Monthly Archives: March 2017

The Scott catalog prices for most countries after 1940 is for stamps in mint Never Hinged condition. This is for three reasons. First, most post-1940 stamps are more common in NH than in hinged condition (especially as you come closer to the current period in time). Second, most collectors have been trained to believe that they want NH stamps. And third, the foreign catalogs from which Scott steals its prices only list their stamps in NH condition. So the question often arises about how one should value foreign hinged stamps in the modern period.

As auctioneers, our experience has given us the following answers to this question: The effect of hinging on mint modern stamps is more significant the further you go back to the 1940 cutoff that the Scott catalog uses. Stamps from most European and British area countries in the 1940-60 period sell, in hinged condition, for

There are three main Foreign catalogs for the non English speaking European specialties-Michel for Germany and German Area, Yvert for France and French Colonies and Sassone for Italy and the Italian Area. Michel is the Mercedes of catalogs with hundreds of thousands of specialized listings in all phases of German philately with covers, blocks, paper types and cancellations all addressed and priced. Michel Deutchland Specialized is the prototype of what a specialty catalog should be and no other country's specialized catalog comes even close. Yvert's France and Colonies catalog is good, handles well though without much excitement or acceleration-sort of like a Peugeot. Yvert's listing often go little beyond Scott (especially the wonderful Scott Specialized) but still overall is a capable model. Sassone, the Italian catalog is sort of like a hybrid Maserati/Fiat. Some sections are excellent (modern printing varieties for instance) and it has thousands of listings that are beyond

The Penny Black is not only the first stamp but one of the more fun stamps to specialize in. The stamp was printed in twelve plates, and each plate had 240 subjects. As a security measure, each stamp received check letters in the corners so that each of the 240 subjects of each plate are unique (the check letters made counterfeiting more difficult as forgers would have to reproduce more than one specific lettered stamp or the overabundance of the same check letter would lead to suspicion. Further, the check letters eliminated the concern that partially cancelled stamps would be soaked off, cut, and reassembled on letters). With twelve plates and 240 stamps per plate, a specialist has 2,880 different Penny Blacks that are needed to have a complete run of plates and check letters. Further, specialists can collect by cancellation and date, blocks, pairs, and multiples. Most collectors keep it simple and are happy to have one. We just bought a few Very Fine

Postal stationary has always languished in popularity. In the earliest years of our hobby most albums had spaces for Cut Squares (the stamp portion of a mint entire envelope cut away from the envelope and collected on its own). But with the exception of US and German Area philately there are few postal stationery collectors anymore. This is largely because there are more than enough stamps to collect and collectors typically like material that is easy to find and readily salable. As the number of the world's unique major Scott listed stamps has approached one million, the feeling of most collectors is that they don't need to go far from traditional stamps in order to find lots of material to collect.

Another factor that negatively impacts the popularity of US postal stationary is how very difficult the catalog listings are and how trivial are the differences that make for major numbers. As a rule

A question that Americans are going to have to answer in the next few years is whether we want to keep our post offices open and have them continue their daily trips serving us all with mail. We have reluctantly made this decision with Amtrak. Rail travel is not a money maker but we have decided that the benefits of allowing people to go from city to city and not use their cars is a good that accrues to society that we are all willing to pay for. This is what a government does-collect revenue from us all in a way that the majority deems fair and parcels it out in ways that society deems fair. Social Security and Medicare are programs similar to Amtrak and mail delivery (with the added benefit of having a larger constituency).
Several European countries, such as Holland, have made their decision and have largely privatized mail delivery. But Holland is an overwhelming

Stamp collecting has always been an International hobby, and there is no better example of this than the issue of measuring perforations. Europeans and Americans differ on how they take temperature (Celsius versus Fahrenheit) and distance (miles versus kilometers). But collectors all around the world use the same types of perforation gauges and count perfs the same way. When we call something perf 12 all collectors mean 12 perforation holes per two centimeters. This early agreement on perfs came without any effort. The French and the Belgians were the world's philatelic leaders in the mid-Nineteenth Century. They produced the first albums and catalogs, and so it was to them that later catalog makers from other countries turned when it came time to list differing perforation varieties. For the most part, the early Scott catalog copied the differing national sections of the foreign catalogs, using a pirated version of Yvert for France and Michel for Germany. So it was natural to pick up the

The stamps of China need no promotion. Over the last twenty years the increases in prices and popularity has been astounding. Prices have risen geometrically and the number of China collectors both here and around the world has grown dramatically as well. I recently worked on a wonderful China consignment and it rekindled my interest. China is not just a philatelic area with lots of high priced stamps because there are so many new Chinese collectors. It is a fascinating and complex philatelic area that offers all the best that philately has to offer.

For collectors who like to keep things simple there are the stamps of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). Between these two issuing entities there are thousands of stamps, all of them colorful and well designed and replete with Chinese culture and history. They range in price from

The first stamp issued in the world portrayed the ruling monarch of the issuing country (Great Britain Penny black). After that it became protocol to use the portrait of the ruler of a country on postage stamps or in the case of the United Sates to use a deceased president or statesman. Some countries without a strong national ruler might use a national symbol as in the case of the first issues of Canada which show a beaver. Many European countries, such as Russia and many of the German States showed the Coat of Arms of the ruling family. But France began what what was to be a tradition on most of her nineteenth century stamps by using a allegorical image, which on the first stamps was the goddess Ceres, the deity of agriculture who also represented prosperity. France political life was troubled throughout the nineteenth century with Kings being replaced by Emperors which were superseded by Republican forms of government before going back to monarchy. Perhaps this is why for her first stamp

The revenue stamps of the United States offer numerous sub-specialties for collectors: There are the stock and document transfer tax stamps, the vice tax stamps, and the special services tax stamps. Among the most interesting of this last group are the Consular tax stamps. Scott lists 40 main varieties that were issued from 1906-1952. These stamps were issued to various US consular offices abroad and paid for such things as visas. They often have cancellations from the foreign offices from which they were used. The stamps are all quite scarce, and a collection by cancellation type would offer tremendous philatelic interest for not much money (the reason the cost would be low is that the stamps are so scarce that, after acquiring the basic stamps, it would be unusual to find something that you needed). As luck would have it, we are offering a complete collection of these stamps in our next Public Auction. It gets posted today.

Grace and Calvin Coolidge were considered generous and gracious people. But little did they realize that the invitations that they sent out in 1927 had more than just the significance of being able to have cocktails with the President. On the White House stationary that was used for this invitation the President used a rare type II,Scott #634A which was a stamp variety that was not known immediately when it was issued and was no doubt used by accident on this invitation. A collector would have known instantly that he had gotten a real bonus with his invitation, but the recipient saved this because it was from the President not because she was a collector. It is interesting to note that this was probably an invitation to a political fund raiser as the President has the Free Frank for all official business and then, as now, only used stamps in sending mail for political functions. A political giver invited to the White House had to be a heavy hitter and