, Expertly Regummed to Appear NH, Showing Misplaced Entry at UR

A beautifully centered and fresh VF mint single of the 2c bright purple Queen Victoria from the 1897-1898 Maple Leaf Issue on vertical wove paper. The stamp shows a misplaced entry consisting of a curved line between the two framelines, just to the upper left of the upper right leaf. I bought this from a well known auction house as NH, but upon very close examination I am of the opinion that it has been expertly regummed to appear NH. The gum appears far more matte than the gum on this issue usually does, but is very similar to a thin type of gum found on this issue. However, the perforation tips are sharp to the touch and under 10x magnification you can just barely see very tiny globules of gum on the perforation microfibres. Now, these are much smaller that what would normally be seen on regummed stamps, and there is no gum in between the perfs or on the face. So, in this respect it is the best regumming job I have seen to date. It had the auction house fooled, but not me. Still a very lovely example of this stamp and very collectible nonetheless.

Unitrade values this at $80 for OG, but regummed should be about 50%, or $40. The stamp offered here grades 80 as follows:

Centering/Margins: 50/70

Paper Freshness: 5/5

Colour: 5/5

Impression: 5/5

Absence of Visible Paper Flaws: 5/5

Perforations: 10/10