It really shouldn't have been so difficult. The year is printed on the front and the perfs were in good condition. It should've taken five minutes.But there is one thing that messed it all up. In my album that I was mounting this stamp there are two places for a 1996 American Kestrel. One spot is for a large "1996" and the other is for a small "1996".
Why do they do this to us? I had not idea which one it was! I was baffled. I searched the forums and had a lengthy question typed up and then I just deleted it. I don't have time to wait on someone to respond to this, I needed to figure this out now!
I googled the Scott numbers and I couldn't find any pictures of the 3044 and 3004a. Surely I wasn't the only person to have this trouble. After a while perusing the web and getting distracted half a dozen times by other stamps I was finding information on I hit pay-dirt. I stumbled up a link to this wonderful website that had just enough information for me to solve this conundrum. I couldn't believe I had finally figured it out. All I had to do was measure the size of the "year and I would now know which one I had.
The website is definitely going into my bookmarks bar. It saved me a massive headache for sure. And now my 1 cent American Kestrel with a "large 1996" is in its new home. Now I just have to find the small one....
