"What is the best stamp you own"?

[Bubba Bland]

I've always called them "Jumbo Margins" or "Jumbos", of course meaning big.
I remember when I was a young collector, around the time of the dinosaurs, I saw a 12 cent 1851 US stamp that sold in auction for what was then an incredible price. It had not only full margins, but it cut into all the boarding stamps by something like 20% all around. Instead of admiring the stamp, I felt the same pang of regret for the other stamps as Jaime describes.
Big is good, obnoxiously large is not.

[Jaime Benavides]

"EIGHT MARGINS": Adjective to describe wider than normal margins on all sides as Jesper said, but to put it in other words: The four margins that my stamp should have, plus the four margins from neighbour stamps my stamp "stole" from them leaving those poor four neighbours cut to shape at least on one side.

[Jesper Andersen]

Ernesto, I just happened to open this post again and saw your question about "eight margins".
 
Obviously, the classic Mexico stamps have at most four margins! However, if they are REALLY BIG (all four of them) you could argue that even after cutting off "four margins" you would still have a four margin stamp. I hope this makes sense.
 
The short version is that eight margins simply mean that the margins are very large.

[Ernesto]

Here comes the Dos Reales. I had to modify the size.

[Ernesto]

Hi to all, Regarding the piece of Manuel Iglesias: Having the fact that Mexico district never ran out of stamps and therefore there is no reason to have bisects, I don’t pretend to be naive, but have you ever considered it might be a mistake of the postal clerk?  That by mistake he cut the stamp and in order not to have to pay for it, in the first opportunity he had he put it on the letter but upside down hoping the custumer didn't notice it? Because at a glance you can see that is the same stamp and he tried to put the pieces as close as possible to look like one piece and not like an obvious bisect. If it were a bisect, being a Dos Reales stamp, the logic dictates to cut it in half in order to have two One Real pieces. Most of the bisects, quadrisect and thirds I have seen (for not saying all of them) are “perfectly” cut  trying to show the proportion of the value they represent. Cut in half horizontally, vertically or diagonally or the little piece that is a quadrisect. This one is one third on bottom and two thirds in the upper part.So, beside of trying to sell the piece to a collector as a bisect: Where would be the fraud or how the fraud might take place? In another hand, Jesper, I can see that is about the very wide margins, but didn’t understand the term you used “eight margins” could you be so kind to clear it, please?At last and not least, going back to the main subject of this post, I share with you the best stamp I own. It might not be the most expensive but is the way I got it which makes it special. On December last year, I saw an album which I was not aware of its existence. Was printed by Lic. José L. Cossío Hijo in 1936. The first page –is exactly as the cover- has a dedication to Dr. E. A. Ritter (if you know who this Dr. is I would like to know more). In one of the pages I saw a Dos Reales stamp that clearly was an emerald. Once I received it, I confirmed the stamp, being a Victoria district with a Sz#1839 in red, Tula de Tamaulipas. I paid 12.51 Euros in total. This weekend I will verify the other stamps because for sure I will find something else!My very best regards to all of you.

[Thomas_A]

Jesper, I agree that the Guadalajara sapphire is very special, but I would tilt myself towards that Tampico example with Bubba (all questions of value being equal).

Now that I know you are an "eight margin" fan I can see why you like that Maravatio Eagle.  Clearly, it has been mistakenly filed in my collection.

Thomas

[Jesper Andersen]

Thanks Bubba, I tend to agree with you. But then I remembered this one, my favorite shade on the 2r from plate I: sapphire. The red cancel makes it a perfect combination (in my eyes).
As I said, all my stamps are my favorites. 
Thomas - I think your Maravatio Eagle belongs in my collection. I don't understand how it ended up in yours 

[Bubba Bland]

Your Tampico has to be one of the most beautiful examples of a plate 1 Dos Reales I have seen. Trust me, I have seen a lot of these stamps.

[Jesper Andersen]

The remaining two images.

[Jesper Andersen]

All my stamps are my favorites, but...
These five are from the right side of the sheet, pos. 18 to 42. They all have "eight margins" as some people say. I'm a sucker for those things.
I bought the Tabasco and Chihuahua stamps from Doug Stout. I think of him every time I look at them.

[Farley Katz]

Great stamp, Bubba. 

[Bubba Bland]

Another example of the duel overprint on one of my favorite stamp groups.

[Bubba Bland]

Well, Farley, it all depended on the sheet size, whether the clerk cared if he was using the device one direction or the other. He may have done half the sheet, remember the Un and Dos Reales were large sheets, one way and turned it around to finish the other side. Of course he had to start in the middle and print toward himself or he would have been getting wet ink on his hands. On the 60 position sheet such as the Cuatro and Ocho Reales, the overprint may have been on one side to begin with and later, maybe days, the need to make these bisect ready meant putting overprints on the other side of the stamp.

Of course the stamp pieces in question could just have come from two different stamps that only had the overprint on one side, but I would be willing to bet they had overprints on both left and right before they were severed into halves or quaters. Looking at the two pieces, is it is obvious that they were not attached before, so they had to come from different stamps.

[Farley Katz]

My point here is not that district overprints occur in different orientations, but that here we have two splits with differently oriented overprints.  If a clerk applied the overprints at the same time on a sheet of stamps, I would assume he would have applied all overprints in the same orientation.   He wouldn't stamp one on the right side reading up and then turn the stamp around and apply it on the left side reading up.  So, these must be leftovers from two different sheets.   Or perhaps a postal fraud.

Or am I mistaken in assuming that the overprints were added all at the same time to a sheet; could they have been added only when individual stamps were sold?

[Bubba Bland]

Diagonal configuration is very common on the later '56 issues and on the '61, because of the longer overprint.