I'm not surprised. If you're not into it, it's about as dull and complicated as it gets.
Anyway, capsule summary. Realized it was a bit long still, but can't make it any shorter.
Watermarked paper was used to help prevent people from faking stamps.
Except that it wasn't all that effective.
(Took them a bit over 20 years to figure that out)
They also played around with how many holes were in between stamps.
About the time they abandoned watermarks they changed the number of holes.
They said they didn't make any 30cent stamps with a particular combination.
Except a couple sheets were found.
Or maybe not -
The dealers that didn't get any didn't believe they were real.
Now, PSE says the variable light thingamajig shows a watermark, but won't say what settings they use. Or where they think the watermarks are.
If that was known, since it's marked on each one where it was on the sheet the assumed watermarks could be matched up with the known pattern and verified or disproved.
So so far they have decertified 5 expensive stamps and recertified them as the fairly cheap variety. (3250 vs 260 catalog value)
Steve B
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