Also This Month

COMMENT: Use grading terms in proper context by
James E Kloetzel, Catalogue Editor at Scott Publishing Co.

WHEN a new collector makes a generalised assumption about his hobby that is incorrect or off track, it is understandable and certainly nothing to worry about. If the new collector asks about his assumption, more seasoned collectors and dealers can simply point out the facts and get him back on track.
But when a well-known and respected stamp journalist, a seasoned collector, makes statements that are inaccurate or misleading, great damage may be done. When that journalist writes an article that goes off track and is read by many thousands of readers, it becomes incumbent upon knowledgeable philatelists to offer a correction. This type of problem has surfaced recently.
Since the problem involves an interpretation of what the Scott catalogues say and mean, these pages are the proper space in which to clear the air and set the record straight. So let's get down to the issue at hand.
USA reporter Les Winick noted in the March 2005 issue of Philatelic Exporter that there is often a misunderstanding, especially among non-Americans, of how auction houses in the United States describe the stamps that they lot and sell. It is Winick's understanding that when auction houses describe stamps in their auction lots, they use the normal grading terms such as 'Very Fine', 'Extremely Fine', 'Fine', etc, simply to describe the margins and centering of stamps. These grading terms, he stated, have no relationship to the overall quality of a stamp. We suppose that this same opinion would carry over to any retail offerings of stamps, such as offerings at stamp shows, in retail price lists, and so forth ...

(Read this entire article in the July 2005 Philatelic Exporter.)