A customer sent a photocopy of a page from the German Michel catalog. The Michel catalog is to Germans what the Scott catalog is to US collectors. The Michel catalog is listing the imperf varieties of the press sheets. Even though the Scott catalog editors are not listing them (at least, not yet), the Michel catalog is listing them. Because I use the Scott catalogs exclusively, I don’t know if other catalogs like Stanley Gibbons, Yvert and Tellier, or others are listing these varieties too or not.

This customer also likened these imperf press sheets to the Farley issues of the 1930s (Scott numbers 756-771). Therefore, he feels it’s only a matter of time before the Scott editors assign catalog numbers to these imperforate varieties. He may be right. I just don’t know.

In the 1930s, then Postmaster General, James A. Farley, had produced imperforate and ungummed varieties of postage stamps and gave them away as favors to political friends. They could have become great rarities worth lots of money. Collectors were outraged at this practice. Under great pressure, the Postmaster General was forced to issue these same imperforate and ungummed stamps to the philatelic community.

In this sense, the imperforate stamps from today are different than the Farley’s. They were issued under different circumstances.

However, the imperforate press sheets are like the Farley’s in that they are imperforate varieties of otherwise normally issued stamps.

To date, there has been some interest generated in these imperforate stamps by some collectors. I don’t think these varieties have taken the philatelic community by storm. I don’t see much speculation going on with these issues and prices have not changed drastically. That may change if the Scott catalog editors ever decide to give these varieties a major listing. Or like the Farley issues, collector tastes will change over time and more main stream collectors will become interested in these imperforate varieties.