Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
To start part VII, one of my favorite South American countries; Argentina Besides the first page which is quite difficult and all of the different watermarks, Argentina is fairly easy to collect.
Shown are the first 3 pages and the page with the 1910 centenary of the Republic issue.
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Switzerland is the country for today. Shown are the first, second, fourth and the 1945 page with the post WWII "Peace" Issue.
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For today the stamps of Bosnia and Herzegovina Shown are the first, second and fourth pages from my collection.
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Today the remote but very colorful stamps of Tannu Tuva. Long fought over by China and Russia, Tannu Tuva won a brief independence of slightly more than 20 years when it was finally incorporated with Russia in 1921.
Shown are my 1st, 2nd, 4th and sixth page which shows why they are quite popular with collectors.
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If you are able to find one, Terra del Fuego could be considered the easiest area to collect. Only one stamp was issued and an interesting history to go with it. I am at my wits end, ever sense I started this post my computer has slowed to nothing. It took me over two hours to complete. So much for trying to do an easy one.
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For today I'm doing something a bit different. As you know I am constantly searching for stamps. I probably spend close to 40 hours a week doing it. That' a lot of searching and I don't know how I can do it any faster. The key to doing it fast is having needlists for most all countries and having my collection scanned so I can quickly reference it instead of dragging out albums. I search the U.S. and pretty much the entire world weekly. I'm never fixed on looking to buy one certain stamp or set but finding the best deal on anything from anywhere, that I need for my collection. The most important thing to know when searching is the approximate value of most stamps so you can find the best deals, this of course takes much time studying catalogs.
The big problem in adding stamps has been money. For the last 16 years I've been living way down on the income curve. I've quit smoking, drinking and mostly eating so that I can spend every extra penny I can on stamps. The good news is that I have a fairly large inheritance coming in soon so I think I can a least double my spending on stamps. At any rate I'm always adding new stuff and especially like buying old 19th U.S century lots. I am most familiar with them and they are my favorites of the world. I often buy them when the price is right and Bank notes are probably my favorites. Except for the grilled issue the rest had been completed years ago, used. However in the past year I've bought enough lots with the right stamps to nearly complete the 1873 issue unused. I've managed to get decent copies of all but the 90 center. They are about 50-50 gum no gum. Out of thousands of 3 centers I have had or seen the 3 center really stands out has having the deepest richest color of all. I think the page looks nice and I am very pleased with it. I've also minted out the 1875 issue to nicely finish off the page. Many other upgrades have also been made for the
19th century
So for today the 1873 Banknote issue. Much bigger scans can be seen of the page(s) by following the 19th century link.
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I was hoping to finish showing all of the countries of the world that I have scanned but it seems I would appear to be the fool in doing so. I've made 21 posts without a single response, no doubt this must be a record. I've showed mostly the best stamps from 21 countries and no one seems to care or have comment about any of them. I was hoping there would be some interaction with this but obviously I was wrong. I can't imagine that if anyone else had made 21 posts without response that they would continue to do so. I have to admit that there are few posts on this board that interest me, it would seem that our interests are far apart.
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This time of the year is so busy - everyone is in full spring mode cleaning up the yard and house, planting the garden, packing away the winter clothes and so on. There has been a decline across the board, so please don't take it to heart! I've been looking at them every day and enjoying them. Please do keep posting!
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Hi Antonius,
I also enjoy your posts very much and look forward to seeing each new one either late at night my time or the next morning.
I was pleased to see your Tierra del Fuego stamp as that has always been one of my favourites. Julius Popper had an amazing story.
I have a single, a block of four and this pair which shows the imprint of the printers, Juan H. Kidd & Cia. Ltd. of Buenos Aires:
This is my first attempt to scan stamps with a new Epson printer/scanner.
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I don't know about anyone else, but your collection tends to leave me speechless! It is so far advanced over my own collection, that clicking on the "like" button is about all I have to offer.
WB
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Antonius, I look forward to your posts every single day. I always click "like" to try to show my appreciation, but I've only given a written response once or twice. Basically, I'm in awe of your collection, and I regard you as the ultimate collector. I also thoroughly enjoy your comments not only on your collection, but especially your personal comments on your approach to collecting. I am quite impressed with your devotion--there's no other word for it--to our hobby. In the face of your achievement, anything I could say in response to a post would be utterly trite--and so I say nothing and just keep clicking those "likes." I know that I am not alone in my silence, and that many SOR members feel as I do. Please keep up those posts!
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Hey Mitch,
Don't stop posting! I love checking out the scans that you post. I don't always comment on them because I haven't had a lot of exposure to world wide stamps. Those Tannu Tuva stamps from 1934 and 35 are downright striking. Don't recall ever seeing them.
Have a great weekend up in that there Kansas.
-Ernie
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" I have to admit that there are few posts on this board that interest me, it would seem that our interests are far apart."
Nice postings but my interests don't really match up either
No comments? - time to move on where one is more appreciated I guess
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Hey, Mitchell!
Please continue on!
Like some of the others have said, a think a lot of us have nothing really to add -- but that doesn't mean that I don't really, really enjoy them! It feels like an opportunity to "get up close and personal" with them, especially the stamps of the classic era, which I usually don't get to see many of.
I, too, am one of those people that usually clicks "like", but my count got a little behind, as I had to step away from the computer for a couple of weeks to deal with some pressing family matters.
Anyway, keep on!
-- Dave
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I was hoping that starting the 'Page of the Day" would have given a daily opportunity to have a discussion on the different areas. This obviously has not happened which I think is unfortunate. I really thought that the last couple postings I made on Terra del Fuego or the banknotes would have received some comments or questions. When they did not it seemed like there was nothing I could post that would generate a conversation without a deliberate question. However conversation was not the only reason I started the P.O.D.. The primary reason was to introduce collectors to new areas hoping they might be encouraged to collect something new. It is unclear if that goal has been realized at all.
The "likes" have not gone unoticed and they are much apppreciated.
JB1214, You did not have to go to all of the trouble of creating a new ID today to respond to my post.. This would be against the rules on most boards.
There are other reasons for doing the "P.O.D." so I guess I will keep doing it as long as there is interest
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Mitchell, I know I've been also influenced by the policies of some other boards, where, when there's a principal contributor on a thread (like you on this thread), then oftentimes posts from others are not encouraged, or sometimes even discouraged or forbidden, in order that there is not much interruption of the flow that the principal contributor provides.
For that reason alone, I don't usually ask questions on a thread like this, unless I think there's an especially burning need to seek clarification about a particular point. Perhaps this influenced some others as well.
But I'm glad you'll continue to post. I think a lot of people find it very beneficial.
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Phil, Yes I wondering about that and would certainly be the most welcome answer. You know this isn't the first or even second time I've started this thread. I've managed to make it farther than before but there are still 140 left to go and most of the major countries have been done. I'll try and finish it up
For today the central American country of Salvador. Salvador produced many beautiful stamps but the country is rather had to collect. There were a great deal of overprinted stamps from the start of the twentieth century into the 1930's. Many of these issues are extremely hard to find much like similar issues in Nicaragua and Honduras. Showing the 1st page and a couple later ones.
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Mitchell, like many others I have enjoyed viewing your collection and have also looked at some of the pages on your website (jealously I might add).
I have found it interesting that you are happy to mix mint and used within a set on the page, something I would not have thought of doing in my own very disorganized collection.
I think that you have given us all food for thought in the way we structure our collections and hopefully we are all learning that even the minor countries, normally ignored, have attractive stamps that can be a great addition to our albums.
As someone who, prior to joining Stamporama, was really only accumulating a country and not looking much further than pretty designs and completion of years/countries, you have given myself and others plenty of ideas for furthering our knowledge and horizons.
Thank you for taking the time to show your wares and please continue, it is appreciated.
Vic
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I have also enjoyed looking at your pages on a daily basis. I hope to one day have a world wide collection as nice as yours!
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Vinman, At least you don't have to collect them to enjoy them. I have always enjoyed looking at stamps. Thinking that others did as well was the main reason I started my site in the first place. It was not long ago that this was difficult to do.
Sheepshanks, Re: mixing mint and used. I decided long ago to simply find the nicest representative copy of any stamp that I can. Passing over a used stamp to complete a mint set often means that you will never complete the set. Some stamps are nearly impossible to get one way or the other. limiting your collection to one or the other means there will always be big gaps in your collection. I prefer mint and am always looking to upgrade used stamps to mint but realize it is not always possible. I hardly ever see collections for sale that are only mint or used which I assume means I am not alone in the way I collect. My goal is to find all of the pieces to this great puzzle one way or the other, Many stamps will only come your way once and I would rather fill the space than not because of setting limitations of mint or used.
kam41566, Thanks, hopefully you will find the time. It is difficult to express how much time it takes.
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For today the island of Crete Long part of Greece it issued it's own stamps for a few years before using the stamps of Greece. Shown are the first pages issued by the Cretan government.
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Hi AntoniusRa,
Crete is my favourite collecting area so it's great to see these pages.
There are some very nice stamps and postmarks, and a lot of history.
Technically the island was still an Ottoman possession when these stamps were issued but its autonomy was guaranteed by four European powers (Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia).
These countries each took responsibility for administering part of the island in what were basically friendly zones of occupation.
The 1908 black and green one drachma stamp commemorates the arrival of Prince George of Greece in 1898 at Suda Bay to act as High Commissioner on behalf of these powers. In the image he is being greeted by the admirals of the European naval units that were deployed to Crete.
Prince George also appears on the red ten lepta stamp of 1900.
He wasn't very successful politically and was replaced by the more popular Alexander Zaïmis in 1906. He appears on the fine black and blue 25 lepta stamp of 1907 with his monocle and excellent moustache.
The ΕΛΛΑΣ ("GREECE") overprint on the stamps on page three indicated the island's wish to become part of Greece.
The stamps were produced by Bradbury, Wilkinson in London and most were based on designs from ancient coins found in Crete.
The first stamps were issued on 1st March 1900. It looks to me as though your one drachma stamp at the bottom of page one has a ΧΑÎΙΑ postmark from 4th March 1900, so only the fourth day of use.
My apologies if I've rambled on too much!
Thanks again.
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Nigel, Thanks for your input, you have answered a few questions I've had about these issues. Greece is one of my most favorites countries and they go hand in hand. I have a few of the tridents and earlier issues but they are sparse and not yet scanned. I look for them occasionally but they are not yet priorities like the remaining blank space of the later ones shown.
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Hi Mitch
I really enjoy looking at (drooling over?) your album pages. I do have a question, though.
I've been rereading a few forgery-related books that I have in my stamp library, particular one by Varro Tyler. Anyway, I'm wondering how you keep the forgeries out of your collection. It seems to me that many earlier stamps, especially from less mainstream countries, are rife with forgeries. If you have a suggestion for separating the chaff from the wheat, I'd love to hear it.
Eric
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"I've made 21 posts without a single response, no doubt this must be a record. I've showed mostly the best stamps from 21 countries and no one seems to care or have comment about any of them. "
Mitch...Mea Culpa...I have taken it for granted! It is the one thing I start looking at, daily, when I log into SOR. Always amazed by the scope of your collection, and jalous I may add
. I will take your posted scans and compare them to my gap-filled pages, and smile in the rare (very rare) cases when I have a stamp you still miss! What an incredible collection! I some times feel I should give you the lonely stamps you miss in your quest (when I have them), as yours is truly a monumental job that deserves recognition.Bravo Mitch, and please continue. Even if we are silent, we consider it among the special pleasures of life that we look forward to, on a daily basis.
rrr...
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Eric,
I've had a lot of help from knowledgeable experts over the years as well as publications like album weeds etc. Of course there must be forgeries lurking in my collection but I do try and research suspects. There are some forgeries that I know of in mu collection and the are marked with a X or F or both. In most cases they can be found on the internet if you look in the right places. Of course some are so good that it is hard to be confident
in identifying them correctly. It's just another part of the challenge.
RRR, GPerry et al, Thanks so much for the praise and encouragement. Knowing there us no shortage of appreciation is just what I need to continue.
Now I need to pick a country for today, I've been sidetracked dealing with some new auction
lots that came today.
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For today one of the first countries alphabetically and one I thought I had already shown, Aden
Shown are the first three pages.
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Mitch, I've been following this thread since the beginning. I'm no longer collecting and haven't collected worldwide since I was a kid. Later in life, my focus was on colonial Africa and to a lesser degree pre-1940 Caribbean, plus a few other odds and ends where nicely-designed and engraved pre-1940 stamps were issued. So, much of what you're presenting is new to me and that's been great to watch. I don't log in every day, but I haven't missed any of your collection posts. And, I've been a liberal user of the "Like" feature from the beginning.
I've been surprised by the number of times I'm one of only one or two who have bothered to "Like" your presentations. I could understand not having the time to comment, but couldn't understand not having the time to "Like" what you're doing each day. So, I'm pleased to see all the positive feedback you've received in the past few days. I hope that means you'll be continuing this project for a very long time! Even if doing this daily gets to be too much of a burden, switching to 1-2 countries per week would be fine with me. The attraction would still be there. And, I would continue to be a liberal user of the "Like" feature either way! Carry on! 
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Mitch, Aden happens to be one of the countries outside my collecting focus where I had the opportunity to buy most of the first set mint and did so. I eventually completed that first set. So, in spite of my pre-1940 mint colonial Africa and Caribbean focus, I was an opportunistic worldwide collector if a country issued a very attractive pre-1940 set like the Aden dhows. Although I no longer have the Aden stamps themselves, I still have them in my digital "collection" and enjoy seeing you share your album pages that include these stamps. Keep up the good work!
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Nice stamps, Mitch.
Unfortunately, Aden has suffered a lot of damage, and many casualties, in an ongoing civil war. Much of the havoc has been caused by Saudi bombing.
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A-Ra, with all my daily responsibilities, it is sometimes hard to find the time to work on my World Wide collection. I am, however, in my mid 30's, so I have a lot of time left to work on it. I recently hit 60,000 different stamps in my collection. I am sure this is nothing compared to your collection, but it is a big milestone for me. I also have stacks and stacks of stamps still to go through, so I am sure the number is higher than that. Like you, I also try to display the best stamp, and mix mint and used in the collection. If I get a mint copy, I will save used stamps that have nice cancels on them. The only exception is my USA collection which is MNH only. It was my first stamp collection from childhood, and I am very picky with what I add to this collection. I didn't start world wide collecting until I was an adult.
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Keesindy, Those top 3 stamps of the Aden set are hard to come by. I've seen them a few times at auction but always get outbid. They of course are a priority as are all first stamps, sets and pages for all countries. One of these days....
For today the the small Mediterranean Island of Castellorizo. Formerly a French possession it was ceded to Italy after WWI. After WWII it was ceded to Greece who still claims it. A total of 40 stamps were printed for the Italian occupation all of which were Italian stamps with overprint except for the 1923 set of map and flag.
Shown are the two pages of issued stamps.
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A-Ra, I always look at your pages, although I do not comment. It is very fascinating to see the level of completion and presentation. I envy the collection. Some of my biggest thrills are on the rare occasions where I prefer my own to yours, like I said rare. I also visit your site for reference and enjoyment.
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Ryan, Thanks much, I'm glad you are using it for reference. I only wish there had been such a site when I was building the bulk of my collection. Having the thumbnails to quickly find the stamp you are looking for and the rest of the set is the quickest way I know to put things in order. I use it myself for putting stamps in order when listing them for sale.
For today a couple sets that I consider some of the most beautiful stamps in the world. They are the 1875 and 1895-7 U.S. Newspaper Stamps. The first set are proofs and the second set the issued stamps. They are both quite affordable in this form. The 1875 stamps are very expensive and 1895-7 proofs are more expensive than the stamps. So if you find you just can't resist them as I do, this is the way to go.
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Very nice. My preference is for used stamps. I prefer those cancels and other indications of use.
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"Keesindy, Those top 3 stamps of the Aden set are hard to come by. I've seen them a few times at auction but always get outbid. They of course are a priority as are all first stamps, sets and pages for all countries. One of these days...."
Mitch, I was buying stamps back in the 1980s and very early 1990s, mostly 1950s era specialized mint collections. Nearly everything I bought came from auctions, including those three Aden stamps (10, 11 and 12) I bought individually. I sold all three on eBay in January of 2009 to two different bidders. I got $43.55 (8 bids), $92.51 (4 bids) and $232.00 (9 bids) for them, respectively. I don't know what I paid for #10, but my purchase prices for the other two were about half what I sold them for. #11 was MNH. I wasn't bargain-hunting in those days.
I would never have bought these stamps in 2009 for the prices I sold them for! Too costly!
I hope you get an opportunity to get all three for a good price one of these days!
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Ryan, To each his own, while I like a nice S.O.N. C.D.S. as well as the next guy, I think these stamps are to beautiful to me to want them defaced by cancels.
Keesindy, It must have been a long time ago when I noted the catalog values in their spaces as $8, $40 and $125. It seems the current market value is somewhere around half of cat value. No wonder I keep getting outbid on them. I'll have to get very lucky to find a #11 or 12 at a price I am willing to pay. Stranger things have happened but it doesn't look that promising in filling those spaces.
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Happy Cinco de Mayo! so befittingly the country of the day is Mexico. Without doubt Mexico is one of the most difficult countries to collect. Unless you want to get serious and specialize in it, I feel the best way for most people is to collect types. Collecting one of each different stamp types and a stamp with one each of the numerous overprints would make a nice collection and still be quite challenging. My Scott Specialty pages have spaces for all the issues and I doubt I will ever get to 80% completion. Shown are the first page and a couple later ones.
NOTE: The first stamp in the last row is one of my favorite stamp designs.
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The country for today is French West Africa If you're are looking for a country that is easy to complete than this one may be for you. The entire colony plus back of book catalogs for less then $150.00 and they are pretty easy to come by
Shown are the first three pages.
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Mitch:
Absolutely lovely stamps.
David
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The country for today is Colombia. I have saved Colombia for my last country in Latin America to focus on because many of the early stamps are expensive and hard to come by. For a long time the only stamp had on the first page was #1. Lately I've added three more leaving the page quite empty but with a catalog value of $850.00. Who knows if and when I will add any more as they are hard to find. Colombian States are also quite a challenge but I like the stamps and would like to get a nicer showing than what I have already. They are good enough to show but I have not got around to scanning them yet. Shown are the first three pages and the Special Delivery page that contains the only Special Delivery stamp Colombia ever issue. The multiple of 30 is one of my favorite items and is the largest known multiple of this scarce stamp. There area said to be around 150 mint stamps in existence and only 7 used, 3 of which are on cover.
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The country for today is Belgian East AfricaThe stamps are very similar to the stamps of Belgian Congo and many are actually Congo stamps with additional overprints.
Shown are the first page and a couple latter ones.
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For today Austrian offices in Turkey. Like many major countries Austria has printed stamps for use offices abroad. Today added a few stamps to these pages so I am showing them today. Showing the only three pages.
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Just took another trip through the collection.
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Rjan, Hope you had a nice trip. Even though I've seen all of them countless times I pick out several countries everyday just to look at. I just never seem to grow tired of it.
Sorry for missing the the Page of the Day yesterday, I just didn't have the time.
For today Thailand One of the more difficult countries to collect, I have never had much luck getting the material that I am missing. There are a great many early overprint issues and higher values to sets that one never sees and they are usually quite pricey.
Shown is the first page and a couple later ones.
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Located in North Western Africa the country today is the French Colony of Mauritania
Shown is the beautiful first page/set and a couple latter ones.
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Mitch, I really like the French Colonies. As a kid in the mid 60's looking at some of the exotic locations of these stamps, transported me away from the brutal Minnesota winters. Thanks for posting.
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Fred, I to remember some of those brutal Minnesota winters in the sixties, in Moorhead.
The winters there were bad but ten years earlier I lived in Alaska. The only reason I've had for cold whether since was for Skiing but now I'm to old for that.
For today the short lived country of Central Lithuania Shown are the first three pages.
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I don't think I could ever tire of seeing these every day. They are like a jolt of sheer enthusiasm and joy for the hobby of kings. Being a specialist makes it even more delightful as I am able to see material I rarely encounter and I'm reminded of the incredible depth and range of worldwide collecting.
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It's hard for me to comprehend why us collectors find them so compelling while the non collectors have little interest. I wonder what makes us different? Having collected the whole world for most of my life I often forget that others collect only a country or two and they are not much aware of other areas. It is hard to comprehend how may stamps there are except for the few of us that collect the whole world. Some days I think I've made a lot of progress but the next day realize how much farther there is to go.
Today the country started it all: Great BritainI've been working on the 19th century for the last several months as it has been mostly ignored until lately. There is still a ways to go on the stamps I can reasonably hope to obtain but many I doubt I shall never get.
There are also several that need upgrading including #1. Several years ago I thought it would be a good idea to replace my Scott Specialty pages with SG Davo hingeless albums. The strange thing is that the Davo first pages leave out spaces for many of the early issues. Since the album is Stanley Gibbons premier album for G.B., I thought it would be the most comprehensive but it is far from it. I've had to add the second page and several other spaces for stamps that were not represented. I can't help wonder if there were a couple pages missing when I got the albums. If anyone else has these could you please check if there are pages I don't show"?
Shown are the first three pages:
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AntoniusRa,
I love this stuff. Please keep posting and thanks for creating your website, which I consider a reference work.
Regards,
Nate
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Mitch I have the SG Davo album but not hingeless. The frontspiece/forword does state it is for a straightforward collection, maybe yours also does.
Maybe one day I'll get around to sorting my GB from the dozen or so books, various envelopes and boxes and get organized. Never seems enough time in the day.
Today I have to rake over the veg patch 54x54 feet ready for planting over the next couple of weeks. Weed the flower beds, trim dead growth. Work on finishing up the interior of the house we rent out, Do a full time job and help keep house.
Where does the time go, yesterday cut grass for 3 hours and still have around an acre to do. Fortunately ran out of petrol.
I do look to see if I ever have any stamps to fill your gaps, but so far no, if I do they will be in the post.
Vic
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Nate, Thanks much. With all the positive feedback I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Vi, Mine does not say anything like "straightforward collection". There is however a listing of all the stamps and page number included. It seems all the pages are here so I cannot understand why there are spaces for stamps issued according to Scott that are missing. I hate to cross reference catalogs but I guess I'll just have to drag out my SG cat and try and make sense of it, someday.
The country for today is Panama. For those that love engraved stamps Panama is hard to beat.
Shown is the first page a few other early ones.
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Nice pages. Do you have any colonial Australia stuff (Australian State stamps before Federation)?
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I've just started concentrating on Australian States. Probably another 6 months or so and they will be worth scanning and putting on the website.
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For today Bosnia & Herzegovina Shown are the first third and fourth page from my collection
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Under French mandate in Syria, today's showing is Alaouites Before and after the French mandate stamps of Latakia and Syria were used in this area.
Shown are the first three pages.
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Nice Mitch.
A remark: While the catalog value for M and used stamps are often alike, it is much harder to find the used stamps!
And a correction: Note that on your third page you have 2 copies of the Scott #48, but no Scott 49. While the inking impression is different, in reality the type and size of the two o/p on the stamps should be very different, as you can see in the attached scan.
Cheers..
Rrr...
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Beautiful stamps. Thanks for posting.
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RRR, The way I read the catalog is that the overprint on #48 is upper and lower case and & #49 is all Upper case. Your's are both upper and lower which in my understanding would both be #48
Mitch, Thanks
For today another small and complete country: Portuguese Africa
Shown are the two pages consisting of all the issued stamps.
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That Panama UPU series is one of my favorite stamp series in the whole world. I have never seen a Panama stamp collection where people had all of the stamps from the first series. I just picked up Scott 2 and 3 and am still elated at getting them for full catalog value.
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Thanks Mitch for pointing this error in my album. However that does not resolve the problem (mine anyway).
There are 2 font types used for the 4 of the O/P on the 0.25p
This is mentioned in Scott for the Upper case stamps, which would be #39 and #49
Only one is mentioned for Uper-Lower case #48. Yet there are two very distictive types, as can be seen from my attached scan.
Wonder what they say in Y&T...which unfortunately I don't have.
Here are all the stamps I have. That would make the bottom Right stamp one that is not listed!
rrr...
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Such beautiful stamps.
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smauggie, That set is one of my favorites also, that is why I showed it (without ovpt) instead of many other beautiful pages available. I have a trading pardner who specializes in Panama who has been a big help in building that collection. I know he has all of the first 7 stamps but I rather doubt I will ever get my hands on the #4. Excepting 2,3 and 4 and many of the maps my collection is virtually complete. As with most all overprinted stamps they are at the bottom of my wants so getting all of them is not a priority for me. There is one stamp that has eluded me in case you happen to have an extra #213. I'd like to work a trade.
RRR, I think you are having a problem in "not seeing the forest for the trees". I recall those stamps also causing me much confusion in the past. You need to look at the characters above the "ES" in Alaouites especially the second one. Those characters in #39 are quite different than #48 or #49. I also believe the characters at the bottom are also different but are to hard to see. Although they are quite similar, there is also a little difference in the same characters of 48 and 49. NOTE: on my page the better stamp, #49, is the stamp that has the + sign above it, the one below it is #48. This may have caused you some confusion as they are not in order but how the page was made. I believe this is all correct and helps to clear things up. I take as much precaution as possible in placing stamps in their correct spaces so that among obvious things that my website is a reliable reference.
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Yes Mitch yours are correct, and mine are too, now..thanks for pointing my mistake out.
One clue in my book, in addition to the 4 is the spacing between Alaouites and the arabic caracters above ES (which are a 4 P in arabic, if you want to know)...which is narrow (2 mm) on 39 and wide on the 49 (4 mm). But the 4 of 39 is also sans serif while the 48 and 49 are supposed to have a distinctive serif. The problem these stamps have is that differences in inking make them look different.
But this does not resolve the question I have: what is the stamp I last posted on the Bottom Right of the last scan.
It is a #48 (U-lower case, and
wide (3.5mm) spacing...BUT also a 4 sans serif..so not in my catalog. It is that sans serif feature that has me puzzled.
Incidentally errors in these stamps have to do with the presence and absence of the dot after the P of 4 P, and of course the umbiquious double o/p and inverted o/p, always present and often counterfeits.
But I had never seen the 48 with a sans serif 4, unless I am again looking at inking differences. Puzzled.
rrr...
Still, if you look at the bottom
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I suspect the different type is a forgery.
It has a number of other font differences such as the shape of the "u" in "Alaouites".
However, I suppose it's possible that this is a constant variety arising from the way the overprint was set by the printers, the Capuchin Fathers in Beirut.
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Sorry but I have no idea what the cause of difference is in that last stamp. Nigel may well be corrct but then one would have to ask the question why even bother trying to forge an overprint that adds little value when one could make the #49 OVPT, adding 10 times the value just as easily. All in all it's just another example why I do not care for overprinted stamps.
I'd just put a question mark on it, put it in the margin and move on.........
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Today I'm showing four similar issues of the United States of America. The first set was issued in 1890 and was printed by the American Bank Note co. The second set was issued in 1894 and was the first time that the U.S. Bureau of Engraving printed postage stamps. The same plates were used as those in the 1890 issue with the addition of the triangular shapes in the upper corners. Before then the counterfeiting of U.S. stamps was virtually unheard of and the ones that were made were very crude having little threat to the security of the postal system. However in 1894 passable copies of the 2 cent stamp were counterfeited which caused the postal system to use watermarks for the first time on the following 1895 issue, in attempt to thwart forgeries. Due to UPU regulations the colors of the stamps needed to be changed which resulted in the 1898 issues.
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Today the West African French colony of Dahomey Yet another French colony with the typical beautiful types used in many of the colonies. My favorite of the common issues can be seen on the second page, a set that is second to none for it's eye appeal.
Shown are the first three pages.
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For today the Scandinavian country of Norway
Shown are the first three pages missing the usual suspects.
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Mitch, back to Switzerland for a day if you don't mind. Of the handful of countries that I collect deeper than Big Blue, Switzerland is becoming the hardest to work with. And the stamps are pricey, so mistakes can be costly!
One of the questions I have not been able to resolve is the color differences between SC# 73, 73a, 73b, and 116. All essentially the same 10c design, 11.5 perf, on granite paper. Here are the listings:
73 10c red
73a 10c carmine
73b 10c light rose
116 10c scarlet
Are there any shades of red left?
In your pages, you show three shades for #73. Are those red, carmine and light rose in order?
Then you also show two shades for 116, even though Scott's lists only scarlet. Have you made a new discovery?
I have to thank you again for your online pages. They are a constant reference as much as Jim's Big Blue 1840-1940 and Stamporama itself. They solved a number of other Switzerland problems I had, but this one is still vexing me.
-Steve
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Steve, those stamps can be better identified by their watermark:
73 10c red = watermark 182 type II
73a 10c carmine = watermark 182 type I
73b 10c light rose = watermark 182 type I
116 10c scarlet watermark 183
For 73a and 73b, the difference in color will be very noticeable.
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Michael,
I can't believe the answer was there for me to read all along, albeit in the size 4 small print that these eyes are having a harder time with! Thanks very much.
Steve
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Found a dozen 10c reds I had set aside a few months ago. I think I originally picked these mostly because of the date cancels that ruled out their being SC# 116.
Imagine my pleasant surprise when the watermarks on almost all readily visible to the naked eye.
Now imagine my surprise of a different kind when I read the difference between Watermark 182 Types I and II:
There are two types:
Type 1 -- width just under 9mm
Type 2 -- width just under 8 1/2mm
There are many other differences of 1/10mm to 1/3mm
Yikes! Here's a helpful graphic someone posted to a discussion forum:
The difference in width of the two (8.85mm - 8.4mm = 0.45mm) is the same as the thickness of the line comprising the oval. Not helping matters is the fact that the tic marks on my ruler are themselves between about 0.25mm and 0.33mm--very close to that dangerous point of having the fineness of the measuring device less than the fineness being measured.
After several failures, including one involving a set of calipers from my shop, I decided to create an unmarked measuring gauge that was 9.0mm at one end and 8.5mm at the other end (see bottom of image below). I used this on the dozen stamps with the resulting identification being shown below. I think I'll let my eyes rest and try again later in the week and see if I get the same results.
-Steve
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Steve, I am very glad you find my collection useful in your collecting endeavors. I only wish there had been such a site when I began collecting and hope other will find how useful it can be. There was a lot more info I could have included but a picture tells a thousand words and you can Google anything else.
My Zumstein catalog is in storage so I can not refer to it as for other colors of issue.
I have little doubt that there others than what Scott lists.
I believe the 3 stamps in the #73 slot (top down) are Carmine, Red and Rose. However the colors in the scan do not well match the colors I am seeing in person.
The bottom stamp in the 116 slot is possibly faded although it's close to a Rose (not listed by Scott).
I save all different shades of 19th century stamps no matter where they come from. Often times never being sure which particular shade they are.
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Part V! of page of the day is getting rather large to download so it's time to start on a new one.
To start part VII, one of my favorite South American countries; Argentina Besides the first page which is quite difficult and all of the different watermarks, Argentina is fairly easy to collect.
Shown are the first 3 pages and the page with the 1910 centenary of the Republic issue.
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Switzerland is the country for today. Shown are the first, second, fourth and the 1945 page with the post WWII "Peace" Issue.
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For today the stamps of Bosnia and Herzegovina Shown are the first, second and fourth pages from my collection.
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Today the remote but very colorful stamps of Tannu Tuva. Long fought over by China and Russia, Tannu Tuva won a brief independence of slightly more than 20 years when it was finally incorporated with Russia in 1921.
Shown are my 1st, 2nd, 4th and sixth page which shows why they are quite popular with collectors.
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If you are able to find one, Terra del Fuego could be considered the easiest area to collect. Only one stamp was issued and an interesting history to go with it. I am at my wits end, ever sense I started this post my computer has slowed to nothing. It took me over two hours to complete. So much for trying to do an easy one.
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For today I'm doing something a bit different. As you know I am constantly searching for stamps. I probably spend close to 40 hours a week doing it. That' a lot of searching and I don't know how I can do it any faster. The key to doing it fast is having needlists for most all countries and having my collection scanned so I can quickly reference it instead of dragging out albums. I search the U.S. and pretty much the entire world weekly. I'm never fixed on looking to buy one certain stamp or set but finding the best deal on anything from anywhere, that I need for my collection. The most important thing to know when searching is the approximate value of most stamps so you can find the best deals, this of course takes much time studying catalogs.
The big problem in adding stamps has been money. For the last 16 years I've been living way down on the income curve. I've quit smoking, drinking and mostly eating so that I can spend every extra penny I can on stamps. The good news is that I have a fairly large inheritance coming in soon so I think I can a least double my spending on stamps. At any rate I'm always adding new stuff and especially like buying old 19th U.S century lots. I am most familiar with them and they are my favorites of the world. I often buy them when the price is right and Bank notes are probably my favorites. Except for the grilled issue the rest had been completed years ago, used. However in the past year I've bought enough lots with the right stamps to nearly complete the 1873 issue unused. I've managed to get decent copies of all but the 90 center. They are about 50-50 gum no gum. Out of thousands of 3 centers I have had or seen the 3 center really stands out has having the deepest richest color of all. I think the page looks nice and I am very pleased with it. I've also minted out the 1875 issue to nicely finish off the page. Many other upgrades have also been made for the
19th century
So for today the 1873 Banknote issue. Much bigger scans can be seen of the page(s) by following the 19th century link.
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I was hoping to finish showing all of the countries of the world that I have scanned but it seems I would appear to be the fool in doing so. I've made 21 posts without a single response, no doubt this must be a record. I've showed mostly the best stamps from 21 countries and no one seems to care or have comment about any of them. I was hoping there would be some interaction with this but obviously I was wrong. I can't imagine that if anyone else had made 21 posts without response that they would continue to do so. I have to admit that there are few posts on this board that interest me, it would seem that our interests are far apart.
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This time of the year is so busy - everyone is in full spring mode cleaning up the yard and house, planting the garden, packing away the winter clothes and so on. There has been a decline across the board, so please don't take it to heart! I've been looking at them every day and enjoying them. Please do keep posting!
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Hi Antonius,
I also enjoy your posts very much and look forward to seeing each new one either late at night my time or the next morning.
I was pleased to see your Tierra del Fuego stamp as that has always been one of my favourites. Julius Popper had an amazing story.
I have a single, a block of four and this pair which shows the imprint of the printers, Juan H. Kidd & Cia. Ltd. of Buenos Aires:
This is my first attempt to scan stamps with a new Epson printer/scanner.
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I don't know about anyone else, but your collection tends to leave me speechless! It is so far advanced over my own collection, that clicking on the "like" button is about all I have to offer.
WB
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Antonius, I look forward to your posts every single day. I always click "like" to try to show my appreciation, but I've only given a written response once or twice. Basically, I'm in awe of your collection, and I regard you as the ultimate collector. I also thoroughly enjoy your comments not only on your collection, but especially your personal comments on your approach to collecting. I am quite impressed with your devotion--there's no other word for it--to our hobby. In the face of your achievement, anything I could say in response to a post would be utterly trite--and so I say nothing and just keep clicking those "likes." I know that I am not alone in my silence, and that many SOR members feel as I do. Please keep up those posts!
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Hey Mitch,
Don't stop posting! I love checking out the scans that you post. I don't always comment on them because I haven't had a lot of exposure to world wide stamps. Those Tannu Tuva stamps from 1934 and 35 are downright striking. Don't recall ever seeing them.
Have a great weekend up in that there Kansas.
-Ernie
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02:40:10pm
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" I have to admit that there are few posts on this board that interest me, it would seem that our interests are far apart."
Nice postings but my interests don't really match up either
No comments? - time to move on where one is more appreciated I guess
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Hey, Mitchell!
Please continue on!
Like some of the others have said, a think a lot of us have nothing really to add -- but that doesn't mean that I don't really, really enjoy them! It feels like an opportunity to "get up close and personal" with them, especially the stamps of the classic era, which I usually don't get to see many of.
I, too, am one of those people that usually clicks "like", but my count got a little behind, as I had to step away from the computer for a couple of weeks to deal with some pressing family matters.
Anyway, keep on!
-- Dave
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I was hoping that starting the 'Page of the Day" would have given a daily opportunity to have a discussion on the different areas. This obviously has not happened which I think is unfortunate. I really thought that the last couple postings I made on Terra del Fuego or the banknotes would have received some comments or questions. When they did not it seemed like there was nothing I could post that would generate a conversation without a deliberate question. However conversation was not the only reason I started the P.O.D.. The primary reason was to introduce collectors to new areas hoping they might be encouraged to collect something new. It is unclear if that goal has been realized at all.
The "likes" have not gone unoticed and they are much apppreciated.
JB1214, You did not have to go to all of the trouble of creating a new ID today to respond to my post.. This would be against the rules on most boards.
There are other reasons for doing the "P.O.D." so I guess I will keep doing it as long as there is interest
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Mitchell, I know I've been also influenced by the policies of some other boards, where, when there's a principal contributor on a thread (like you on this thread), then oftentimes posts from others are not encouraged, or sometimes even discouraged or forbidden, in order that there is not much interruption of the flow that the principal contributor provides.
For that reason alone, I don't usually ask questions on a thread like this, unless I think there's an especially burning need to seek clarification about a particular point. Perhaps this influenced some others as well.
But I'm glad you'll continue to post. I think a lot of people find it very beneficial.
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Phil, Yes I wondering about that and would certainly be the most welcome answer. You know this isn't the first or even second time I've started this thread. I've managed to make it farther than before but there are still 140 left to go and most of the major countries have been done. I'll try and finish it up
For today the central American country of Salvador. Salvador produced many beautiful stamps but the country is rather had to collect. There were a great deal of overprinted stamps from the start of the twentieth century into the 1930's. Many of these issues are extremely hard to find much like similar issues in Nicaragua and Honduras. Showing the 1st page and a couple later ones.
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Mitchell, like many others I have enjoyed viewing your collection and have also looked at some of the pages on your website (jealously I might add).
I have found it interesting that you are happy to mix mint and used within a set on the page, something I would not have thought of doing in my own very disorganized collection.
I think that you have given us all food for thought in the way we structure our collections and hopefully we are all learning that even the minor countries, normally ignored, have attractive stamps that can be a great addition to our albums.
As someone who, prior to joining Stamporama, was really only accumulating a country and not looking much further than pretty designs and completion of years/countries, you have given myself and others plenty of ideas for furthering our knowledge and horizons.
Thank you for taking the time to show your wares and please continue, it is appreciated.
Vic
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10:06:46am
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I have also enjoyed looking at your pages on a daily basis. I hope to one day have a world wide collection as nice as yours!
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Vinman, At least you don't have to collect them to enjoy them. I have always enjoyed looking at stamps. Thinking that others did as well was the main reason I started my site in the first place. It was not long ago that this was difficult to do.
Sheepshanks, Re: mixing mint and used. I decided long ago to simply find the nicest representative copy of any stamp that I can. Passing over a used stamp to complete a mint set often means that you will never complete the set. Some stamps are nearly impossible to get one way or the other. limiting your collection to one or the other means there will always be big gaps in your collection. I prefer mint and am always looking to upgrade used stamps to mint but realize it is not always possible. I hardly ever see collections for sale that are only mint or used which I assume means I am not alone in the way I collect. My goal is to find all of the pieces to this great puzzle one way or the other, Many stamps will only come your way once and I would rather fill the space than not because of setting limitations of mint or used.
kam41566, Thanks, hopefully you will find the time. It is difficult to express how much time it takes.
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For today the island of Crete Long part of Greece it issued it's own stamps for a few years before using the stamps of Greece. Shown are the first pages issued by the Cretan government.
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Hi AntoniusRa,
Crete is my favourite collecting area so it's great to see these pages.
There are some very nice stamps and postmarks, and a lot of history.
Technically the island was still an Ottoman possession when these stamps were issued but its autonomy was guaranteed by four European powers (Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia).
These countries each took responsibility for administering part of the island in what were basically friendly zones of occupation.
The 1908 black and green one drachma stamp commemorates the arrival of Prince George of Greece in 1898 at Suda Bay to act as High Commissioner on behalf of these powers. In the image he is being greeted by the admirals of the European naval units that were deployed to Crete.
Prince George also appears on the red ten lepta stamp of 1900.
He wasn't very successful politically and was replaced by the more popular Alexander Zaïmis in 1906. He appears on the fine black and blue 25 lepta stamp of 1907 with his monocle and excellent moustache.
The ΕΛΛΑΣ ("GREECE") overprint on the stamps on page three indicated the island's wish to become part of Greece.
The stamps were produced by Bradbury, Wilkinson in London and most were based on designs from ancient coins found in Crete.
The first stamps were issued on 1st March 1900. It looks to me as though your one drachma stamp at the bottom of page one has a ΧΑÎΙΑ postmark from 4th March 1900, so only the fourth day of use.
My apologies if I've rambled on too much!
Thanks again.
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Nigel, Thanks for your input, you have answered a few questions I've had about these issues. Greece is one of my most favorites countries and they go hand in hand. I have a few of the tridents and earlier issues but they are sparse and not yet scanned. I look for them occasionally but they are not yet priorities like the remaining blank space of the later ones shown.
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11:00:07am
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Hi Mitch
I really enjoy looking at (drooling over?) your album pages. I do have a question, though.
I've been rereading a few forgery-related books that I have in my stamp library, particular one by Varro Tyler. Anyway, I'm wondering how you keep the forgeries out of your collection. It seems to me that many earlier stamps, especially from less mainstream countries, are rife with forgeries. If you have a suggestion for separating the chaff from the wheat, I'd love to hear it.
Eric
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02 May 2016
12:44:07pm
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"I've made 21 posts without a single response, no doubt this must be a record. I've showed mostly the best stamps from 21 countries and no one seems to care or have comment about any of them. "
Mitch...Mea Culpa...I have taken it for granted! It is the one thing I start looking at, daily, when I log into SOR. Always amazed by the scope of your collection, and jalous I may add
. I will take your posted scans and compare them to my gap-filled pages, and smile in the rare (very rare) cases when I have a stamp you still miss! What an incredible collection! I some times feel I should give you the lonely stamps you miss in your quest (when I have them), as yours is truly a monumental job that deserves recognition.Bravo Mitch, and please continue. Even if we are silent, we consider it among the special pleasures of life that we look forward to, on a daily basis.
rrr...
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Eric,
I've had a lot of help from knowledgeable experts over the years as well as publications like album weeds etc. Of course there must be forgeries lurking in my collection but I do try and research suspects. There are some forgeries that I know of in mu collection and the are marked with a X or F or both. In most cases they can be found on the internet if you look in the right places. Of course some are so good that it is hard to be confident
in identifying them correctly. It's just another part of the challenge.
RRR, GPerry et al, Thanks so much for the praise and encouragement. Knowing there us no shortage of appreciation is just what I need to continue.
Now I need to pick a country for today, I've been sidetracked dealing with some new auction
lots that came today.
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For today one of the first countries alphabetically and one I thought I had already shown, Aden
Shown are the first three pages.
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Mitch, I've been following this thread since the beginning. I'm no longer collecting and haven't collected worldwide since I was a kid. Later in life, my focus was on colonial Africa and to a lesser degree pre-1940 Caribbean, plus a few other odds and ends where nicely-designed and engraved pre-1940 stamps were issued. So, much of what you're presenting is new to me and that's been great to watch. I don't log in every day, but I haven't missed any of your collection posts. And, I've been a liberal user of the "Like" feature from the beginning.
I've been surprised by the number of times I'm one of only one or two who have bothered to "Like" your presentations. I could understand not having the time to comment, but couldn't understand not having the time to "Like" what you're doing each day. So, I'm pleased to see all the positive feedback you've received in the past few days. I hope that means you'll be continuing this project for a very long time! Even if doing this daily gets to be too much of a burden, switching to 1-2 countries per week would be fine with me. The attraction would still be there. And, I would continue to be a liberal user of the "Like" feature either way! Carry on!
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Mitch, Aden happens to be one of the countries outside my collecting focus where I had the opportunity to buy most of the first set mint and did so. I eventually completed that first set. So, in spite of my pre-1940 mint colonial Africa and Caribbean focus, I was an opportunistic worldwide collector if a country issued a very attractive pre-1940 set like the Aden dhows. Although I no longer have the Aden stamps themselves, I still have them in my digital "collection" and enjoy seeing you share your album pages that include these stamps. Keep up the good work!
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Nice stamps, Mitch.
Unfortunately, Aden has suffered a lot of damage, and many casualties, in an ongoing civil war. Much of the havoc has been caused by Saudi bombing.
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10:18:39pm
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A-Ra, with all my daily responsibilities, it is sometimes hard to find the time to work on my World Wide collection. I am, however, in my mid 30's, so I have a lot of time left to work on it. I recently hit 60,000 different stamps in my collection. I am sure this is nothing compared to your collection, but it is a big milestone for me. I also have stacks and stacks of stamps still to go through, so I am sure the number is higher than that. Like you, I also try to display the best stamp, and mix mint and used in the collection. If I get a mint copy, I will save used stamps that have nice cancels on them. The only exception is my USA collection which is MNH only. It was my first stamp collection from childhood, and I am very picky with what I add to this collection. I didn't start world wide collecting until I was an adult.
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Keesindy, Those top 3 stamps of the Aden set are hard to come by. I've seen them a few times at auction but always get outbid. They of course are a priority as are all first stamps, sets and pages for all countries. One of these days....
For today the the small Mediterranean Island of Castellorizo. Formerly a French possession it was ceded to Italy after WWI. After WWII it was ceded to Greece who still claims it. A total of 40 stamps were printed for the Italian occupation all of which were Italian stamps with overprint except for the 1923 set of map and flag.
Shown are the two pages of issued stamps.
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A-Ra, I always look at your pages, although I do not comment. It is very fascinating to see the level of completion and presentation. I envy the collection. Some of my biggest thrills are on the rare occasions where I prefer my own to yours, like I said rare. I also visit your site for reference and enjoyment.
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Ryan, Thanks much, I'm glad you are using it for reference. I only wish there had been such a site when I was building the bulk of my collection. Having the thumbnails to quickly find the stamp you are looking for and the rest of the set is the quickest way I know to put things in order. I use it myself for putting stamps in order when listing them for sale.
For today a couple sets that I consider some of the most beautiful stamps in the world. They are the 1875 and 1895-7 U.S. Newspaper Stamps. The first set are proofs and the second set the issued stamps. They are both quite affordable in this form. The 1875 stamps are very expensive and 1895-7 proofs are more expensive than the stamps. So if you find you just can't resist them as I do, this is the way to go.
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Very nice. My preference is for used stamps. I prefer those cancels and other indications of use.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
"Keesindy, Those top 3 stamps of the Aden set are hard to come by. I've seen them a few times at auction but always get outbid. They of course are a priority as are all first stamps, sets and pages for all countries. One of these days...."
Mitch, I was buying stamps back in the 1980s and very early 1990s, mostly 1950s era specialized mint collections. Nearly everything I bought came from auctions, including those three Aden stamps (10, 11 and 12) I bought individually. I sold all three on eBay in January of 2009 to two different bidders. I got $43.55 (8 bids), $92.51 (4 bids) and $232.00 (9 bids) for them, respectively. I don't know what I paid for #10, but my purchase prices for the other two were about half what I sold them for. #11 was MNH. I wasn't bargain-hunting in those days.
I would never have bought these stamps in 2009 for the prices I sold them for! Too costly!
I hope you get an opportunity to get all three for a good price one of these days!
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Ryan, To each his own, while I like a nice S.O.N. C.D.S. as well as the next guy, I think these stamps are to beautiful to me to want them defaced by cancels.
Keesindy, It must have been a long time ago when I noted the catalog values in their spaces as $8, $40 and $125. It seems the current market value is somewhere around half of cat value. No wonder I keep getting outbid on them. I'll have to get very lucky to find a #11 or 12 at a price I am willing to pay. Stranger things have happened but it doesn't look that promising in filling those spaces.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Happy Cinco de Mayo! so befittingly the country of the day is Mexico. Without doubt Mexico is one of the most difficult countries to collect. Unless you want to get serious and specialize in it, I feel the best way for most people is to collect types. Collecting one of each different stamp types and a stamp with one each of the numerous overprints would make a nice collection and still be quite challenging. My Scott Specialty pages have spaces for all the issues and I doubt I will ever get to 80% completion. Shown are the first page and a couple later ones.
NOTE: The first stamp in the last row is one of my favorite stamp designs.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
The country for today is French West Africa If you're are looking for a country that is easy to complete than this one may be for you. The entire colony plus back of book catalogs for less then $150.00 and they are pretty easy to come by
Shown are the first three pages.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Mitch:
Absolutely lovely stamps.
David
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
The country for today is Colombia. I have saved Colombia for my last country in Latin America to focus on because many of the early stamps are expensive and hard to come by. For a long time the only stamp had on the first page was #1. Lately I've added three more leaving the page quite empty but with a catalog value of $850.00. Who knows if and when I will add any more as they are hard to find. Colombian States are also quite a challenge but I like the stamps and would like to get a nicer showing than what I have already. They are good enough to show but I have not got around to scanning them yet. Shown are the first three pages and the Special Delivery page that contains the only Special Delivery stamp Colombia ever issue. The multiple of 30 is one of my favorite items and is the largest known multiple of this scarce stamp. There area said to be around 150 mint stamps in existence and only 7 used, 3 of which are on cover.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
The country for today is Belgian East AfricaThe stamps are very similar to the stamps of Belgian Congo and many are actually Congo stamps with additional overprints.
Shown are the first page and a couple latter ones.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
For today Austrian offices in Turkey. Like many major countries Austria has printed stamps for use offices abroad. Today added a few stamps to these pages so I am showing them today. Showing the only three pages.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Just took another trip through the collection.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Rjan, Hope you had a nice trip. Even though I've seen all of them countless times I pick out several countries everyday just to look at. I just never seem to grow tired of it.
Sorry for missing the the Page of the Day yesterday, I just didn't have the time.
For today Thailand One of the more difficult countries to collect, I have never had much luck getting the material that I am missing. There are a great many early overprint issues and higher values to sets that one never sees and they are usually quite pricey.
Shown is the first page and a couple later ones.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Located in North Western Africa the country today is the French Colony of Mauritania
Shown is the beautiful first page/set and a couple latter ones.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Mitch, I really like the French Colonies. As a kid in the mid 60's looking at some of the exotic locations of these stamps, transported me away from the brutal Minnesota winters. Thanks for posting.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Fred, I to remember some of those brutal Minnesota winters in the sixties, in Moorhead.
The winters there were bad but ten years earlier I lived in Alaska. The only reason I've had for cold whether since was for Skiing but now I'm to old for that.
For today the short lived country of Central Lithuania Shown are the first three pages.
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I don't think I could ever tire of seeing these every day. They are like a jolt of sheer enthusiasm and joy for the hobby of kings. Being a specialist makes it even more delightful as I am able to see material I rarely encounter and I'm reminded of the incredible depth and range of worldwide collecting.
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It's hard for me to comprehend why us collectors find them so compelling while the non collectors have little interest. I wonder what makes us different? Having collected the whole world for most of my life I often forget that others collect only a country or two and they are not much aware of other areas. It is hard to comprehend how may stamps there are except for the few of us that collect the whole world. Some days I think I've made a lot of progress but the next day realize how much farther there is to go.
Today the country started it all: Great BritainI've been working on the 19th century for the last several months as it has been mostly ignored until lately. There is still a ways to go on the stamps I can reasonably hope to obtain but many I doubt I shall never get.
There are also several that need upgrading including #1. Several years ago I thought it would be a good idea to replace my Scott Specialty pages with SG Davo hingeless albums. The strange thing is that the Davo first pages leave out spaces for many of the early issues. Since the album is Stanley Gibbons premier album for G.B., I thought it would be the most comprehensive but it is far from it. I've had to add the second page and several other spaces for stamps that were not represented. I can't help wonder if there were a couple pages missing when I got the albums. If anyone else has these could you please check if there are pages I don't show"?
Shown are the first three pages:
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
AntoniusRa,
I love this stuff. Please keep posting and thanks for creating your website, which I consider a reference work.
Regards,
Nate
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Mitch I have the SG Davo album but not hingeless. The frontspiece/forword does state it is for a straightforward collection, maybe yours also does.
Maybe one day I'll get around to sorting my GB from the dozen or so books, various envelopes and boxes and get organized. Never seems enough time in the day.
Today I have to rake over the veg patch 54x54 feet ready for planting over the next couple of weeks. Weed the flower beds, trim dead growth. Work on finishing up the interior of the house we rent out, Do a full time job and help keep house.
Where does the time go, yesterday cut grass for 3 hours and still have around an acre to do. Fortunately ran out of petrol.
I do look to see if I ever have any stamps to fill your gaps, but so far no, if I do they will be in the post.
Vic
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Nate, Thanks much. With all the positive feedback I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Vi, Mine does not say anything like "straightforward collection". There is however a listing of all the stamps and page number included. It seems all the pages are here so I cannot understand why there are spaces for stamps issued according to Scott that are missing. I hate to cross reference catalogs but I guess I'll just have to drag out my SG cat and try and make sense of it, someday.
The country for today is Panama. For those that love engraved stamps Panama is hard to beat.
Shown is the first page a few other early ones.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Nice pages. Do you have any colonial Australia stuff (Australian State stamps before Federation)?
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I've just started concentrating on Australian States. Probably another 6 months or so and they will be worth scanning and putting on the website.
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For today Bosnia & Herzegovina Shown are the first third and fourth page from my collection
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Under French mandate in Syria, today's showing is Alaouites Before and after the French mandate stamps of Latakia and Syria were used in this area.
Shown are the first three pages.
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Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant
18 May 2016
01:38:25am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Nice Mitch.
A remark: While the catalog value for M and used stamps are often alike, it is much harder to find the used stamps!
And a correction: Note that on your third page you have 2 copies of the Scott #48, but no Scott 49. While the inking impression is different, in reality the type and size of the two o/p on the stamps should be very different, as you can see in the attached scan.
Cheers..
Rrr...
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01:18:37pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Beautiful stamps. Thanks for posting.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
RRR, The way I read the catalog is that the overprint on #48 is upper and lower case and & #49 is all Upper case. Your's are both upper and lower which in my understanding would both be #48
Mitch, Thanks
For today another small and complete country: Portuguese Africa
Shown are the two pages consisting of all the issued stamps.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
That Panama UPU series is one of my favorite stamp series in the whole world. I have never seen a Panama stamp collection where people had all of the stamps from the first series. I just picked up Scott 2 and 3 and am still elated at getting them for full catalog value.
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Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant
19 May 2016
05:20:44pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Thanks Mitch for pointing this error in my album. However that does not resolve the problem (mine anyway).
There are 2 font types used for the 4 of the O/P on the 0.25p
This is mentioned in Scott for the Upper case stamps, which would be #39 and #49
Only one is mentioned for Uper-Lower case #48. Yet there are two very distictive types, as can be seen from my attached scan.
Wonder what they say in Y&T...which unfortunately I don't have.
Here are all the stamps I have. That would make the bottom Right stamp one that is not listed!
rrr...
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Such beautiful stamps.
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smauggie, That set is one of my favorites also, that is why I showed it (without ovpt) instead of many other beautiful pages available. I have a trading pardner who specializes in Panama who has been a big help in building that collection. I know he has all of the first 7 stamps but I rather doubt I will ever get my hands on the #4. Excepting 2,3 and 4 and many of the maps my collection is virtually complete. As with most all overprinted stamps they are at the bottom of my wants so getting all of them is not a priority for me. There is one stamp that has eluded me in case you happen to have an extra #213. I'd like to work a trade.
RRR, I think you are having a problem in "not seeing the forest for the trees". I recall those stamps also causing me much confusion in the past. You need to look at the characters above the "ES" in Alaouites especially the second one. Those characters in #39 are quite different than #48 or #49. I also believe the characters at the bottom are also different but are to hard to see. Although they are quite similar, there is also a little difference in the same characters of 48 and 49. NOTE: on my page the better stamp, #49, is the stamp that has the + sign above it, the one below it is #48. This may have caused you some confusion as they are not in order but how the page was made. I believe this is all correct and helps to clear things up. I take as much precaution as possible in placing stamps in their correct spaces so that among obvious things that my website is a reliable reference.
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Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant
19 May 2016
07:56:41pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Yes Mitch yours are correct, and mine are too, now..thanks for pointing my mistake out.
One clue in my book, in addition to the 4 is the spacing between Alaouites and the arabic caracters above ES (which are a 4 P in arabic, if you want to know)...which is narrow (2 mm) on 39 and wide on the 49 (4 mm). But the 4 of 39 is also sans serif while the 48 and 49 are supposed to have a distinctive serif. The problem these stamps have is that differences in inking make them look different.
But this does not resolve the question I have: what is the stamp I last posted on the Bottom Right of the last scan.
It is a #48 (U-lower case, and
wide (3.5mm) spacing...BUT also a 4 sans serif..so not in my catalog. It is that sans serif feature that has me puzzled.
Incidentally errors in these stamps have to do with the presence and absence of the dot after the P of 4 P, and of course the umbiquious double o/p and inverted o/p, always present and often counterfeits.
But I had never seen the 48 with a sans serif 4, unless I am again looking at inking differences. Puzzled.
rrr...
Still, if you look at the bottom
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
I suspect the different type is a forgery.
It has a number of other font differences such as the shape of the "u" in "Alaouites".
However, I suppose it's possible that this is a constant variety arising from the way the overprint was set by the printers, the Capuchin Fathers in Beirut.
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Sorry but I have no idea what the cause of difference is in that last stamp. Nigel may well be corrct but then one would have to ask the question why even bother trying to forge an overprint that adds little value when one could make the #49 OVPT, adding 10 times the value just as easily. All in all it's just another example why I do not care for overprinted stamps.
I'd just put a question mark on it, put it in the margin and move on.........
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Today I'm showing four similar issues of the United States of America. The first set was issued in 1890 and was printed by the American Bank Note co. The second set was issued in 1894 and was the first time that the U.S. Bureau of Engraving printed postage stamps. The same plates were used as those in the 1890 issue with the addition of the triangular shapes in the upper corners. Before then the counterfeiting of U.S. stamps was virtually unheard of and the ones that were made were very crude having little threat to the security of the postal system. However in 1894 passable copies of the 2 cent stamp were counterfeited which caused the postal system to use watermarks for the first time on the following 1895 issue, in attempt to thwart forgeries. Due to UPU regulations the colors of the stamps needed to be changed which resulted in the 1898 issues.
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Today the West African French colony of Dahomey Yet another French colony with the typical beautiful types used in many of the colonies. My favorite of the common issues can be seen on the second page, a set that is second to none for it's eye appeal.
Shown are the first three pages.
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For today the Scandinavian country of Norway
Shown are the first three pages missing the usual suspects.
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Mitch, back to Switzerland for a day if you don't mind. Of the handful of countries that I collect deeper than Big Blue, Switzerland is becoming the hardest to work with. And the stamps are pricey, so mistakes can be costly!
One of the questions I have not been able to resolve is the color differences between SC# 73, 73a, 73b, and 116. All essentially the same 10c design, 11.5 perf, on granite paper. Here are the listings:
73 10c red
73a 10c carmine
73b 10c light rose
116 10c scarlet
Are there any shades of red left?
In your pages, you show three shades for #73. Are those red, carmine and light rose in order?
Then you also show two shades for 116, even though Scott's lists only scarlet. Have you made a new discovery?
I have to thank you again for your online pages. They are a constant reference as much as Jim's Big Blue 1840-1940 and Stamporama itself. They solved a number of other Switzerland problems I had, but this one is still vexing me.
-Steve
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Steve, those stamps can be better identified by their watermark:
73 10c red = watermark 182 type II
73a 10c carmine = watermark 182 type I
73b 10c light rose = watermark 182 type I
116 10c scarlet watermark 183
For 73a and 73b, the difference in color will be very noticeable.
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Michael,
I can't believe the answer was there for me to read all along, albeit in the size 4 small print that these eyes are having a harder time with! Thanks very much.
Steve
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Found a dozen 10c reds I had set aside a few months ago. I think I originally picked these mostly because of the date cancels that ruled out their being SC# 116.
Imagine my pleasant surprise when the watermarks on almost all readily visible to the naked eye.
Now imagine my surprise of a different kind when I read the difference between Watermark 182 Types I and II:
There are two types:
Type 1 -- width just under 9mm
Type 2 -- width just under 8 1/2mm
There are many other differences of 1/10mm to 1/3mm
Yikes! Here's a helpful graphic someone posted to a discussion forum:
The difference in width of the two (8.85mm - 8.4mm = 0.45mm) is the same as the thickness of the line comprising the oval. Not helping matters is the fact that the tic marks on my ruler are themselves between about 0.25mm and 0.33mm--very close to that dangerous point of having the fineness of the measuring device less than the fineness being measured.
After several failures, including one involving a set of calipers from my shop, I decided to create an unmarked measuring gauge that was 9.0mm at one end and 8.5mm at the other end (see bottom of image below). I used this on the dozen stamps with the resulting identification being shown below. I think I'll let my eyes rest and try again later in the week and see if I get the same results.
-Steve
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re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VII
Steve, I am very glad you find my collection useful in your collecting endeavors. I only wish there had been such a site when I began collecting and hope other will find how useful it can be. There was a lot more info I could have included but a picture tells a thousand words and you can Google anything else.
My Zumstein catalog is in storage so I can not refer to it as for other colors of issue.
I have little doubt that there others than what Scott lists.
I believe the 3 stamps in the #73 slot (top down) are Carmine, Red and Rose. However the colors in the scan do not well match the colors I am seeing in person.
The bottom stamp in the 116 slot is possibly faded although it's close to a Rose (not listed by Scott).
I save all different shades of 19th century stamps no matter where they come from. Often times never being sure which particular shade they are.
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