Richard McP. Cabeen wrote a stamp column for the Chicago Sunday Tribune for more than 30 years. He organized his knowledge in a most useful handbook, Standard Handbook of Stamp Collecting, first published in 1957 and last updated by the Collectors' Club of Chicago in 1979. He addressed the subject of condition early on with a 10 page section. The section ends with a discussion of his proposed method for converting condition into value.
His proposal is mechanistic but does give a good deal of useful insight into the factors comprising condition and the relative significance of each. It's a good mental discipline in any event.
He organized the process into three steps. First, one evaluated the physical characteristics of impression, color, centering, and then gum for mint and cancellations for used stamps. The result was a score between 0 and 100. This score was then discounted by a variety of possible defects. The end result was used to establish an overall score which adjusted catalog values to appropriate fair market prices. It is outdated, was certainly never adopted, and doesn't fit today's internet bazaar very well. It is, however, the most organized base I've ever seen for such a discussion.
He summarized his discussions in three tables as follows:
| Gum |
Impression |
Color |
Centering |
Cancellation |
Points |
| Full original gum (O.G.) |
Early, very fine |
Fresh, full |
Centered |
Sharp, legible |
25 |
| Slight hinge mark |
Slight extra or less at bottom |
23 |
|||
| Strong hinge mark |
Fine |
Fine |
Off, slight to one side |
Same but obscures features |
20 |
| Near full - or surface altered |
Good |
Good |
Off, slight in two directions |
Faint, slightly heavy or machine |
15 |
| Half O.G. or thin |
Ordinary |
Dull or slight fade |
Off, more, two directions
or touched top or bottom |
Heavy, or slight smudge |
16 |
| Some O.G. or very thin |
Underinked or dry or dirty
plate |
Faded |
Touched one side |
Worse than last or pen cancellation |
1 |
| None or Regummed |
Heavily overinked |
badly faded |
Touched two sides |
Heavy smudge |
0 |
To determine the overall condition score each characteristic is evaluated and given the points he allowed. Then the four characteristics are added to determine a total. You might even interpolate between values for the degree to which a stamp reflects the characteristic.
The next step was to apply the following discounts progressively for defects.
| Scuffed, stained, or soiled,
entire surface |
75% |
| Same, medium
portion |
50% |
| Same, small
portion |
25% |
| Fold breaking paper fibers,
or visible tear |
75% |
| Fold, prominent but not breaking
fibers |
50% |
| Slight fold, hardly visible |
25% |
| Design cut two sides
by scissors or perforation holes |
50% |
| Design cut on one side by
scissors or perforation holes |
30% |
| Straight edge or reperforation |
25% |
| Corner or two or three perforations
nibbed |
20% |
| One perforation nibbed |
10% |
| Open pin- or worm-hole, or
small visible tear |
25% |
| Thin all over, as peeled or
split |
75% |
| Thin, not over half the surface |
50% |
| Thin, as from hinging |
25% |
| Thin, very slight, 2 or 3
sq. mm |
10% |
Finally, the condition is converted to an adjective description based on the rating and then converted to a value based prices from Scott's Standard Catalogue and the United States Specialized Catalog.
| Condition |
Rating |
Early U.S. |
Middle U.S. |
Recent U.S. |
| Superb |
96-100 |
List, plus |
Full list |
75-80% list |
| Very fine |
86-95 |
List, plus |
||
| Fine |
76-85 |
List value |
75% list |
50% list |
| Very good |
66-75 |
75% list |
50% list |
40% list |
| Good Fair |
56-65 46-55 |
50% list |
1/3 list |
1/3 list |
| Poor |
36-45 |
1/3 list |
1/4 list |
1/4 list |
| Very poor |
26-35 |
1/4 list |
1/5 list |
1/5 list |
| Bad |
16-25 |
10% list |
10% list |
10% list |
| Very bad |
6-15 |
5% list |
5% list |
5% list |
To my thinking, this is an excellent way of assessing the relative values of the various characteristics of a given stamp even if it is probably no longer reflects values accurately. It also reminds one of what factors must be considered in evaluating a stamp.