The number collectors quote in group chats is often the stamp. On X-Men mutant archive editions the number we class is usually in the gutter or in a plate ID printed with the interior, not on the gold. If those two disagree, the gutter wins in our letters.
Archive-locked runs close. After they close, later drops may reuse a cover and a stamp style. The interior plate ID changes. That is a reprint-style drop in our vocabulary, even when the marketing still says “archive.” We will not file an acquisition request that pretends the two are one object.
When you send a screenshot, crop so the gutter is readable. A beauty shot of the cover wastes a working day. If you own the printed comic that informed the plate, a photograph of that issue’s interior can settle an argument faster than another stamp close-up.
Nalinee keeps a paper column for each ledger code — XM-05, NM-82, and the rest — and writes the last honest number she has seen. That column is slower than a feed and harder to argue with.