The die cut variations on modern issues drive me up a wall. You get different catalog numbers where one is die cut 10.3 by 10.7. Then another one is 10.4 by 10.9. The 20 cent Pheasant booklet stamp from the 1990's has 3 different die cuts all within the same pane. And each one has a Scott number. Check out Scott #3050, #3051, and #3051A. If you read the footnote under #3051A, you’ll see that a full booklet pane contains stamps with different catalog numbers. It's insane!

On one hand, it's a gold mine for the modern treasure hunter – looking through all of those stamps for minor varieties. You could have a field day. To the stamp manufacturer and the USPS, minor die cut variations are meaningless.

I'd like to see Scott move to a single listing for an issue and unless there is a variation of .5 or more in the die cut in any one direction, just add a footnote than minor variations in the die cut exist. Let the specialist hunt for the 10.3 instead of the 10.2 die cut. More power to them and I hope they enjoy the hunt.

The Scott catalog has a lot of inconsistencies in it. For example, you have the large and small hole varieties on some stamps around the Liberty series. You're probably familiar with them. Yet these warrant only a minor listing within the catalog. But with the modern material, if you're off .1 mm here or there and you have a new catalog number. Why? Why not have one major catalog number for the issue and make each die cut variety a minor designation under each one?