The prices of PNC 5s (Plate Number Coil Strips of Five) are holding their own this year. Retail/Show/Dealer prices are about what Scott's Catalog or Brookman lists. The thrity-two rarer strips (see below) are going to be priced the same or slightly higher. eBay pricing has picked up for the cheaper strips while the more valuable ones seem to be lagged this past summer/fall. The stamps priced in the $20 to $50 range two years ago were selling much less that what bidders were willing to pay before 2006.

    Interest in Plate Number coil collecting will increase now that the 60 state flag se-tenant rolls hit the post offices. These Flag come out in rolls of 50 every six months for the next three years. Flags of Our Nation in 10 designs in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) coil of 50. There are at least 3 ways to save this 2-foot long strip of 10 different stamps. The first issue arrived on June 14th here:

 It will be tough to guess which format ends up being the most collected one. One is a normal PNC 5 with the US Flag and plate number as the middle stamp with two states to the right and left of the US Flag. Another popular format will be all ten different flags with the US Flag and Pl # in the middle, and another format is a strip of 11 with plate number in the middle, and another is with the US Flag at start and end of an 11 stamp strip. They all pose an album placement issue since the plate strip of 5 measures 8.75" wide.

So now is your chance to pick up the missing holes in your PNC collection for a fraction of the dollar. Not all stamps went down, a couple actually went up (Toledo Browns are up and Bronx Blues are down) Several Flag over Porch plate # have gone way up and #88898 (die cut 10x10) has gone down - stamp varieties have become harder to find and are now worth more. Tow others that showed addional price increases were Scotts #2225b 1c Omnibus tagged error and Scotts #2915A 32c Flag over Porch pl 99899 (die cut 11x10) which went up from about $50 to $150 in two years.

Another interesting development is that PNC3's (plate number coil strips of three) are now barely worth face value. As a wholesaler a year ago, I could usually safely pay 1/10th of trends/Scotts/Brookman - BUT THOSE DAYS ARE GONE. With the exception of just a small handful of really rare PNC's the high water mark seems to have drifted down to 10% over face. Ouch!  (please vote below,

Here is my list of the top ("Hit Parade") 32 PNCs which should weather any major price reduction - due to their raw lack of considerable inventory in relation to demand: Scotts #1900 5.2c Sleigh pl 3 and pl 5, Scotts #1901a 5.9c Bicycle pl 5 and pl 6, Scotts #1903 9.3c Mail Wagon pl 5 and pl 6, Scotts #1903a 9.3c Mail Wagon pl 8, Scotts #1904a 10.9c Hansom Cab pl 3 and pl 4, Scotts #2602 10c Eagle & Shield pl 32333, Scotts #1906a 17c Electric Auto pl 5C and pl 7C, Scotts #1891 18c Flag pl 1, pl 3 and pl 6, Scotts #1907 18c Surrey pl 1, pl 3 and pl 4, Scotts #1895 20c Flag pl 4 and pl 6, Scotts #1908 20c Pumper pl 2,  pl 7 and pl 8, Scotts #2890 32c G Flag pl A4435,  Scotts #2915A 32c Flag over Porch pl 88898 (die cut 10x11),  pl 89899 and pl 99899 (die cut 11x10), Scotts #3770 10c Atlas pl V12111, Scotts #3829 37c Egret pl V3221 plus most of the error (many tagged and untagged varieties) and major color errors (Scotts #2523c 29c Mt Rushmore in Toledo Brown, Scotts #2466b 32c Ferry in Bronx Blue, or Scotts #2523d 29c Rushmore printed on Lenz paper). These my Top 32 in the hit parade of PNC's. You will probably never regret the day you bought your copy of these plate numbers becasue they are in fact very scarce to very rare and should not go down in value over the years. The others not so much so.

These plate numbers are on my top 32 list (revised 2009). It has been recommended to the editors of Scott's catalog that they put a note after issues following Scotts #1891 saying that plate number strips of three are worth considerably less than PNC5s and drop princing all except the above 32 PNC3s. so if you need to pick up a short list of PNC3s this might be the best time to purchase them, because when the 2010 Scotts US Specialized Catalog comes out this summer, pricing may disappear for most pnc3s. If your holdings of PNC 3s don't included any from the the above "Hit Parade"....Feel free to use them all as postage, because if you go to sell them you will be offered 10% less than face at the highest.

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