Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I printed my own copy of the album two sided on archival quality paper which is slightly higher weight than standard copy paper that I acquired from Archival Methods and bound it using a wire binding using oversize rings at Office Depot (so that the thickness increase of the album as stamps in mounts are added to the album can be handled) with clear frosted front and back plastic cover sheets. This turned out very well.
Note that I chose to print the landscape oriented album two sided with flipping on the short side. I mention this as one approach to the album. If you want to put it in a three ring binder in landscape mode you will probably want to print it with flipping on the long side if you print it two sided. A three ring binder would let you add additional content to the album on page inserts such as covers that you come across related to the the album's coverage or excerpts from news articles.
It would be interesting to hear of your experiences with your initial entries into your Smithsonian album such as how many entries were you able to make by pulling from your personal duplicates into the album and how you are progressing with your collection. I suspect that finding stamps for the Other Stamp Issuing Entities will be a significant challenge for most of us! But, of course, the search is the real reward of the collection effort.
Also, please be aware that there are quite a few possibilities for extending the album or making relatively minor corrections to its content but I believe it represents a very solid goal for the stamp collector as created by the author.
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I've sent out some initial copies of the Excel based checklist for the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album and received responses indicating successful arrival.
Just went through my first duplicate album, a Scott International Part II as it happens, and can report that I have found 27 different countries to add to my newly printed and bound Smithsonian album. I am looking in my collected duplicates or remainder collections for a mint stamp to use for each entry in the album. Each was added to the album using a Scott mount. A slow start but quite interesting as I try to pick a stamp to use. I even found some stamps that I had somehow missed to add to my International I-V main collection as I verified each stamp to be sure that it was a duplicate!
Best find was an Italian Socialist Republic issue which filled one entry that I had not expected to see at all much less as a duplicate!
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Thank you for sending the checklist!
This is quite a list, I never thought there would be so many postal entities, over 600 on the main list. It does look like a fun collection.
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I just checked and there should be 785 separate stamps in a completed album so this is definitely going to represent a challenge. It should make for a very interesting time at a stamp show to look for candidate stamps for inexpensive entries for the album or here on Stamporama in the approvals section once I have completed my review of existing duplicate stamps. Fortunately there are a couple of stamp shows coming up locally within the next couple of months. 
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Interestingly I am starting to notice new countries every day as I look through the postings here, on eBay, and even in today's new arrival of the The American Philatelist. I suspect that this collection may have some unexpected benefits in raising curiosity about both time and place as represented by the changing countries.
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Here is the link to the Smithsonian page with the album:
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/stampgallery/everycountryalbum.html
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"I just checked and there should be 785 separate stamps in a completed album so this is definitely going to represent a challenge."
Many of which we've never heard of!
The list is very interesting. There are a mess of Indian states, but Germany isn't broken down to eras such as the "Third Reich" and then modern German.
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I recently acquired a 1935 edition of the Scott Modern Postage Stamp album (now cleaned out and looking almost brand new!) and for comparison created an Excel spread sheet of the stamp issuing entitites and counted up the number of them detailed in that compact, just under 1" (24mm) thick album. It includes spaces for 395 different stamp issuing entities including a large number of Italian entities not covered by the Smithsonian album so even some small world wide albums can be helpful if you want to expand the scope. Interestingly many of the represented Italian entities don't seem to be in the current Scott catalogs although I will need more access to current catalogs to see if I am just not looking in the right place in the catalog for my admittedly hurried review.
Looks like I need to check out the representations in the International albums as well! More later after I go through the first five volumes which I have available.
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Continuing with the theme of the number of different countries represented in albums:
Internatlonal Part 1A1 through 1B2 - 370 not including Indian States
International Part 2 - 246
International Part 3 - 224
International Part 4 - 207
International Part 5 - 215
Note that these numbers are for the currently being offered pages from Scott/Amos Media. Earlier versions of the International Part I album do include some countries that were removed from later editions.
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For those interested in pursuing only the different countries portion of the album and who would prefer to leave out the military police, occupation, local posts, etc. issues there are 680 countries in the abbreviated version. Currently I am up to 368 of 680 using this method and only have 10 of 105 of the stamp issuing entries in the back sections as an example of the impact of this change on the 785 total in the album.
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Interesting...
There are some people who collect #1's from every country (and/or stamp-issuing entity). Obviously that could be quite expensive for many countries (but surprising not for many others!). Collecting ANY stamp from every country seems a bit "random" to me. For example, one could just get the cheapest modern stamps from each country, resulting in a not very interesting collection (in my opinion). Having more interest in classic stamps myself, I think it would be interesting to do more of a "hybrid" style, and say you're going to collect the earliest stamp you can reasonably afford from every country. That way, you'd have a good mixture of classic stamps and some more modern ones too.
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"Collecting ANY stamp from every country seems a bit "random" to me"
When it comes to modern countries you can easily select an appropriate stamp. I chose 231 (Columbian Expo) for US just because I like that series. One of my modern Bosnia stamps features Novak Djokavic because my wife and I both enjoy playing and watching tennis. When it comes to some of the older issues (like all of those India Convention States and Feudatory States) there are sometimes only a few choices and after factoring in issues that have prevalent fakes and expensive items, you may only have a handful of options.
But everyone is welcome to collect any way they choose! That's one of the nice things about this collection: There is a lot of room to tailor it to your needs, especially if you are able to create some of your own pages!
Lars
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Note that the Universal Postal Union currently has 192 members so that means there are at least 488 countries that are represented by older stamps plus in most cases as a stamp collector it is much easier to find older stamps than new stamps so I would not underestimate the challenge of completing this collection even if you ignore Basel with a current minimum catalog value in the thousands of dollars.
Had a great day finding stamps in a series of U-pick albums at a local stamp store today and now have 409 of 785 stamp issuing entities! Latest stamp issuing entities added to the album include Cape of Good Hope Scott #4, Muscat and Oman Scott #97, Libia Scott #2, Orange River Free State Scott #4, Tasmania Scott # 17, Saudi Arabia Scott #621, Northern Nigeria Scott #10, Senegambia and Niger Scott #2, Allenstein Scott #16, Egypt Scott #60, Indian State - Chamba Scott #50, Indian State - Jhind Scott #64, Transvaal Scott # 281, Kiauchau Scott #23, Hejd Scott #L10, German East Africa Scott #31, German New Guinea Scott #22, Elobey ... Scott #40, Ivory Coast Scott #45, German South West Africa Scott #26, Grand Comoro Scott #23, and Ubangi-Shari-Chad Scott #4. Of course, it should be mentioned that it took almost six hours to go through the U-pick albums to find these new items for the Smithsonian album.
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Received another stamp album yesterday and this evening went through it preparing a country list. New album is a fairly recent vintage H.E. Harris and Co. Traveler Worldwide Stamp Album copyright 2007. It has illustrations and spaces for 436 different countries with a wide mix of both modern and older countries. It seems quite surprising that this "beginner" album would encompass such an incredibly broad mix of issues. This version seems to have a bit more space between rows and stamp pictures than the H.E. Harris albums I remember from the past and which makes for a much nicer presentation.
I wonder if anyone ever completed one of these albums using the stamps covered by the album. Does anyone know of any that were completed by chance?
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Attended the Seapex 2018 show today and found quite a number of new additions for the Smithsonian album. I now have 450 of 785 items from the album. Also, discussed available local stamp clubs with a dealer who was able to introduce me to a couple of members of the Greater Eastside Stamp Society which meets not too far from me a couple of times a month so hope to visit the club for a meeting in the near future.
New additions included stamps for Diego-Suarez Scott #26, French Congo Scott #42, East Africa and Uganda Scott #62, India - Nabha State Scott #8, Penrhyn Island Scott #25, Hawaii Scott #74, Hawaii - Kingdom Scott #37, Hawaii - Provisional Government Scott # 55, Portuguese Congo Scott # 11, Ponta Delgada Scott #30, Lourenco Marques Scott #B2, Inhambane Scott #84, Horta Scott #3, Heligoland Scott #4, Cape Juby Scott #54, Togo Scott #16, Samoa Scott #68, Marshall Islands Scott #23, Mariana Islands Scott # 30, Iraq Scott #173, India - Jaipur State Scott #O30, Western Australia Scott #58, Victoria Scott #179, Queensland Scott #113, South Australia Scott #116, Samoa Scott #11g, Somaliland Protectorate Scott #129, Zanzibar Scott #224, Tuvalu Scott #362, Labuan Scott #95, Jersey Scott #249, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika Scott #70, Kenya and Uganda Protectorate Scott #21, DPR Korea Scott #4890, St. Lucia Scott #C1, and St. Kitts Scott #44. I think the prettiest stamp was the one from Jersey, a simple design on a 22x25mm format stamp with nice color choices. I spent almost six hours perusing offerings at the show and had a great visit.
Checked on the stamp from Basel that I had previously mentioned as being available from a dealer but found that the stamp has been sold already. Can't complain as I really can't justify spending that kind of money for a single stamp for this album. I do wish I had had the opportunity to see the stamp though as it is rare enough that it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity (especially one that was offered at a price that was low enough that I could seriously consider buying it due to its being damaged by being cut into at the top even though it is a significant rarity to see one offered).
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Received a 1930 copyright version of the Scott International Junior Postage Stamp Album today and went through it checking for listed stamp issuing entities. It has listings for 431
different entities not counting six India States which had surcharged British India stamps or the thirty "Protected States of the British Empire in India" which issued stamps that were mentioned at the top of otherwise blank pages.
Similar to the earlier mentioned 1935 Scott Modern Postal Album this one is in near perfect condition with even fewer stamps in the album and only stamps which fit the identified items in the album and unusually cleanly placed (more cleanly than I can do I am finding in working on my International I-V albums ). This album is quite noticeable in comparison to the regular Scott International Part I 1840-1940 albums that we know and love in that it has very few unidentified empty spaces in the album listings for choosing stamps from a set to include. Its title page indicates that it has "spaces for some 22,000 varieties from the earliest issues up to the time of publication".
The album is in book form with the dark blue library binding and roughly two inches thick. So far, it is my favorite of the early albums I have acquired trying to find an interesting coverage one volume album that is not too big to handle as a follow-on to the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album on which I have been working. Given the non-loose leaf nature of the album it would not be suitable for use with stamp mounts as if you began to fill it the binding would be stressed. This might even be a problem adding stamps with hinges based on some example albums I have seen lately. The binding side of the album is significantly thicker than the right hand edge so it does appear that it was designed to take into at least partial account the thickness of stamps with hinges once it was put into significant use.
It should be interesting comparing the coverage in the album against the new Scott International albums which are copyright 1997 that are currently being produced and sold through Amos Media.
I worked my way through counting the number of stamps for each stamp issuing entity in the album as well as the number of empty spaces in each entity. Total count for the album was 21,878 pictured and/or with text descriptions and 642 empty spaces so stopping at 1930 rather than 1940 as is done for the regular Part 1A1 through 1B2 albums of today reduces the total number of stamps for the first album significantly from 34,410 that I counted in the currently produced album pages which go to 1940. This album also includes quite a few countries that are excluded from the modern page set.
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I've updated the country count totals and added additional details for the Scott International Junior Postage Stamp Album with a copyright date of 1930.
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Added five new stamps to my Smithsonian album for 455 of 785 stamp issuing entities in the album. New stamps were found while migrating stamps from a Scott International Junior album copyright 1939 to my International Part I-V albums with coverage through 1963. That set of albums just reached 15,000 of 85,586 for 17.5% complete.
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Added ten new stamps today by going through a LARGE volume of u-pick albums so now at 465 of 785 for 59% complete . New countries include Malaysia - Seongei Ujong Scott #32, Malysia - Federated Malay States Scott # 18, Thailand Scott #337, Cyprus Scott # 206, Palestine - British Mandate Scott # 7, Turks Islands - Scott #52, Nevis - British Colony Scott # 21, Nevis - Independent State Scott # 574, Faroe Islands Scott # 16, and Albania - Italian Occupation Scott #300.
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Managed to add a small number of entries for the album this week to bring the album up to 468 of 785 items in place.
New items were for Thurn and Taxis - Northern District Scott #13, Tobago Scott #22, and New Brunswick Scott #9.
Still not a lot of progress on the stamp issuing entities items at the back of the album with only 12 of 105 added so far.
I have been able to attend three meetings for a local stamp club which has had from 12 to 15 members present at each meeting so far. I had the opportunity to share the Smithsonian album during a show and tell segment of one meeting and there was quite a bit of interest in the album. Collecting interests by those in attendance are quite broad with some areas of intense specialization by several members. This is the first opportunity I have had to meet with other collectors in a group setting in person so has been quite interesting.
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Added seven new modern issues today to bring my count to 475 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
Items added were for Belize Scott #385, Belarus Scott #79, Czechoslovakia Scott #2987, Russia Scott #6781(!), Ukraine Scott #240, Estonia Scott #278, and Croatia Scott #304.
Ooh, and checking a new album offering on eBay today saw a collection which contains stamps for Basel, Geneva, and Zurich (actually there were three Basel stamps so I am fairly sure a regular stamp, a proof, and a forgery are all in the collection!). Of course, the vendor expects a final sale price of between $100,000 and $125,000 for the album so this one is likely a pipe dream. 
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Received a Whitman Publishing produced The Modern Collector's Postage Stamp Album today billed as having spaces for over 8,000 different stamps of the world of more than 300 stamp-issuing countries and containing more than 2,400 illustrations with a copyright date of 1935.
Counted countries, illustrations, and spaces in the album and came up with 311 countries, 2,565 illustrations, and 8,132 spaces for stamps. The album groups a number of items like Colombian, Italian, Indian, and Straits Settlements states under single heading such as Native States for Straits Settlements so the count of countries does understate the number of stamp issuing entities represented in the album.
I continue to be amazed at the number of different countries referenced in these albums.
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enjoying following the progress. I am working on this collection as well. it is a blast. I am in the 660s but have also included entities which have been discussed in the other thread. I have seen totals of "issuing entities and territories" into the several thousands depending on how you categorized offices abroad, occupations and such.
Keep us posted !
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The collection with the Basel, Geneva, and Zurich stamps on eBay sold for a lot less than the estimate with a final price of $13,433 against a vendor estimate of $100,000-$125,000. It really felt like the listing was inadequate as there were no lists of stamps with catalog values or any details on stamps with damage or that might have been forgeries.
I tried contacting the vendor to get more details on the collection and though the listing said the collection cataloged for in the range of $575,000 the response was that they didn't have a list of the stamps with catalog values or further details which seemed almost irresponsible for a collection that stopped in 1894 with this kind of estimate. The realized value was very disappointing given the hyperbole of the listing.
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Wow, 660's is VERY impressive. What would you say have been your most productive sources for stamps for the album?
I have been trying to find mint stamps only for all issues, or at least no cancels, but am continuing to play with the idea of starting a second album with all used stamps, ideally with an interesting cancellation. I have, also, thought about creating a similar album but using all "dead" countries only with brief statistics and notes on the dead country. Another idea was to create a Universal Postal Union collection with only stamps from current countries, also, with statistics and notes about each country and, possibly, a page devoted to each country to do a small representative collection for each country rather than a single stamp. Ideally with a range of stamps that would provide some insight into the stamp offerings that make up the country's postal offerings. I keep acquiring some older small albums for ideas to stimulate what might be produced. I believe that Album Easy would be a useful tool for implementing the album and it would also offer the user the option of further customization to meet their interests.
But first I will continue towards seeing how far I can get with the mint issues in my Smithsonian album that is in process.
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Found 9 new issues for the Smithsonian album to bring my total to 484 of 785 issues. Still only 12 of the last 105 issues though so these are definitely going to be quite a challenge. 
New issues included stamps for Transvaal (South African Republic), New South Wales, North Ingermanland, Albania - Italian Domination, Croatia, Thrace, South West Africa, Shanghai, and Jhind (under India Convention States, actually listed in the album as Jind which is, also, listed later under Feudatory States. The first listing is a misspelling on page 79. ).
The new items were mostly found in an older International Postage Stamp Album Junior Edition from which I am pulling some items for my main International I-V album collection in which I have just reached 17.8% completion of the 85,594 stamps it will take to complete that collection. One stamp came from a partial Minkus album which will also be used for filling some spaces in the main International I-V albums (at least I am hoping there are usable stamps in the album).
I had a nice opportunity this morning before church to read through some of the country descriptions from a 100th edition Scott Catalog which was published in 1944. I started from the beginning of the catalog after reading the entries for Switzerland which had a really informative and clearer description of the Canton issues than the current catalog. It was really interesting reading the changing country descriptions that were occurring at the time as the German and Italian offensives were making their mark on Europe and Africa in particular. It, also, brought home to me that even though my school introductions to World War II made it seem like nothing else was happening in the world that at the same time books were being published (even stamp catalogs!) although there were mentions of resource constraints which might impact availability of supply items in the advertising for Scott products at the back of the catalog and there were a couple of insertions in the catalog suggesting the purchase of United States War Savings Stamps with a tagline "MAKE A HOBBY OF YOUR PATRIOTISM".
It was interesting as well to read the advertisement for the The International Album Bound Edition with a heading "TO BE DISCONTINUED" due to the "recent trend toward specialization". This was about the Brown albums which were being replaced by the new Specialty Series. I, also, noticed an advertisement for "THE TEL-I-TONG", a new and useful gadget which "combines a complete, accurate set of metal perforation gauges with a pair of well-balanced tongs and a powerful magnifying glass in nickel polished frame". Has anyone ever seen one of these?
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thanks..it is coming. I actually started the collection around the Single Specimen album from Terra Nova publishing which sadly is no longer available. It is a really cool album with a small description and map of each entity. So, that gave me the initial list. I pillaged my WW collection for the base and then created a want list. I attend quite a few stamp shows and have found the vast majority through dealers. At Garfield Perry in Cle I found a dealer who had a mess of Indian states that came from a specialty collection so were certified on the wild ones. I am down to a handful maybe 6 that are missing from the albums. But I personally expanded it quite a bit with offices, occupations, and other outliers. One of the hardest was South Sudan and a few of the modern entities. I also do quite a few auctions on line. Stampauctionnetwork is a great resource to find many auction houses in one place. New Britain and the the New Republic were a couple pricy ones I bit the bullet on recently.
Keep plugging ! I look forward to seeing the collection. I thing the interesting thing about this type of collection is how different each will be. Would be fun to have a group get together and see which stamps they picked to represent each entity.
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Added one stamp from an 1897 edition of the Scott International album to bring my total to 485 of 785.
New stamp for Brunswick was found while thumbing through a mostly empty album, less than 800 stamps in the album with most of them being for Austria, France, Germany, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. And the only stamp for Brunswick was unused to boot!
Had a nice visit at a local stamp club last night where a show and tell meeting included a really nice Guatemala collection with an almost complete array of air mails up through the early 1970's, catalogs from Ceres for France, Zumstein for Switzerland, and Unitrade for Canada, a twenty stamp sheet for Japan (from the nicest Japan album I've ever seen), and some unusual stampless covers from early Germany. I reviewed the Basel items in the Zumstein catalog as I continue to be fascinated by them. I recently purchased from eBay a pair of mint and cancelled souvenir sheets which celebrate the Basel stamp issuance and am awaiting their arrival from Italy. The sheets include a perforate version of the Basel designs as part of the sheet.
Also, saw APS sales books that the club receives monthly. There were some surpisingly nice stamps with most pricing around 30% of catalog. They just recently changed the countries they are receiving to include France, Great Britain, Switzerland and some others.
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Added two new stamps to bring the total to 487 of 785. New additions were for United Nations - Vienna and Germany - French Legion fighting in Russia with the German Army. The UN - Vienna stamp was on some pages at the back of an old Minkus All American Stamp Album found today, strangely the album only had UN pages which were almost all empty. The German area stamp is quite a strange issue and Lars was instrumental in my recognizing the possible stamps. It actually showed up in a small binder of labels that someone gave me yesterday and is only listed in the Michel catalog. Most of the pages in the small binder had a small quantity of some rather strange labels with one page of Easter and Christmas seals near the back which was why I kept it thinking I might run into someone with an interest. With these two additions I now have 14 of the last 105 "back of the book" issues in the Smithsonian album.
The adventure continues with input from quite unexpected places.
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Acquired a Scott International Postage Stamp Album Nineteeth Century edition copyright 1919 today and went through it building a checklist of the referenced stamp issuing entities for the album and came up with a total of of 343 unique entities including Indian States, Straits Settlements, Colombian, etc. entities. While I have another copy this one prompted me to go through the album determining the number of stamp issuing entities. It provides for a fairly complete list of all stamp issuing entities through 1900.
The purchase was prompted by a combination of a great deal on the album with its included 239 stamps and the opportunity earlier this week to review a fellow collector's lifetime collection in a similar Scott International 19th Century album which is the most complete album of this type I have ever seen following a show and tell session at a local stamp club meeting. I was particularly interested in his pages of stamps for the notoriously difficult to identify early Afghanistan stamps which included some tip-in pages with different colored papers used for the stamps. The album definitely represented a long time labor of love with meticulous attention to detail! I really appreciate the opportunity he gave me to review the stamps which I have previously seen only through pictures from a catalog in a DVD collection of philatelic books.
During my section of the show and tell session I passed around my tenth edition of the Scott International album which is copyright 1892. I had thought the album had no stamps in it at all but during the detailed look by the members at the album which most seemed to find fascinating one pasted down stamp was found which had never been removed from the album probably because the person who originally removed stamps from the album couldn't find a way to remove the stamp. . While the stamp itself is neither valuable nor attractive its tenacity of attachment is somewhat admirable.
Another member showed us his mint only USA collection in a Scott National album which he started in 1960. While the stamps in the first Scott listed 150 stamps were fairly low in number the stamps that he had acquired over time were absolutely stunning in terms of condition. Highlights were Columbians up through the $2 value and a complete set of Trans-Mississippi issues plus a complete set of USA air mails excepting C3a, the Jenny invert. I particularly liked the way he had encased each page in the album in a page protector. He shared that the album has been at this level of completeness for twenty years with no additions as he has moved on to other collecting interests. One example of this which he has shown an excerpt from in a recent meeting is a still in process Japan collection.
Other items shared at the meeting were some censor marked covers from the Boer wars in South Africa which were sent to an address in Illinois. A brief overview of the history of the Boer wars was given as an introduction to the covers.
As you can tell from my postings I have become fascinated with vintage stamp albums! 
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Added 12 new stamps to bring my total to 499 of 785 issues for the Smithsonian album yesterday during a visit to a coin and stamp show put on locally. While there were only three stamp dealers out of 40 total dealers at the show they had useful and interesting items to review. Stamps added were India State - Nowanuggur Scott #12, Lithuania Scott # 421, Malta Scott #584, Dijibouti Scott #697, Eritrea Scott # 278, Mauritius Scott #375, Seychelles Scott #491, Tanganyika Scott #19, Uganda Scott #922, Uganda Protectorate Scott #71, Libya Scott #410, and Afars and Issas Scott #J49.
One particularly fascinating item of offerings I examined was a binder at one dealer containing singles and sets of air mail stamps of the world. This might be an interesting theme for a stamp or set from every country collection if you wanted to keep your selections a bit more modern. To this end I started capturing a list of all countries which have issued air mail stamps (at least up to 1940/1952 per the Scott Classic Catalog depending on what the catalog covers). It is proving to be an entertaining review of the catalog entries for issued stamps in its own right whether I proceed with the collection or not.
Other purchases at the show were three folders containing abbreviated country collections for Swaziland, Indonesia, and Venezuela which will be used for adding issues to my International Parts I-V 1840-1963 album set. While the Swaziland folder had stamps up to 1968 all of the stamps for 1968 were used so still missing this entry for the Smithsonian album. Fortunately it contained several attractive, engraved production stamps which will add to my Swaziland issues in the International album.
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Added four new stamps to bring my total to 503 of 785 stamp issues for the Smithonian album. New additions were Guam Scott # E1 (unfortunately it arrived severely stuck down inside a glassine envelope so had to float it off in a water bath but I didn't cry - much 
), India - Charkhari State Scott # 28, India - Travancore Cochin Scott # 16, and India - China Expeditionary Force Scott # M2.
Also, added an India - Indore Scott # 1 where the stamp actually says it is for Holkar State rather than Indore as an addition to my existing India - Indore stamp in the album as it seemed appropriate and the stamp presented itself. It took me quite a while with the Scott catalog to figure out that Holkar State was actually part of the Indore listing rather than a missing state from the India States area. I thought it was worth commemorating the learning experience by adding the stamp to the Smithsonian album!
Also picked up a few items for my International 1840-1963 albums from the India States area where my collection has very few items. I added individual stamps for each of India - Sirmoor, India - Hyderabad, India Offices Abroad - Laos, and India Office Abroad - Vietnam. The India Offices Abroad areas could be candidates for additions to the Smithsonian album if you desired. Interestingly several countries do have Office Abroad items in the section starting on page 119 of the album although the page heading does indicate that it is a SELECTED grouping.
I, also, looked at a very nice selection of British Columbia stamps but acquiring one would definitely represent the most expensive addition to this album so far. Interestingly although the dealer had a very nice selection of both mint and used British Columbia stamps he did not have ANY of the Vancouver Island stamps. Maybe after Christmas if he still has the British Columbia stamps a treat would be in order. 
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I am using the following item for Basel, a souvenir sheet from Switzerland Scott # B607 which commemorates the issuance of the stamp. I just got both a mint and first day cover for the souvenir sheet from an auction. Coincidentally, yesterday, I saw a page in an album with a stamp on stamp issue from Uganda which also incorporates the Basel stamp design so the Switzerland issue is not the only candidate for a placeholder for Basel if you are unable to come up with the $15,000 catalog value for the genuine stamp. . Note that the original stamp is imperforate while the stamp in the souvenir sheet is perforated.
I am not counting it in my completion total since it is a placeholder. Ended up using an alternate stamp on stamp issue for the Basel stamp design from North Korea (!) as the souvenir sheet was too large for the available space and I couldn't bear to take it apart. Also, did start counting the placeholder stamps but left the stamps on my want list in case a real stamp ever becomes available when funds are an option.
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Received another older worldwide stamp album today entitled "Worldwide Stamp Album by John W. Nicklin" and copyright 1934. It purports to have space for stamps of two hundred and sixty-seven countries. It has the best write-ups for individual countries with statistical data and historical and philatelic notes that I have seen. It is somewhat similar to the Great Britain Windsor albums in that the left side of each page has country notes, pictures of selected stamps, and sometimes descriptions of philatelic items from the country. The right side has a grid work for placing stamps rather than the typical blocks for stamps found in the Windsor album. I haven't seen any other album use this approach.
Stamps are mounted only on the right hand page so no interleaves are required so is quite a nice approach to an album.
The author mentions that over 100,000 stamps have been issued by the year of publication in his description of the rationale for the album and that the goal is for a representative collection for all countries. I like it. Does anyone have further information on John W. Nicklin?
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Sounds like a neat album. I have become interested in old albums and hobby promotion history lately. Amazing how much variety there is out there.
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I found a bit of additional information on John W. Nicklin. He was either the author or a primary contributor to several different albums as well as to the Sanabriar Air Post Catalogue. He, also, authored a book on Famous Stamps.
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A few other notes:
1) saw a Scott Brown album advertised on eBay and reviewed the photos from the album. During the review noted that it shows a Basel stamp in the album as well as a couple of Geneva canton issues. Purported total catalog value for the album is $17,000. Don't know if the Basel stamp is genuine but it does appear that the consigner of the album believes it to be genuine.
2) discussed a Switzerland album that was consigned to an auction in Switzerland which was auctioned this past Friday by a local collector and he indicated that his album did include a Basel stamp. It will be interesting to hear the results from the auction once he hears about it. Hopefully the auction results did do justice to the collection. I don't know any information about the condition of the stamp.
3) I saw another stamp on stamp issue of the Basel dove design from Central Africa on eBay this week in addition to the previously mentioned souvenir sheet from Switzerland and stamp on stamp issue from Uganda.
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Found another stamp on stamp issue including the Basel canton stamp. It was issued by Niue upon the centenary of the death of Sir Rowland Hill. There is, also, an overprinted issue for hurricane relief of the same stamp. I believe the Scott #'s are 242 and B21. Also, the stamp was incorporated in a souvenir sheet listed as Scott # B245a.
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I really like that concept for space fillers!
Are there other suggestions?
There are a LOT of stamps in the Smithsonian album that are subject to fakes, but the fakes themselves would be the space fillers, I suppose, if properly identified and marked.
There are a FEW items that are rather expensive that I would not pay more than a dollar for a good fake, but your suggestion is even better of using a "dedication" stamp (or whatever it's called). Any ideas for the following:
Canada - British Columbia
Canada - Vancouver Island
Canada - United Crown Colony of BC + VI (this is one I added for myself)
Argentina - Cordoba
Switzerland - Zurich
Switzerland - Geneva
Switzerland - Basel (this is the one you highlighted)
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Added two stamps to my Smithsonian album to bring me to 505 of 785 stamps. New stamps were British Columbia #8 (!) and a stamp for the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and Nanking in World War II.
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Identified three stamp on stamp placeholder issues for the rarer issues in the Smithsonian album:
Switzerland Zurich 1943 centenary issue
Switzerland Geneva 1943 centenary issue Scott B132 souvenir sheet
Switzerland Zurich and Geneva 1968 stamp has stamp on stamp for both canton issues on a single stamp
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Added 13 new stamps to bring my Smithsonian album total to 518 of 785 issues.
New stamps include: Stellaland Scott #3 (!), Benin Scott #361, Algeria Scott #742, Swaziland Scott #278, Nigeria Scott #119, South Nigeria Scott #11, Nossa-Be Scott #32, Natal Scott #85, Obock Scott #48, Niger Coast Protectorate Scott #43, French Colony of Benin Scott #36, Orange River Colony Scott #63, and Korea Scott #39.
Stellaland was found in a dealer counter book of new material to the dealer. The other twelve items were found by searching through red boxes containing items on stock cards at another dealer. All were acquired today.
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Added one new issue to bring my total to 519 of 785 for the Smithsonian album. This one is another unusual issue, New Zealand Scott #131d for Victoria Land from an auction on eBay and one of the three most expensive stamps I have added to the album with British Columbia and Stellaland being the other most expensive stamps to date.
On a side note: I went through the Scott International Junior album copyright 1930 that I had acquired recently and counted up all of the stamps required to complete the album that were potentially issued before 1900 and came up with a total of 5,720 stamps covering 267 unique countries or offices out of the 22,528 positions in the album with 431 unique countries or offices. This might be a borderline achievable goal.
Next is to determine the catalog numbers associated with the issues and gain an idea of the total catalog value as well as review any partial sets that might be worth expanding to build a representative collection for 19th century stamps. I know that using the old Scott Brown albums which cover the major numbers from the 19th century is NOT an attainable goal and I would like some semblance of possibility for completion before embarking on the journey. Magic question is whether to put them in the existing album or create something using Album Easy to make it available to others. The scale of this would seem to allow for that as a practical solution as well as allow for customization for expansion as well as adding details on the stamps and issuing authorities to increase my involvement and learning from the project. Anyone interested in this?
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Added 25 stamp issues to bring my total to 544 of 785 stamp issues for the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album during a visit to a local stamp show in Redmond, Washington put on by the Greater Eastside Stamp Society.
New issues include Antigua and Barbuda Scott #905, Aruba Scott #20, Castelrosso Scott #73, Burundi Scott #C103, Botswana Scott #306, Guinea Scott #169, Netherlands New Guinea Scott #B15, Guernsey Scott #189, Cocos Islands Scott #52, Kiribati Scott #416, Switzerland United Postal Union Scott #9O11, South Africa Scott #J40, Cameroun Scott #C207, Maldive Islands Scott #10, Isle of Man Scott #19, Christmas Island Scott #11, Fiji Scott #449, India States - United State of Saurashtra Scott #39, India States - Rajasthan Scott # 1b, British South African Company Scott #50, New Zealand - Ross Dependency Scott #L2, NiuaFo'Ou Scott #207, and Bechuanaland Scott #33.
Also, added an additional stamp to Australia - Tasmania for Van Diemen's Land Scott #31 as a forerunner name for Tasmania. This is the first stamp I have added to the album as a Used issue. I added it in commemoration of reading about the development of postal services in the area in the Stamp World History Atlas book that I have been reading and perhaps a bit because the name of the country is so off the wall. Also, I felt it was my own way of responding to the very interesting posts that Rob1956 and Horamakhet have been making about Australia area stamps in general.
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Returned for the second day of the stamp show and added 12 new stamps to bring me to 556 of 785 stamp issues in the Smithsonian album. Eleven of the stamps were found in red boxes on 102 cards and one was a lucky find for Hatay in a Scott International U-Pick album that a dealer had at the show. It is the first time I have seen a mint stamp for Hatay in any U-Pick International album to which I have had access. Fortunately, a dealer had several of the more modern issues this weekend which is quite unusual in my experience looking for stamps for the album.
New additions were Hatay Scott #1 (!), Oman Scott #193, Kuwait Scott #377, Sri Lanka Scott #778, Hong Kong Scott #? (stamp is after 2006 but no catalog # was provided and I don't have a catalog that goes to that era ), Mali Scott #C1, Transvaal Scott #139 (!), Angola Scott #779, Tanganyika Scott #57, Slovakia Scott #531, Moldava Scott #37, and St. Martin Scott #13.
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Added 1 new stamp today to bring me to 557 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp added was for Germany - Occupation of Belgium in WWI Scott #N19.
Took a vacation day today and while moving some mint stamps from a really beat-up old International Part I album into an older but superb condition International Junior album copyright 1930 found an odd stamp in Belgium that had a denomination only overprint on a German stamp. While trying to find a location for it realized that there was a similar stamp under France in the album that had Belgique with a denomination overprint but that the correct stamp in the space should not have Belgique. Under the description for the overprinted stamps in Belgium was a note that the issues were used in parts of Belgium and France. Following some additional sleuthing found that the album had a German occupation stamp for Belgium during WWI in the wrong place in the France section of the International album and moved it to the Smithsonian album and moved the overprint lacking Belgique to the France section of the International album. Corrected a placement error and managed to locate one of the hard to identify (because of my lack of expertise for the areas) and acquire stamps in the back of the book area of the Smithsonian album!
All told I moved about 200 stamps into the new album today. Next country to move is Central Lithuania which has at least ten stamps to move. Found two nice stamps during the move including a mint $17.50 catalog Australian stamp in nice VF condition and an used $11.00 catalog value stamp from 1857 (can't remember the country). I really only expected to find minimum catalog value stamps in the album so these were both very fortuitous. The Australia stamp was the ONLY stamp for Australia in the album so this was definitely a lucky break.
Just had a chance to go back and check on the used stamp that I added and found that it was from Austria.
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I have been going through the Smithsonian album trying to identify appropriate Scott # ranges for the various stamps I am missing and identified another challenging stamp to locate based on a current catalog value in mint, hinged condition of $2,400. I suspect Poland Scott #1 is going to be a really good candidate for locating a possible stamp on stamp issue assuming one exists. So far it has the second highest catalog value for the album after the Basel cantonal issue of Switzerland. By the way I found another nice stamp on stamp issue for the Basel issue which is part of a miniature sheet from Hungary issued in 1974.
Looks like some of the German States and Italian States issues are going to be a challenge cost wise. Plus the close to home Vancouver Island stamp is, also, quite expensive. India States issues are proving quite challenging to locate regardless of catalog value. To date, I have found 19 of 47 issues for India States. Similarly in the back of the book area for the album I now have 19 of 105 issues although hopefully many of these should not prove to be that expensive, just difficult to identify and locate.
I forgot to mention that during my recent stamp show foray that my wife attended with me on the first day as her birthday present to me which I appreciate very much. We had a great day and celebrated with a dinner date afterward.
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I have identified several stamp on stamp issues with images of the Poland Scott #1 stamp as possible placeholders for the Smithsonian album. Poland's Scott #909 was issued for the centenary of the issuance of Poland's stamp in 1960. Poland's Scott #934, 934a, and B107 were, also, issued in 1960 and incorporate the design. And in 1979 a stamp for the celebration of Rowland Hill's death centenary incorporated the design as well, Poland Scott #2351.
Information was found at http://www.stampsonstamps.org/Rammy/Poland/Poland.html .
In addition a very nice write-up on the Poland Scott #1 issue was found at http://stampspoland.nl/series/preware/0001.html .
Poland Scott #909 is part of a set of stamps with several stamp on stamp issues issued in 1960, Scott #'s 909-913. The set is included in the pages of the Scott International Postage Stamp Album for Part V under Poland.
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And here is the scan for Poland Scott # 1 from a stamp on stamp issue of Poland Scott # 2351 which I located in a Rowland Hill topical collection which I happened to have which was acquired via a token bid on eBay some time ago that I remembered today!
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And here is my copy of the Hungary with Basel stamp on stamp issue that I had mentioned previously which arrived recently.
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"I have been going through the Smithsonian album trying to identify appropriate Scott # ranges for the various stamps I am missing and identified another challenging stamp to locate based on a current catalog value in mint, hinged condition of $2,400. I suspect Poland Scott #1 is going to be a really good candidate for locating a possible stamp on stamp issue assuming one exists."
I understand that you are collecting mint, but why would a mint stamp on stamp issue be better than the real thing used? $250 isn't cheap, but that's the CV for a used Poland #1. I don't understand why an actual used stamp is a less desirable placeholder. If the $250 is the obstacle, it's likely a damaged stamp could be had for less than $50.
For the Swiss Canton stamps, I agree that reprints of some sort are the only viable option given the prices. I decided that I preferred getting reprints directly from Switzerland:
In addition to expensive stamps, you also need to be wary of heavily faked stamps. Be sure to check each country in your catalog for notes about fakes, forgeries, and reprints. I'm not saying I won't use a reprint or two for the India Feudatory States, but if I do then I plan to pay less and annotate the entry as such.
I show 3 stamps in South America, 6 in Europe, 4 in Africa, 8 in Asia, and 6 in BOB that have specific warnings. It would be helpful to learn together how to spot fakes for those.
Pricewise, after the Swiss Cantons and Poland #1 and British Columbia, there is Argentina/Cordoba which is both expensive AND heavily faked. (Corrientes and Buenos Aires are not expensive, but also heavily faked). Next would be New Zealand 121a and 131d on page 117. Those would seem to be rather easy to fake (or at least try to), so care is advised there. Moldavia and Madagascar round out the list of stamps that have a CV of over $50, even used if that is cheaper.
Lars
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I agree, in this case though the stamp on stamp issue for Poland Scott #1 (actually Poland Scott #2351) was about $3 delivered rather than $250 for a real stamp. For now it is a placeholder but I do hold out hope for a real one some day. 
Basel may be a bit much to hope for at $17,500 current catalog in Scott's 2017 Classic catalog.
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Lars,
Forgot to mention, your Switzerland section looks great! Not to mention the rest of the page is, also, very nice. Thanks for the details on other expensive as well as frequently counterfeited areas. I have been going through the notes on the pages as I review the stamps that make up the entries in the Scott Classic catalog per your suggestion and haven't seen any issues so far with stamps that I have acquired to date although having enough expertise to really know tends to mean that one has access to multiple originals and fakes and other resources for comparison. I have read through the excerpts from the Serrane guide that were published in the American Philatelist several years ago but I suspect that the issues involved for the Smithsonian album are going to require other resources than those to which I have access. The collection continues to be a very worthwhile broadening experience for my philatelic knowledge.
(Now if I could just remember everything I have read maybe something like the Billig Handbooks would be a nice resource. I did try going to the Seattle Public Library thinking that surely they would have quite a few books on the collection shelves that I could peruse for additional information. It was very disappointing. I think the Milton High School library in Florida when I was in the 7th grade and just beginning with stamps had a better collection of stamp collecting related books. I did discover that the Northwest Philatelic Library in Portland, Oregon exists and has a very nice library collection. They have a web site at http://www.nwpl.org/ with an online library catalog with resources that can be checked out via interlibrary loan options. Hopefully I will get a chance to visit in the next few weeks. It is about a three and a half hour drive each way so might be doable in a day or maybe with an overnight stay in the process plus there are a couple of stamp shops in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR that I would love to visit as part of an expedition. Strangely I don't think there is a similar library in Seattle but I will do some additional searching to verify as time permits.)
So far, it appears that regarding modern issues only South Sudan is likely to be somewhat expensive.
Also, I did get the Switzerland souvenir sheet with the perforated Basel stamp but couldn't bear to take the souvenir sheet apart since it will not fit in the space on the page when intact so ended up using an odd stamp on stamp issue from North Korea issued with a Basel stamp in the design. Even the mini-sheet from Hungary was too nice to take apart. I, also, now have the Uganda stamp on stamp issue so have quite a selection to choose from for the album. There is one much more expensive souvenir sheet item that also has the Basel design on it that I haven't managed to acquire as the sheet seems to normally be listed at $60+. As a sideline I have attempted to get every stamp on stamp issue with the Basel design that I can identify for use in a potential future simple exhibit either at a stamp show or perhaps here on Stamporama and will continue looking for new items. Just realized that I had mentioned that I had the Switzerland sheet before. 
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" I did discover that the Northwest Philatelic Library in Portland, Oregon exists and has a very nice library collection. They have a web site at http://www.nwpl.org/ with an online library catalog with resources that can be checked out via interlibrary loan options. Hopefully I will get a chance to visit in the next few weeks."
It is definitely worth a visit. It is much longer drive for me, but I do go through Portland a couple of times per year. (I plan to be there this weekend.) I prefer to go on the second or fourth Saturday of the month as there is also a stamp bourse there.
The Western Philatelic Library in Redwood City, California is much larger.
I have been building a personal philatelic library for years. Recently I bought a box of books at a local auction. Included was a reproduction of the Fournier Album of forgeries - 171 pages full of examples from hundreds of countries (yes, he did the Basel dove stamp.) Another book which may become useful is a book on the classical issues of Europe. For the Basel dove stamps it gives 22 points of comparison to aid in weeding out forgeries. So I am ready if I ever get one.
I enjoy these discussions. I am also working on such an album, but have still far to go to catch up with you. I currently stand at about 300 stamps in the main country part. I haven't started on the BOB part yet.
Jan
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"Forgot to mention, your Switzerland section looks great! "
Thanks, but it was your idea to use those kind of stamps for placeholders. I really like the idea since I never intend to pursue the actual stamps. Everything else I intend to pursue, either mint or used.
"Also, I did get the Switzerland souvenir sheet with the perforated Basel stamp but couldn't bear to take the souvenir sheet apart."
Yeah, and I had to cut B131 and B132 to get single stamps, but I have extra singles of each I am going to offer, along with extras from just about EVERY section, when I get finished with Asia. Perhaps 4 to 6 weeks from now. Still working on Africa. (I have added a few stamps here and there as I deem appropriate to my personal pages).
From the original Smithsonian pages, assuming the Swiss Cantons are now "covered", I'm at 733/785, but I was at 727 about 6 months ago, and half of those I gained are the Swiss Cantons! There are very few left that aren't over $10 each or heavily faked (and those are scarce, else I would have them by now). That puts me at 93%, but if I look at a calendar, I'm probably just over half way (and I've been working on this for a few years)!
The 50 or so missing stamps are:
4 in the Americas - 1 in Canada and 3 in Argentina (two expensive, two heavily faked)
13 in Europe (mostly Italian states and German States, plus Poland, Moldavia, and Karelia)
8 in Africa (Madagascar and 4 heavily faked stamps)
12 in Asia (mostly fakes, many in India States)
2 in Antarctica - CV over $50 each
11 in BOB (some fakes, some expensive, some hard to find)
Hopefully we can focus on one area at a time and learn from each other about spotting fakes. German States, Italian States, and Indian States may be a good place to start.
Lars
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I will have to check out the Western Philatelic Library as well. Thanks for the information plus I will look for the Fournier book as well. I've accumulated several hundred (600+) reference items as PDF documents and will see if it is by chance included.
Wish I could get to Portland this weekend but we have a snow storm coming in Friday evening according to the weather which will be a problem. Do you happen to know the hours for the NWPL and what days they are open? I don't remember seeing that information on the web site.
Just checked the web site again and the posted hours are 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on the 2nd and 4th Saturday and some Tuesdays as well. Looks like it is going to take some trip organization to find them open. I will work it out.
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Attended the local stamp club that I joined a few months ago and had a chance to ask about a philatelic library for Seattle and it was reported that the Seattle club used to have a very decent library but a water pipe burst destroying most of the book collection and they sold off the surviving items and it never got rebuilt.
We had a show and tell discussion during the meeting and we had a wide ranging discussion about the stamp for every country approach to a collection. All said they had not heard of anyone doing this except as a #1's of the world collection before. One member had his 19th Century Scott Brown album with him and I was able to see his items from Moldavia-Wachovia. He has about eight different stamps from the period in the album almost all of which are mint. It was very neat to see them. I brought along the 1930 Scott International Junior album to which I have started adding stamps and he was impressed that I had completed the page for Carinthia. That was actually done by accident as the old broken International album from which I am pulling stamps just happened to have that country complete and the country is not present in the latest edition of the Scott International Part I album on which my main International 1840-1963 collection is based so I had not previously pulled any stamps from the country for that album. All were impressed that the album was so clean and showed virtually no wear despite its 1930 copyright.
I like the album because it allows me to carry a single album which encompasses a large range of items yet isn't as overwhelming (or bulky) as the full International Part I. As I get more involved in it I am noticing more and more the differences as compared to the full 1840-1940 albums. It is quite interesting the deletions and additions that occurred from 1930 to 1943 in terms of the album's coverage for the Scott International Junior album. It does represent something of a duplication with my main collection but is providing a lot of fun and encouraging me to review more closely my main collection and the Scott catalog.
Just starting to read the Asia section about China in the Stamp World History Atlas book that I have been reading so am now about 2/3's through the book.
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Added one new stamp today to bring me to 559 of 785 issues.
Most recent additions were a placeholder stamp for Poland - Russian Domination Poland Scott #2351 stamp on stamp issue and St. Christopher Scott #8.
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Added ten new stamps to bring me to 569 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album. Four items are placeholders for Italy States from a stamp on stamp Italy Scott #1651 souvenir sheet though and one item is my second used stamp to be added to the album following the additional add-on for Van Diemen's Land (alternate name for Tasmania) mentioned previously.
New stamps are Vancouver Island Scott #5 (!) used, Russian Provisional Government - Civil War Scott #131, Italy - Lombardy-Venetia Scott #22, Bosnia and Herzegovina Scott #237, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosnian Croat Administration Scott #315, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosnia Serb Administration Scott #502, Italy - Modena (plalceholder), Italy - Parma (placeholder), Italy - Romagna (placeholder), and Italy - Tuscany (placeholder).
At this point I have six stamp on stamp placeholders in the album.
This morning I managed to create a standalone want list of my remaining needs as an alternate worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet that I use to track entries for the album. The want list does contain the placeholders among the missing issues in case an affordable stamp ever shows up! 
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Found two resources for detecting forged stamps in my PDF based collection of books:
1) Album Weeds or How to Detect Forged Stamps by Rev. R. B. Earee published in 1882
2) Forged Stamps: How to Detect Them by Thorton Lewes and Edward Pemberton published in 1863
Most interesting resources that I rediscovered during the search were:
1) Paper Chase, the Amenities of Stamp Collecting by Alvin F. Harlow copyright 1940
2) Stamp Collector's Magazine, Volume 1 from 1863
Obviously the problem of stamp forgeries started early in the history of the postage stamp and stamp collecting!
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Added 1 new stamp to bring my total to 570 for 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamp is Turkey - Eastern Rumelia Scott #18 and it was identified while moving three other issues to the International Junior 1930 album. I was doing additional research on the group of four stamps as the new album location only showed three spaces and even the old album indicated the odd stamp was in the wrong place and checked just to be sure that I had the country for the "extra" stamp in the Smithsonian album and lucked out. It is a shame though that the perforations measure 11.5 as a perf 13.5 would have been a really nice find. Of course, I am very happy to fill the country in the Smithsonian album!
Note that there are two different Eastern Rumelia stamps in the album, one is actually Southern Bulgaria (rename that occurred for Eastern Rumelia) on page 17 whereas the other issue is on page 101.
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"Note that there are two different Eastern Rumelia stamps in the album, one is actually Southern Bulgaria (rename that occurred for Eastern Rumelia) on page 17 whereas the other issue is on page 101."
Can you elaborate? That's one I'm trying to properly document.
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The Scott Classic Catalog for 2017 implies in the listings for Eastern Rumelia that an area of Turkey broke away to become a part of Bulgaria known as Southern Bulgaria. Stamps were overprinted and used in the breakaway area.
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There is a nice summary in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Rumelia
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Nigel,
Thanks for the posting of the Wikipedia content reference for Eastern Rumelia. It adds significantly to the level of detail and makes much more clear why there are two antecedent stamp issuing entities in the Smithsonian album which we have questioned previously in the other threads on the Smithsonian albums.
Jerrel
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"Thanks for the posting of the Wikipedia content reference for Eastern Rumelia. It adds significantly to the level of detail and makes much more clear why there are two antecedent stamp issuing entities in the Smithsonian album which we have questioned previously in the other threads on the Smithsonian albums."
This link provides more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_Eastern_Rumelia
but neither link answers the underlying question that I have not seen answered in previous threads. If this has been asked and answered elsewhere, please let me know where.
Stamps for Eastern Rumelia (South Bulgaria) were initially overprints of stamps of Turkey. In 1881-1884 a new series (A4 in Scott) was issued by Turkey and in 1885 those issues were overprinted by Bulgaria. I get all that.
However, the questions remain:
1. Why do we need more than one stamp for Eastern Rumelia? The area was autonomous under Turkey and then was annexed by Bulgaria, so the stamps 20-40 would be considered local stamps, right?
2. Even if we accept that two different stamps are needed for Eastern Rumelia (and I have yet to see compelling evidence for that), why would the two stamps, for the same area, be in different continents? It makes no sense! If we are placing stamps in the continent of the issuing authority we need to move a BUNCH of Caribbean stamps to Europe!
This is a far from settled issue as far as I know. If there is a definitive conclusion, please point me to it.
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There are stamp series in the catalog that are not overprinted or use a different overprint and I suspect that is the difference. Those stamps represent an area that was and probably remained part of Turkey. The overprinted stamps are for the new area South Bulgaria which became part of Bulgaria. At least this is why the Smithsonian album includes issues in each location. The usage area for the stamps was not completely one or the other I suspect in terms of with what country parts of the territory ended up. It is, also, possible that I am mixing up the two issue groupings.
After some additional review, it appears that the stamps issued from 1885 up are for South Bulgaria (Scott #'s 20-40) while the stamps issued for 1880 through 1884 are the stamps that should go on page 101 for Turkey (Scott #'s 1-19). Argh, unfortunately both stamps I have are from Scott #'s 1-19 so I must subtract one from my current status so only have 569 of 785.
Checked through the older International albums that I have and they only list stamps for 1880-1884 for Eastern Rumelia but do not include any mention of Southern Bulgaria or issues for Bulgaria for 1885 so these stamps may be a bit difficult to locate and the catalog values indicate they are much more expensive than the earlier issues. Forgeries appear to abound as well, many listings on hipstamp.com are for forgeries per the lister so real stamps may be the exception!
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Added some additional details on the Eastern Rumelia stamp quandary on my last post before this one.
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As to the geographic location of the Eastern Rumelia stamps for Bulgaria versus Turkey, I suspect that Bulgaria is historically considered to be an Eastern Europe country while Turkey is normally considered to be in Asia.
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You are correct that 1-19 are "Eastern Rumelia" and 20-40 are "South Bulgaria", but they are the exact same place with different names. All of the stamps 20-40 are design A4 with overprints, and as you said, counterfeits are plentiful.
Yes, Turkey is considered Asia and Bulgaria is considered Europe, but I don't see why a part of modern Bulgaria would be considered a part of Asia when stamps were issued for it by Turkey, and then magically become a part of Europe when Bulgaria adds an overprint.
Eastern Rumelia was an autonomous province. Turkey issued stamps for Eastern Rumelia/South Bulgaria not because it was a part of Turkey, but because they were required to do so as part of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. In 1885 Bulgaria took over control and placed an overprint (often a handstamp) on the existing Turkish stamps. The next year Bulgarian stamps were used.
It sure seems that Eastern Rumelia should be considered as a part of Europe only. It also seems that ANY stamp 1-40 would do for this briefly autonomous province since it didn't fundamentally change during its brief existence. If anything, 20-40 should be considered local stamps.
However, even if you believe Eastern Rumelia should be in both places, under Turkey the dates should be 1880-1884 (not 1885) and for Bulgaria it should just be 1885 (not 1885-1920).
I know this is all complicated, but I believe it is useful to understand because it is even more complicated with Thrace. Thrace is where Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey come together, so it could be considered a precedent country to all 3. There is a listing on page 28 for Greece, a listing on page 101 for Turkey, and another on page 124.
The Thrace stamps for Greece and Turkey both have 1913-1920. It seems that one stamp should be in one location (Greece, Turkey, or Bulgaria) and a note added to the other two. The stamps of Thrace are 1-33. 1-4 could be considered a local issue for the Glumulzina District. 5-9 may be the most desirable as unique to Thrace, 10-15 are overprints on Turkish Stamps, 16-21 are overprints on Bulgarian stamps, and 22-33 are overprints on Greek stamps. It seems odd to me to have the same listing under Turkey and Greece. I suppose you could put an overprint of a Greek stamp on the page for Greece and an overprint of a Turkish stamp on the page for Turkey, but wouldn't you then need an overprint on a Bulgarian stamp as well? I really don't think this was thought out very well.
Another twist is page 124. Here you have Allied Occupation of Thrace after WWI. That's catalog numbers N1-N25. (Greek Occupation is N26-N84 and not called out in these pages). These stamps are NOT what's called for on pages 28 and 101.
I think these are likely the two most confusing entities I encountered in this effort. I already know what I am going to do for both of these, but I hope others can see for themselves what the issues are and decide for themselves how they wish to deal with it.
I'm not trying to pitch a point of view but expose what I believe to be a paradox in the pages.
Lars
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I found an interesting notation for Bulgaria in Scott:
In 1885 Bulgaria, then a principality under the suzerainty of the Sultan of Turkey, was joined by Eastern Rumelia. Independence from Turkey was obtained in 1908.
Stamps listed for Bulgaria begin 1879.
It still looks like Eastern Rumelia was an entity 1880-1885. Bulgaria was a pricipality first issuing stamps in 1879. Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia combined in 1885 and became a kingdom in 1909, a Socialist Republic in 1946, and a Democratic Republic in 1991.
I still fail to see any justification for two stamps for Eastern Rumelia. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Lars
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Hi Lars,
I have been puzzling about this area for some time, so I am glad you are raising this. The following information is from The Stamp Atlas:
Bulgaria was a province of the Ottoman Empire until 1877. It became a principality in 1878 and the area south of it (Eastern Rumelia) became a semi autonoumous region at the same time, but both remained under Turkish suzerainty. In 1885, Rumelia revolted in favour of untion with Bulgaria. In 1908 an independent kingdom. In 1913 Bulgaria added Western Thrace. In 1918 Bulgaria lost eastern Thrace (is this a typo? It should be Western Thrace. ) to Greece and has remained largely within the same boundaries ever since.
As I understand this, Eastern Rumelia went: province of Turkey -> semi autonomous -> part of Bulgaria. Only in the middle part did it issue its own stamps, and thus it should only appear as a precedent country of Bulgaria.
Jan
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Jan,
As I understand it, Northern Thrace essentially became Eastern Rumelia / Southern Bulgaria. The powers did not want to call it Southern Bulgaria because Bulgaria itself was not considered a country, and wasn't even represented at the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 at Russian insistence.
The rest of Thrace was divided up after various wars (Balkan Wars, WWI, Greco-Turkish War) with Eastern Thrace only briefly in possession of Greece. But I think Eastern Thrace was taken from Turkey, not Bulgaria, by Greece. Greece and Turkey agreed to a land and people swap with the Othodox Greeks moving out of Eastern Thrace and Muslims moving out of Greece. It's really quite a story! Now Thrace is divided amongst Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
I agree that two stamps for Eastern Rumelia don't make a lot of sense.
Lars
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Jerrel,
Per Jan's excellent suggestion, we are taking our discussion elsewhere since we've gone deep enough here.
I know you are trying to make as much sense as possible of the pages as presented by Smithsonian, and for Eastern Rumelia I believe you are correct that 1-19 belong with Turkey and 20-40 belong with Bulgaria.
We will talk about how much sense that makes elsewhere.
Cheers!
Lars
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Added four new stamps to bring me to 574 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps added were France - Offices in Alexandria Scott #19, Germany - Offices in Morocco Scott # 7, Austria - Occupation of Italy Scott # N2, and Italy - Sardinia Scott # 11. New stamps were found in a series of U-Pick albums in, stangely enough, a set of Harris Scott Standard albums! Most of the items are from the back of the book section of the Smithsonian album, i.e. Occupations or Offices Abroad.
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Previously I mentioned a souvenir sheet with stamp on stamp designs for Italian States as placeholders. Here are a series of scans showing the stamp on stamp design in a higher resolution as well as the original stamp from the souvenir sheet. Most of these issues would be expensive to very expensive for the real stamp. Note that the most expensive stamp looks like the image used in the actual stamp design may have come from a scan itself!
Stamp designs listed are from Lombardy-Venetia Scott # 3, Modena Scott # 3, Parma Scott # 10, Romagna Scott # 8, Tuscany Scott # 5, Two Sicilies - Naples Scott # 3, and Two Sicilies - Sicily Scott # 10.
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With the stamp on stamp issues from the last posting I am up to 576 of 785 issues for the Smithsonian album. Two new issues were identified for Italian States from the souvenir sheet which I was not able to identify from the online picture that I originally had available for the souvenir sheet. One of the stamp designs has a catalog value of $6,500 which is one of the lower priced stamps in mint condition from that Italian State. Only one newspaper stamp from that Italian State would be considered possibly affordable in mint condition for most stamp collectors. Can you identify which Italian State that would be?
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Received another new to me Modern Postage Stamp Album copyright 1930 from Scott Stamp and Coin Co. in my continuing collection of beginner stamp albums where I am counting up the number of stamp issuing entities covered, stamps pictured, and spaces in the album. Totals were 371 stamp issuing entities, 4,450 pictured stamps, and 13,104 total spaces for stamps. Album shows a bit of shelf wear and aging but appears to have never been used. It makes a nice counterpoint to the International Junior Postage Stamp Album copyright 1930 that I, also, have and in which I have started putting stamps as well as building an Excel spreadsheet for the covered issues.
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Today, I received an additional entry for the Smithsonian album, a genuine Italy - Lombardy-Venetia Scott #22 which I placed beside my prior entry of a stamp on stamp issue because they look quite nice together. No change in album completion count though.
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Had to replace the Eastern Rumelia stamp from page 17 with a later issue as it was from the wrong time period and replaced it with a new stamp, Eastern Rumelia Scott #39, which arrived today. So still holding at 576 of 785 issues.
Saw a really nice Geneva canton issue on eBay and it is even mint but sad to say still far out of my budget.
Stamp club meeting is tonight and I am looking forward to it!
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Added two new placeholder stamps to bring me to 578 of 785 stamp issuing entities. New entries to the album are Switzerland - Zurich Scott #287 and Switzerland - Geneva Scott #B132. Obviously these are not the real stamps but are placeholders where the original issues' designs were included on later stamp issues. In these cases the new stamps are from Switzerland and were issued in commemoration of the 100 hundred year anniversary of the original issue. Given Scott catalog values for the real stamps of $2,175 for the minimum cost Zurich issue and $2,350 for the minimum cost Geneva issue as mint stamps these look quite nice in the album as alternatives!
Recently I have been making a bit more progress with the so-called back of the book issues for the album. Currently I have 22 of the 105 issues from pages 119-132 of the album.
I have found a few of the more modern, inexpensive stamps online but have been unable to justify spending $2.00 plus to have a stamp cataloging 25 cents shipped to me. Some of the issues involved include Caribbean Netherlands from 2010-Present, Curacao 2010-Present, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Muslim Government in Sarajevo 1993-Present, Macedonia 1992-Present, Montenegro 2006-Present, Slovenia 1991-Present, Serbia 2006-Present, Serbia and Montenegro 2003-2006, Comoro Islands 1978-Present, Mayotte 1997-Present, Mozambique 1975-Present, South Sudan 2011-Present (these may be a bit more expensive based on the advertised issues I have found), Central African Republic 1979-Present, Democratic Republic of the Congo 1998-Present, Zaire 1971-1998, Sao Tome and Principe 1975-Present, Namibia 1990-Present, Benin 1975-Present, Burkina Faso 1959-Present, Cape Verde 1975-Present, Equatorial Guinea 1968-Present, Guinea-Bissau 1974-Present, Macao 1999-Present, Brunei 1983-Present, Myanmar 1990-Present, Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1976-Present, Republic of North Vietnam 1951-1976, Bahrain 1971-Present, Georgia 1993-Present, Kazakhstan 1992-Present, and Kyrgyzstan 1992-Present, Tajikistan 1992-Present, Turkmenistan 1992-Present, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 1974-Present, United Arab Emirates 1972-Present, and others. So far none of these have showed up through local stamp dealers or shows.
Of course, there are lots of more expensive stamps as well with in many cases neither advertisements nor availability of mint stamps within my budget for now. And the search continues!
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I only have the first two because I travelled there in January. It cost more to get there than $2 though.
I am also missing most of the rest. Modern stamps from some areas can be surprizingly difficult to find.
Jan
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Sounds like a nice trip. Don't think I can talk my wife into that to get some stamps though. But I do think it might be a fun conversation.
We have talked about going to the APS HQ in Bellefonte, PA with a side trip to Louisa May Alcott's home which interests her and should be interesting. The trip is on my bucket list for the future.
Most definitely modern issues are often the toughest to locate, not necessarily expensive, just hard to locate.
UPDATE: We talked about the trip. She thought it might be interesting to do some travel at some point. She did say that she might pass up the Louisa May Alcott trip rather than go to APS HQ though so I will have to work on that a bit.
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Added one new stamp to bring me to 579 of 785 stamp issuing entities. New stamp is for British Central Africa.
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Completed the Stamp World History Atlas book which I have been reading. I am simply amazed by the number of politically motivated changes in countries that have occurred in Europe and Africa especially as discussed by the book.
Started watching the first episode of a new Netflix show The Immortals and picked up on a large number of country names mentioned in the opening that relate to the countries in the Eastern and Southern European areas of the album. These stood out for me particularly as they are some countries for which I am searching for some representative stamps.
I have, also, started reading The One-Cent Magenta, Inside the Quest to Own the Most Valuable Stamp in the World by James Barrow. The author is painting an interesting picture in words of stamp collecting and some notable collectors who had a relationship with the stamp through various involvements. Fortunately the book was available at my local library branch which does have the Scott Catalogs for 2019 available in their reference section.
On another note regarding books, I have agreed to purchase a Stanley Gibbons Stamps of the World 1840-1970 catalog as issued in 2010 from a fellow collector in my local stamp club who is paring down his duplicate catalogs. It should be interesting to compare it to the Scott catalogs which I have used for some time.
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"Stanley Gibbons Stamps of the World 1840-1970 catalog as issued in 2010"
Good choice! I picked up a 2005 copy of Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840-1952. It really helps in Africa, Canada, Caribbean, India, and Oceania.
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Thank you for posting a link to the Smithsonian album. I have long been contemplating starting such a collection but have yet to get around to it. Now that I know of the existence of the Smithsonian album, I will have more motivation to begin. When I was first considering it, I found a list of stamp issuing entities on Wikipedia (3 different links) that you might be interested in. I never got around to counting them but there are quite a few.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entities_that_have_issued_postage_stamps_(A–E)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entities_that_have_issued_postage_stamps_(F–L)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entities_that_have_issued_postage_stamps_(M–Z)
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Thanks for the Wikipedia links as they provide some interesting options for extensions of the Smithsonian album project. For now, the album as it stands is more than enough of a challenge for me. I am continuing to make some additions to my sideline project of the International Junior Postage Stamp Album copyright 1930 though.
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Hi, just joined Stamporama, and am taking time looking through all the pages. I came across this thread and dived right in. After reading a few of the comments and understanding the aims of the Stamp for Every Country Album, I downloaded the file. Imagine how surprised and disappointed I was when I could not find any stamps from Scotland,(my home country) or Northern Ireland, or Wales. There were spaces for one of the Channel islands and also for the Isle of Man, but neither of these has ever been called a country. Have not read all of the comments on this subject above mine, and hope you have not answered this issue before but. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have been issuing stamps for their respective countries for over 70 years now.
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There are a series of other postings related to the Smithsonian albums where discussions are taking place regarding additions and updates to the content covered by the Smithsonian album. It is quite interesting that the constituent parts of the United Kingdom don't get any recognition in the album. Perhaps because they are considered as part of the whole rather than as independent countries when the Smithsonian presentation on which the album is based was constructed. Is there a difference politically between the relationship of Scotland, Wales, etc. and the provinces that came together to create Canada or the constituent parts that combined to form Australia? I don't think that the states that make up the United States of America today had independent postal issues in the form of stamps prior to becoming part of the United States.
Are the stamp issues for Scotland, Wales, etc. good for use throughout the United Kingdom and the stamps without regional markings similarly good in Scotland, Wales, etc. If so, this is probably why they are not singled out. Just guessing, of course!
I have been reading the book, The Queen's Stamps, The Authorised History of the Royal Philatelic Collection, by Nicholas Courtney which is providing a fascinating glimpse into the history of the collection's formation and the United Kingdom and Commonwealth stamp issues so can get a glimmer of the richness of the stamp related history in which you are interested! The book is incredible with its stories regarding the formation of among the finest if not the finest stamp collection in the world.
I did finish the book about The One-Cent Magenta which I had previously mentioned and would highly recommend it to others as well. It is a fascinating story.
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Gudgie,
The focus of the Stamp for Every Country album is countries. Sometimes they leave things out, and sometimes they add things that don't belong (like Isle of Man).
Scotland - not a country
Northern Ireland - not a country
Wales - not a country
Channel islands and Isle of Man? No idea why they would be included.
But something you didn't mention was the lack of proper naming and change of geography in the UK in 1927. This is what my OFEC page looks like for your country:
The Smithsonian album is a GREAT starting point, and some folks may want to stay as true to that as they can. This is a great place to be if that is your preference. Others may wish to define their own parameters, and I encourage that on the OFEC pages I am sponsoring. Feel free to hang out where you feel comfortable or bounce back and forth or blaze your own trail if you wish. It's all good!
Cheers!
Lars
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Added 5 new stamps to bring me to 584 of 785 stamp issuing entities at a stamp show today in Chehalis, WA. The show was held at a very interesting facility called the Yardbirds Mall which houses a large number of businesses selling antiques, "junque", and Americana items as well as some service related businesses.
New stamps include issues for France - Offices in China - Mong Tseu Scott # 18, Germany - Offices in China Scott # 37, Italy - Offices in China - Peking Scott # J3, Germany - Bergdorf Scott # 5, and Mecklinburg-Strelitz cut square issue.
Some notes: I completed reading the Queen's Stamps book and highly recommend it especially for the stories relating to the building of the collection over the years. It has some beautiful pictures of many of the more famous and rare items in the collection. Also, I have started reading a book which details the processes used in producing line-engraved stamps from engraving to final production as well as extremely detailed discussion of how various plating and production flaws can yield differences in produced stamps. The book was written by James H. Baxter and its title is Printing Postage Stamps by Line Engraving. The book was originally written in 1939 and the author added some corrections when it was re-published in 1982 by the American Philatelic Society. It is proving to be very interesting.
Had a chance today to meet the author of a recent article in the American Philatelist on stamp designers who were associated with the Pratt Institute in New York. He, Niko Courtelis, is, also, a design graduate of the institution and former instructor with several stamp designs to his credit and wrote a book called Philatelic Atrocities that was released in 2014. By chance the daughter of two of my favorite friends from graduate school graduated from the Pratt Institute as well after growing up in Thailand and Honolulu, Hawaii and is currently working in New York. She, Aris Suchinroj, hasn't worked on stamp designs but has done some very interesting design work on clothing designs based on my internet searches for her work. Recently she has completed work on a new design for a reflective vest for bicyclists that is going to market!
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Forgot to mention that I just received the 2010 Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps for 1840-1970 catalog that I had previously mentioned that I was acquiring from a fellow member of the local stamp club which I have joined. I have been reviewing the catalog and making a checklist of Commonwealth and British Empire stamp issuing entities with the idea of possibly creating a similar album to the Smithsonian album as an introduction to the stamps of the Commonwealth.
I have noted that there are a huge number of additional Indian States references in the Stanley Gibbons catalog although an initial review indicates many of the states are recognized more by the cancellations of stamps rather than unique stamp designs or production. That fact raises an alternate approach for a collection based on the use of stamps in various postal localities as a stamp for every post office. Now that would be an extreme challenge!
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Added 9 new stamps to bring me to 593 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps included Panama - Department of Colombia Scott #8, Burma Scott #324, Central African Republic Empire Scott #384, Mozambique Scott #553, Netherlands New Guinea Scott #44, Saint Marie De Madagascar Scott #1, South West Africa, Alexandretta Scott #1, and Burkina Faso Scott #1126. Stamps were found by a diligent search through a set of red boxes at a local dealer.
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Added 9 new stamps to bring me to 602 of 785 stamp issuing countries for the Smithsonian album. Two milestones reached, 75% plus completion and over six hundred unique entries! New finds were at a local commercial stamp show today. One dealer let me select some individual stamps from three Indian States collections he had in manila folders which was a godsend!
New stamps include Indian States - Bundi Scott #36, Indian States - Wadhwan Scott #3, Indian States - Nangdaon Scott #1, Indian States - Faridkot Convention State Scott #O1, Indian States - Rajpeela Scott #1, Cameroun - United Kingdom Trust Territory Scott #71, Zaire Scott #893, Central African Republic Scott #1121, and Rio De Oro Scott #98.
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Added 38 new stamps to bring me to 640 of 785 stamp issuing entities in the Smithsonian album at a stamp show today. Best day ever for new entries to the album.
New items include Turkey - military personnel in Thessaly, Italy - Occupation of Corfu, Italy - occupation of Ionian Islands, India - Saurashta Scott #22b, India - Idar Scott #3b, Guinea-Bissau Scott #524, Moheli Scott #17, Mayotte Scott #268, Comoro Islands Scott #504, Congo Free State Scott #2, Grigualand West Scott #98 (!), New Republic Scott #55 (), Nauru Scott #89, Nauru - United Nations Trusteeship Scott #34, Gilbert Island Scott #308, Allied Entente Powers - Allied Occupation of Thrace after WWI Scott #M6, Marshall Islands Scott #38, Free French Provincial Goverment - Allied Occupation of areas of France, Niue Scott #317, Palau Scott #67, Kazakhstan Scott #490, Kyrgyzstan Scott #12, Georgia Scott #329, Socialist Republic of Vietnam - North Viet Minh issues Scott #1L7, Samoa - Partitioned between Germany and United States Scott #32, Ajman Scott #C7, British New Guinea Scott #2, Socialist Republic of Vietnam Scott #2511, Socialist Republic of Vietnam - Republic of North Vietnam Scott #94, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Scott #50, United Arab Emirates Scott #75, Abu Dhabi Scott #1, Uzbekistan Scott #476, Vanuatu Scott #304, West Irian Scott #45, and two other that I marked in the spreadsheet and put in the album without recording the countries for later entry here .
Several stamp dealers spent quite a bit of time with me looking up items to make sure they met the specifics of the Smithsonian album and one even donated one stamp from his personal collection's duplicates for the Turkey - military personnel in Thessaly issue. Another collector observing my search donated a new stamp for a new stamp issuing entity based on a Cinderella issue for a "country" created as a Seattle area based entity. So it was a VERY good day with several others looking at the album as well.
Amazingly I even saw five additional countries but decided they were too expensive for me for a stamp from the area (one item would have required purchase of a full set for $92, ouch). Of course, it was a full set of the four stamps issued for Kionga! Another item was a real stamp for Two Sicilies rather than the stamp on stamp placeholder I currently have. Three other items would have been souvenir sheets or stamps that were simply too large for the space in the album.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 641 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the Smithsonian album.
New issue is Kionga Scott #2.
Finished reading the book about production of line engraved stamps by James H. Baxter (no known relation ). It is a really detailed look at the production processes used for engraved postage stamps with quite detailed descriptions of how and what errors can result from the production processes including how plate varieties can occur, inking related varieties, etc.
Also received a new old stock Scott Hingeless album for Finland copyright 1972 and will be starting a new collection! Often I have had some stamps for a country as I start a collection but in this case I have almost nothing that is not spoken for in other albums so this will be a start from zero collection. I looked on eBay for some available starter collections but have decided that I will not take the easy way out of building on a prior collection and do everything from scratch and see how it grows. Album has spaces for 760 stamps with Scott mounts in place covering regular issues, semi-postal stamps, air post stamps, military stamps, occupation stamps for Karelia, and occupation stamps for Russia. It should be an interesting diversion and springboard for learning more about the history of an area for which I know virtually nothing.
Coincidentally I have started reading a new book, Prisoners of Geography, by Tim Marshall which was recommended in another posting. It starts with the impact of geography on Russian political decisions and development and Finland is definitely a component so much food for thought. So far the writing in the book comes across as absolutely masterful.
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"Finished reading the book about production of line engraved stamps by James H. Baxter"
That is a GREAT book!
"Printing Postage Stamps by Line Engraving by Baxter, James H."
If you're lucky, you might spot one of the 550 First Edition issues from APS in 1939.
It really explains how there can be so many varieties on 19th century plates in a way that makes total sense!
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Getting close !! Been loving watching the journey !! So many great oddities and little know entities !
Love it when a dealer takes the time to really help and meet our customer needs. I always make sure to go back to those kind of guys.
I love following the guys developing the corrections and additions to the album. I have really gone off on the tangents of occupation and military stamps as to me they are a different combination of issuing entity and geographic usage which makes them unique.
Keep us posted !
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No new stamps this week for the album but continuing with my theme of the number of different countries represented in albums I have a new album to report, The Imperial Stamp Album copyright 1928 and produced by Scott Stamp and Coin Co. It is the Ninth Edition of the album.
Interestingly eBay today had quite a few copies of the Imperial Stamp Album ranging from a Fourth Edition copyright 1899 through versions from the 1950s although the later versions changed to a portrait format which is taller than it is wide. Stanley Gibbon also produced an album known as the Imperial Stamp Album but it is quite different in terms of its intended audience and considerably more comprehensive.
The album contains 117 pages and has 1,461 pictured stamp issues plus another 1,911 empty spaces for a total capacity of 3,372 stamps. It covers 297 different stamp issuing entities. It uses a landscape format and is 9.75 inches wide and 7.25 inches tall. Interestingly there are no pictured stamps for the United States but 56 empty spaces are available for the country. The album had seen light use and has some hinge remnants but no stamps remaining.
I have continued reading the Prisoners of Geography book and would continue to recommend it as a guide to the impact of geography on political decisions and quite a useful motivation for learning more about stamp issuing entities as represented by governments and the impact of natural and artificial borders on them through time.
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Added 37 new stamps to bring me to 678 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album.
New items include Yemen Democratic People's Republic Scott #40, Federated States of Micronesia Scott #23, Brunei Scott #575a, Bahrain Scott # 61, Tajikistan Scott #4, South Georgia Scott #101, Penrhyn Scott #340, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Muslim Government Scott #261, Sao Tome et Principe Scott #660a, Equatorial Guinea Scott #73, Montenegro Scott #197, Serbia Scott #296, Prussia Scott #17, India States - Morvi Scott #1, Turkmenistan Scott #9, India States - Alwar Scott #2, Japan - Offices in China Scott #1, Japan - Offices in Korea Scott #1 (!), Bangkok Scott #14 (!), Annam and Tonkin Scott #2 (!), New Britain Scott #19 (!), Fiji - Kingdom Scott #40 (!), Italian States - Modena Scott #3 (!), Italian States - Two Sicilies - Naples Scott #27b (!), Italian States - Romagna Scott #9 (!), Bosnia and Herzegovina - Province of Turkey Scott #1a (!), Germany Schleswig-Holstein Scott #12, Germany - Oldenburg Scott #19, Cape Verde Scott #471, Namibia Scott #665a, Macedonia Scott #621, Slovenia Scott #216, Germany - Lubeck Scott #3 (!), Germany - Mecklenburg-Schwerin Scott #6, Germany - North German Federation Scott #24, Germany - Bremen Scott #15a (!), Serbia Scott #631, and Germany - Thurn and Taxis Southern States Scott #60. Also added a stamp for La Aguera from an eBay purchase.
Stamps were found through the APS Stamp Store. I have now completed all German States items and have added genuine stamps for Italian States to my existing placeholders for all but three of the Italian States entries with only Italian States - Parma, Italian States - Tuscany, and Italian States - Two Sicilies - Sicily left to go. The largest group of remaining items in the main section all relate to India States. These are proving particularly difficult to locate so far as mint stamps.
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That's a big bump, especially this close to the finish line!
I will have to try APS for German States (still missing 5) when I get back to this project. I'm just now getting back to checking out the threads after being off for a bit to have my rotator cuff repaired. I'm down to needing 4 Italian States (I haven't gotten Romagna yet), so I'm behind you there, too.
Just keep swimming!
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It turned out fairly well using the APS Stamp Store in that I found several very tough issues, especially noteworthy were the issues for Bangkok, Annam and Tonkin, and New Britain for which I had not seen any stamps whether mint or used in my searches to date.
Italian States have been particularly difficult to find mint stamps but several issues were found for them as well. In fact, I really was very satisfied with the placeholder stamps but particularly liked that I found a genuine stamp that matched the stamp on stamp issue placeholder that I was using. I left both in the album just for the novelty of them.
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Added 7 new stamps to bring me to 685 of 785 stamp issues for the album during a local stamp show this afternoon. Also, recounted my items in the album and picked up one entry that I had failed to count previously which is why the total is 685 rather than 684.
Only got to increase by seven on my count as one entry for Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWI which I acquired requires a Scott N1 or N2 was found to be a Scott N3 which is a Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWII during my checking at home when adding the stamp to the album! I, of course, added the stamp to the album underneath the position for the WWI entry due to the novelty of it.
New entries added were all for the back of the book area and include Italy - Island of Lero Scott #1, Italy - Island of Rhodes Scott #24, Austria - Offices in Crete Scott #15, China - For Yunnan Province currency control Scott #55, Finland - Aland Scott #5, Great Britain - British Occupation of Togo after WWI Scott #176, and Greece - Greek occupation of North Epirus during WWII Scott #N208. Four entries were also won from eBay purchases for Indian States areas with stamps coming for Faridkot, Bijawar, Jhalawar, and Soruth but these will be added to the count after their arrival and verification. Some are coming from Singapore and the United Kingdom so it may be a while.
Made a good contact with a dealer who believes he has several of the back of the book items in some albums at home which might be mint whereas the stamps he had at the show were all used. In particular he is fairly sure he has several of the issues related to Montenegro, Alsace, and Lorraine for back of the book items and will check for them. He is an active collector as well and a catalog expert with a tremendous breadth of knowledge and was very helpful today in identifying appropriate stamps for the back of the book areas in the album. If I was willing to accept additional used stamps over my current Vancouver Island issue I could have had another five stamps for the album today from his stock. But I am holding off for now, maybe I will relent if I haven't found candidate stamps after another couple of years. Originally my decision to try collecting mint examples was done more to slow down my purchases than for any other reason and the decision has definitely made for some challenges in selected areas where availability and sometimes cost is a significant factor, for example, the aforementioned Vancouver Island issue where I did relent at least partially because the used example I found is particularly nice and clean and was significantly less expensive than some mint issues I was seeing when I found it.
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You are doing impressively well. I thought I was catching up (currently at 526 for the basic album), but you are leaving me in the dust.
A mint copy of BC #1 (actually British Columbia and Vancouver Island) sold very recently at a local auction for $20500, so I can understand your reluctance for a mint copy.
Jan
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 686 of 785 issues.
New stamp is for Indian States - Jhalawar Scott #2.
While waiting for my wife who was attending the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for a young man for whom she had acted as a merit badge counselor for a couple of his requirements, I visited a local library and read the June 2019 issue of the Stamps magazine which was part of their periodical collection. Stamps had a really nice article in this issue on Germany's occupation stamps from the WWI period which I highly recommend.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 687 of 785 stamps.
New stamp was for Indian State - Bijawar Scott #1. Purchase was from Singapore via eBay.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 688 of 785 issues.
New issue is for Tibet Scott #17. Stamp was purchased from Hipstamp.
I have completed the Prisoners of Geography book and would highly recommend it to everyone as a vehicle to understanding the impact of geography on political decisions. I found its descriptions of geographic areas based on a series of ten maps to offer interesting insights into the relationships between countries on the world and regional stage.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 689 of 785 issues.
New stamp is for Indian States - Orchha State. Purchase was from eBay.
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Added 4 new stamps to bring me to 693 of 785 stamp issues for the album.
New items are France - French offices in Zanzibar Scott #43, Nicaragua - Zelaya (Bluefields) Scott #1L93, Switzerland - League of Nations mail Scott #238, and United Nations - UN Interim Administration Kosovo Scott #1. All items were purchased from Hipstamp.
A previously mentioned item for Faridkot - India Feudatory State was removed as the stamps received are not from Scott N1-N7 although they do appear to be from Faridkot but may actually be revenue stamp issues. One is blue and the other orange whereas N1-N7 are ultramarine. I now have 33 of the 105 back of the book album issues so have made significant progress recently on these issues. Following are pictures of the Faridkot issues that I received from my purchase:
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Hi Jerrel,
There were a number of so-called reprints created in different colours after the Faridkot post office closed.
They're not really reprints as they were printed from new plates.
I'm guessing this is what you have here.
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Interesting and thanks for the additional information on the Faridkot issues. My curiosity about the Indian States issues has been rising as I have been trying to find the stamp issues and finding a paucity of available stamps and information on them. I am finding that they seem to sell for higher proportions of the catalog value than many other countries' stamps, especially the issues related to the Feudatory States. There, also, seem to be more bids on eBay for the collections that appear from time to time. I did see one auction catalog for a truly outstanding Indian States collection recently for the "Gaur Family Collection" which is among the nicest auction catalogs I have ever seen. Incredible photographs and great write-ups on the stamps. The catalog was nice enough that I have been looking for a copy to keep.
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Hi Jerrel-
You are relentless! Even at this point of completion, you are adding material at a mad rate!
Would you be able to post images with your posts? It would be interesting to see the stamps as you acquire them. Also, it would be really neat to see the entire album on-line. This site has space for exhibits and I'm sure Don would want it on Stamp Smarter too!
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I will do a retrospective on the stamps and add scans for the album pages.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 694 of 785 issues.
New stamp added is for Switzerland - World Intellectual Property Organization mail.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 695 of 785 issues.
New stamp receive is for Mexico - Sinaloa Scott #1. Purchase was from Hipstamp.
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Added 4 new stamps to bring me to 699 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album.
New stamps are for Indian States - Junagarh, India - East India Company Scott #20, Ecuador - Galapagos Islands Scott #LC4, and Poland - Polish government in exile in Great Britain during WWI Scott #3KB1. Purchases were from a mix of eBay and Hipstamp sellers. Found that the stamp that I had for Soruth is actually for Junagarh per the initial description of entries under Soruth where the stamps with Scott #'s 1-10 are actually for Junagarh. Discovered this when I could never locate any stamps being offered with a description of Junagarh and re-checked the Indian States section of the catalog trying to find additional information.
Another offer for Republic of Madagascar - Madagascar for 1884-1886 (British Consular Mail) has been accepted and should be arriving within a week or so from a Hipstamp purchase. This will be, by far, my most expensive purchase for this album and is quite exciting.
Some known expensive or known difficult stamps remaining are New Zealand - King George VII Land $$, Argentina - Cordoba $, Argentina - Corrientes, South Sudan (modern issue) $, Romania - Moldavia $$, Romania - Moldavia-Walachia $, Indian States - Feudatory States (Bamra, Bhor, Bussahir, Dhar, Duttia, Faridkot, Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu, Jasdan, Junagarh, Kashmir, and Poonch, some expensive and all proving elusive in mint state ), and Ras Al Khaima first issues from 1964 which are not expensive but so far only located as part of a full set which is quite expensive. And, of course, the back of the book items continue to require much searching and remain challenging to locate and identify. Lars has been a huge help with assisting in identifying some of the appropriate stamps for these issues.
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Added two new stamps to bring me to 701 of 785 stamp issuing entities for a new milestone breaking 700 entries in the album.
New stamps are for Great Britain - Offices in China Scott #17 and Tetuan Scott #7.
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Added pictures for several of my more recent additions and will continue to add more as time permits. I will need to do some experimentation to figure out how to scan the album pages so that they could be posted. Suggestions would be appreciated!
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 704 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps are for India State - Barwani, Madagascar Scott #16, and Italy - Italian offices in Jerusalem (Ottoman Empire) Scott #4.
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Have been enjoying your posts and am amazed at the progress you have made. The pictures make it even better! Thanks for sharing
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Added 5 new stamps to bring me to 709 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps added for Italy - Italian Occupation of Trieste during WWII Scott #111 (note that the album says WWI but the Scott catalog does not include any items for WWI), Italy - Italian occupation of Ethiopia Scott #N5, Italy - Italian military personnel Scott #M4, Finland - Finnish military personnel Scott #M2, and Egypt - Egyptian occupation of Gaza after Suez War Scott #NC1. Stamps were found by going through u-pick albums at a local dealer.
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Added 7 new stamps to bring me to 716 of 785 different stamp issuing entities.
New stamps added were for Trucial States Scott #2, Korea - United States Administration Scott #57, Bophuthatswana Scott #265, Ciskei Scott #80, Transkei Scott #36, Egypt - Egyptian military personnel Scott #m12, and China - Chinese military personnel during WWII Scott #M2. Items were found in red boxes at a local stamp dealer and on eBay for the Trucial States issue.
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 718 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps are for Democratic Republic of the Congo and People's Republic of China - Imperial China Scott #100.
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Now down to just 18 8 5 missing stamps for the main body of the Smithsonian album and new issues are becoming much harder to locate (several of the stamps are not particularly expensive but sometimes the postage costs to get them from the few advertised copies have been truly exorbitant! And some of the other issues have proved really challenging due to few genuine, mint stamps being available, but the search continues.):
Checklist Period Page #
Caribbean Netherlands 2010-Present 6
Curacao 2010-Present 7
Argentina - Cordoba 1858-1879 13
Argentina - Corrientes 1856-1879 13
Romania - Moldavia 1858-1859 19
Albania - German Administration 1943-1943 25
India - British Crown Colony 1860-1876 78
India - Bamra 1888-1893 80
India - Bhor 1879-1904 80
India - Bussahir 1895-1900 81
India - Dhar 1897-1900 81
India - Duttia 1893-1920 81
India - Jammu 1867-1877 82
India - Junagarh 1862-1868 83
India - Kashmir 1866-1870 83
India - Soruth 1877-1949 85
Timor-Leste 2002-2002 94
United Arab Emirates - Ras Al Khaima 1964-1964 102
New Zealand King Edward VII Land 1908-1908 117
I have a few pending deliveries but none for any of these issues. The back of the album issues are making some progress with my primary limitations on the search being a combination of identification of an appropriate stamp and location from local inventories or limited advertised availability for low value items. Updated to reflect additional pending or later deliveries following some new acquisitions with strike-throughs on 7-20-2019. Updated again to indicate progress on the main body of the album on 8-27-2019.
This coming Sunday will mark the one year anniversary since I printed out and bound the album and began this journey. It has been great fun and brought me into familiarity with many new aspects of stamp collecting not to mention many new to me stamp issuing entities!
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Added 8 new stamps to bring me to 726 of 785 stamp issuing entities. Also added 2 real stamps for Italian States issues in addition to the stamp on stamp placeholders I had in the album previously leaving only Tuscany with a placeholder stamp only for the Italian States entries. Also, added one stamp under Austria - Austrian occupation entries for Serbia during WWI. There are now only four placeholder stamps in the album including stamps for Poland Scott #1 and the cantonal issues for Basel, Geneva, and Zurich.
New stamps added are Indian States - Jasdan Scott #1a (previously in the catalog but now considered to be a revenue stamp per a footnote under Scott #1, interestingly it is the same design but a different color, I like it anyway ), Indian States - Poonch Scott #6, Venda - Self-governing tribal homeland enclave of South African, Macao - 1999-Present Scott #1062, Denmark - Danish military personnel Scott #M1, France - French military personnel Scott #M6, Germany - German military personnel - Scott #MQ3, and Moldavia-Walachia Scott #21 (!).
Note that I managed to scan the stamp for Poonch sideways!
New stamps added for Italian States were for Italy - Two Sicilies Scott #3 (used stamp) and Italy - Parma Scott #11 (mint stamp). New stamp for Austria - Austrian occupation of Serbia during WWI is Scott #N27. This last item was added to the album as a gift from a stamp dealer who has been providing some guidance on the back of the book items.
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 728 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps are for Ukraine Government in Exile from page 132 of the album. Now I finally have stamps on every page of the album for a new milestone. Making progress on the back of the book items now with 70 of 105 entities with a representative stamp in the album.
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 730 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps added are India - Feudatory States - Faridkot Scott #2 and India - Feudatory States - Dhar Scott #2.
First scan is at 150 dpi and the second scan is at 300 dpi to provide a bit more detail on these relatively crudely produced stamps.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 731 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamp is for Romania - Romanian occupation of Pokutia after WWI Scott #N9. These issues are a bit obscure to locate in the catalog as they appear under Western Ukraine Occupation Stamps in the Scott Classic catalog. The original stamp is from Austria and is a postage due stamp of the period 1910-1917. The original Austria stamp is catalog number J49. It is quite a bit more valuable according to the catalog with the overprint issued for the Pokutia occupation!
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 732 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamp is United States of America - United States offices in Shanghai China Scott #K1. Stamp was acquired through Hipstamp.
Now have three pages in the back of the book area completed with many more to go.
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Updated my missing stamps list for the posting on July 4, 2019 by using strike-throughs on the text for the pending or delivered stamps acquired since the posting.
Particularly noteworthy item is my most expensive purchase, a New Zealand - King Edward VII Land stamp in mint condition, which is likely to be the most expensive stamp ever acquired for the album, since there are nice stamp on stamp alternatives for the Swiss canton issues and the Poland under Russian Dominion issue, thanks to proceeds from some unexpected computer work for a long time client. (I shared the album with him during my visit and, although he no longer collects stamps after selling his personal collection as part of a move to pay for his children's college expenses, he paged through every page of the album in detail reviewing the stamps and their issuing countries reminiscing about the items and countries he remembered from his collection and really enjoyed the opportunity.)
I will update my postings as the stamps arrive and include pictures at that time.
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In trying to find out why I can not find any stamps advertised for Junagarh I revisited the Scott catalog listings for Indian States and discovered that the stamps are listed as a section of stamps with Scott #'s 1-10 under Soruth. Re-checked the stamp I had (and the other one that was part of the purchase I had made due to a single lot containing both stamps and found that both stamps were from Scott #'s 1-10) so have updated the original posting as well as my missing stamps list from the July 4th posting after placing an order for the needed Soruth issue which is a lot easier to find online than Junagarh! I am now missing 9 stamps from the main section of the album pending some outstanding deliveries and 32 stamps from the back of the book section pending one outstanding delivery so will be at 744 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album once the deliveries complete.
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My rather constant reviews of the India and India States issues lately have prompted me to take a look at my primary collections for India and India States and their current status. Although I did not expect to see a large number of stamps I found to my chagrin that my main India pages in the Scott International 1840-1940 portion of my International 1840-1963 collection has no stamps at all! And only one stamp in the India States pages in the album, a really lovely 6 pies stamp from 1894-99 for Sirmoor which probably was part of a lot that contained an extra stamp, or an accidental duplicate order during an acquisition rush, oops.
Given how much time I have been spending searching for stamps for India and India States issues I have started an Excel checklist as a want list for India and hope to spend some time at the next local stamp show (and local stamp dealers plus Stamporama approvals and auctions) looking for some candidate mint stamps for the album. I will start with the 1840-1940 issues in Part 1A1 and then work forward through Parts 2 to 5, 1940-1963. Fortunately I have at least some existing stamps in the 1940-1959 period (although absolutely nothing in the Scott International Part V, 1960-1963, album)!
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Received 1 new stamp to bring me to 733 of 785 stamps in the album.
New stamp is Albania - German Administration 1943 Scott #E3. Stamp was acquired from Hipstamp.
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Received 1 new stamp to bring me to 734 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album.
New stamp is for Italy - Saseno Scott #4 under Local Stamps in the back of the album. Stamp was acquired from an eBay lot. Interestingly it was from a local collector in this area.
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You are doing a great job and I'm enjoying being along for the ride!
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Thanks for the encouragement!
Spent the entire day at a stamp show today but had no success locating any additions for the Smithsonian album which is the first time that has happened. Part of the reason is that I spent quite a bit of time looking for stamps for a Finland album on which I recently started working. Details of my success with it are in another message thread. I did extremely well with finding new issues for the Finland album.
I, also, spent quite a bit of time looking for mint stamps for India from 1840-1940 for my International album. While many additional used stamps were available from dealer stocks at the show, restricting my purchases to lower cost mint stamps definitely reduced the available options. Several dealers did have some album collections with India issues but I am only making purchases from a want list that I prepared from the Scott International 1A2 pages and not purchasing any "starter" collection at least partially because I haven't seen one that all stamps were mint that didn't go far beyond my albums' boundaries in terms of their date range. Also, I haven't added official stamps to the want list as yet.
New India stamps acquired were Scott #'s 39, 40, 47, 60, 78, 89, 129, 132, 133, 135, 142, 143, 157, 160, 161, and 161A for 16 of 109 stamps in the International Part I album for India as of now.
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I have been following this thread since you started it. You have made amazing progress in such a short period of time!
Thank you for adding pictures of the newly added stamps, it helps seeing the stamps. I really enjoy watching you inch your way to completion.
Keep up the good work!
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"Spent the entire day at a stamp show today but had no success locating any additions for the Smithsonian album which is the first time that has happened. "
That's what happens when you have already gotten all the easy ones! I'm finding the same with my NJ postmark collection. Even though I'm still around 40% complete, the ones I need are elusive!
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I've managed to find a reasonable cost item for Timor-Leste 2002 online and placed an order for it then received shipping confirmation today. I have updated my July 4th post to indicate that the item is no longer needed. This brings me to 8 missing stamps for the main part of the Smithsonian album.
Now just need a couple of outstanding offers on a couple of items to be accepted to reduce me to 6 missing stamps. It is going to be really hard to type while keeping my fingers crossed. 
Update: did not get the first item but still pending on the second. Second update, did not get the other item either so back to the drawing board on the missing issues. 
I did not get a chance to return to the second day of the stamp show due to other commitments. One of the last things I saw at the stamp show on Saturday was a really interesting ancient Yvert album for up to the 1890's. The dealer had worked up the catalog values for the album to be approximately $14,000 not including some more obvious damaged items and some foreign cut square items. Interestingly while many stamps appeared at first to be stuck down we found that the original owner had placed two hinges on the stamps, one at the top and one at the bottom to keep them from rising off the paper and catching on other items on facing pages. First time either he or I had ever heard of anyone doing this. The typography, i.e. the lettering of text identifiers, etc, for the pages in the album was very attractive. I would even say beautiful. There were many very seldom seen items in the album and the overall condition of the album and stamps while not perfect was much better than I usually see in old albums of this type. Unfortunately if I came home with it, it might be safer to not come home.
It was certainly a very interesting album and one that I would like to have a lot more time to study.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 735 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for Jammu and Kashmir Scott #80 as best I can tell. The stamp was issued in 1878-1880.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 736 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for South Sudan Scott #1. Stamp was acquired through an eBay auction.
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Added 11 stamps to bring me to 747 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps added are Belgium - Belgian military personnel Scott #M1, Indian States - Soruth Scott #11, Belgium - Belgian occupation of German East Africa during WWI Scott #NB1, Vietnam - South Vietnamese military personnel during the Vietnam war Scott #M1, North Vietnam - North Vietnamese military personnel during the Vietnam war Scott #M1, Australia - Australian military on occupation duty in Japan after WWII Scott #M1, Indian States - Duttia Scott #22, Indian States - Bamra Scott #10, Indian States - Bussahir Scott #23, Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWI Scott #N2 (!), and New Zealand - King Edward VII Land Scott #121a (!).
New stamps were acquired after a mammoth review of items through the Scott catalogs and searches on eBay and Hipstamp for appropriate stamps plus several offer attempts on some of the more expensive items over a period of weeks, most notably the King Edward VII Land stamp. Interestingly all eleven arrived in yesterday's mail from senders all over the world with two being picked up at the post office due to signature required parcels.
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"Added 11 stamps to bring me to 747 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album."
Wow! That's like 95% completion.. you must be excited. Heck, I'm excited! Congrats!
I've added a bunch of new covers to my NJ postmark collection, but cannot get over 41% completion!
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Added 5 stamps to bring me to 752 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are India - Indian UN Forces in Gaza Scott #M62, Germany - German occupation of Alsace during WWII Scott #N42, Chad - Chad military personnel Scott #M2, Japan - Japanese occupation of Netherlands Indies during WWII Scott #N9, and Netherlands - International Court of Justice mail Scott #O55. Stamps were purchased from Hipstamp.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 753 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for Venezuela Port of Carupano - Port of Carupano isolated by British and German blockade Scott #5 (!).
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 756 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are Timor-Leste Scott #1, China - For Manchuria currency control Scott #15, and Germany - German occupation of Poland during WWII Scott #N47. Stamps were acquired from eBay and Hipstamp.
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What are you doing to verify your purchases? There are about 25 stamps listed as "dangerous counterfeits", "official imitations", or "reprints". Jammu, Soruth, and Carupano are among them. I had planned to spend quite a bit of time learning about the fakes before diving in to those areas.
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My general experience is that it would take far too much experience and access to too many stamps to ever begin to recognize the differences. Mostly I find that it is necessary to trust people. Yes, I do try to examine the stamps and perhaps something slips through and perhaps not. It is not worth spending my life on agonizing about it. Overall I am fairly confident in the sources despite their variety and maybe because of it.
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OK, then. Best wishes and carry on. You should be finished in no time.
Lars
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Don't know about finished as there are still stamps in the back of the book section that I am unable to identify what stamp would be a valid example for the space. I am beginning to think the issues may not be Scott listed at all. I know that one issue that I found earlier due to a mention from Lars is NOT Scott listed and it would appear that this may be true of some other items as well.
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Tell me which ones specifically and I will tell you what Smithsonian has in their display.
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So far the one's I am having trouble identifying are:
Mexico - Yucatan from page 122
Maoist Revolutionary Army - Maoist control of South China from page 122
Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWI from page 124
France - French occupation of Mexico from page 125
Germany - German occupation of Lorraine during WWII from page 125 (I may have found this one yesterday under France, a range of catalog #'s not a stamp )
General Semenov - Anti-Bolshevik army occupation of Chita during Russian Revolution from page 127
Russia - Russian occupation before WWI from page 127
Thailand - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, ... ceded to Thailand by Japan from page 127 (I "may" have identified these as Malaya 2N1-2N6, medium expensive stamps in mint)
Japan - Japanese military personnel from page 131 ( I believe these are Japan M1-M5, medium to high expensive stamps in mint)
The remaining items that I am missing have more to do with locating a source for the stamps that actually has one where shipping doesn't break the bank or just general rarity of the less expensive issues for the remaining Indian States issues in mint condition: specifically Bhor, Jammu, and Kashmir plus the India Scott #2-4 stamp. Interestingly I am finding that mint stamps in general for India before the 1920's are not frequently encountered, at least in this area.
Today, I received notice that I won an auction for a Cordoba mint stamp. It will be my first purchase that requires a bank/wire transfer so both exciting and nervous and the second most expensive stamp for the collection for me although from its pictures it looks like a really beautiful copy for the stamp. I am reasonably sure of the vendor and the provenance of the stamp just working in a new world with bank transfers for me. 
PayPal really does simplify a lot of the quandaries related to purchases.
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"Mexico - Yucatan from page 122"
Smithsonian used Mexico - Yucatan #1 - look at the end of Mexico after the Airmails and Officials. That is true of many of these. Delcampe has one for $67.
"Maoist Revolutionary Army - Maoist control of South China from page 122"
Smithsonian and I both used #7L1 from PRC
"Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWI from page 124"
Smithsonian used 1N3, I used 1N1 from Montenegro
"France - French occupation of Mexico from page 125"
This is one of my favorites, and one that I am moving to the main section because I don't see it as an Occupation - but that's a different thread. You want any stamp during the rule of Emperor Maximilian. Smithsonian and I both used Mexico 27.
"Germany - German occupation of Lorraine during WWII from page 125 (I may have found this one yesterday under France, a range of catalog #'s not a stamp Sad )"
Smithsonian used France N58. I used N50.
"General Semenov - Anti-Bolshevik army occupation of Chita during Russian Revolution from page 127"
Far Eastern Republic N1-N4 - Smithsonian uses N3. I haven't gone there yet due to counterfeits.
"Russia - Russian occupation before WWI from page 127"
OK, this one was tricky! Smithsonian used Latvia 2N36, so apparently it SHOULD have read: "Russian occupation of Latvia AFTER WWI". You can use 2N1-36. 2N45-57 are from 1940 so I'm not sure if they would be appropriate. (2N37-44 were not placed in use). HOWEVER, if they REALLY meant Russian occupation of Latvia BEFORE WWII, 2N45-57 would be in play, I would think. That one is a misprint on the panel itself.
"Thailand - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, ... ceded to Thailand by Japan from page 127 (I "may" have identified these as Malaya 2N1-2N6, medium expensive stamps in mint)"
Yup. Malaya 2N1-2N6. Smithsonian uses 2N6.
"Japan - Japanese military personnel from page 131 ( I believe these are Japan M1-M5, medium to high expensive stamps in mint)"
Correct. They are also listed as "excellent forgeries exist"
Cheers!
Lars
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Thanks for the details on these. This will help tremendously in the search.
I will check out the Delcampe item although I haven't quite adjusted to those kinds of amounts on the back of the book items. I have resigned myself on several of the more interesting countries in the main section and will probably end up relenting on the other items as well (but with a few tears).
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 757 of 785 issues for the album.
New stamp is for Peru - Arequipa Scott #3N22. It was purchased via Hipstamp and arrived today from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I will update this post with the stamp picture once I go upstairs.
On Sunday for the first time my wife looked through the album. She noticed the entry for Japan - Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII and did a search for it on eBay as a proposed anniversary present (we first met in August of 1986). To my shock she found the stamp online and we placed a bid for it. I've looked for a copy for several months without seeing it listed. She put the same search terms in that I had used but used a different order for the words than I would have chosen and the stamp popped up. I tried again using the sequence that I would normally use and the stamp did not appear. Argh! Today, I received a notice from eBay that the lot had been won so I should be able to add it once it arrives.
Sunday, otherwise, was spent going through the Stamporama auctions looking for items for my International album with quite a few items being located. Saturday, I spent at a local stamp store about an hour away going through a new 10 cent u-pick album and found 52 stamps for the 1930 International album (unless I find I am missing the stamps in my main International Parts I-V album which is where the stamps from Stamporama are going). During my Stamporama review I ended up going up and down stairs 10 times to get additional albums and catalogs as I went through the listings so managed some mild exercise.
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During my recent auction reviews looking for a candidate stamp for Cordoba (not to mention the last six months of searches onlne, at stamp shows, and at the two local stamp stores in the greater Seattle area) I have seen VERY few stamps offered. Strangely the current catalog only lists two stamps as being issued for Cordoba, Scott #1 a five centavo issue in blue and #2 a ten centavo issue in black both imperforate stamps on laid paper. But my 1891 copyright tenth edition Scott International album has a space for a third stamp, a fifteen centavo issue in violet. I found some information last night in a book entitled Album Weeds for which I have a DVD based PDF copy as follows:
1860. 5 Centavos, blue.
Genuine
Lithographed, in various shades of more or less pale, chalky blue, on moderately stout, rough laid paper, and also on plain wove paper, the latter being rare; indeed, I have not yet seen them on wove, though I know that they exist. The letters of CORDOBA are thick, almost as thick as those of CEN, but smaller. One type of the 5 c. has a stop after CEN. The background, behind the top of the castle, is filled with horizontal lines of shading, in short dashes; the shading on the left being darker than that on the right. The white platform, upon which the three little turrets stand, is shaded with short, vertical lines almost the whole way across. The central oval is surrounded by a sort of chain-pattern, with square, white links, each link having a dark line through it; but one of the links, above and after the N of CEN, is smaller than the rest, and has 110 colored line through it. The head of the 5 very nearly touches the chain-pattern in lightly-printed copies, and in heavily-printed ones it actually touches it. The upper three pearls on the left-hand side of the stamp are shaded alike, each of them bearing a single, thick, curved line, like a sort of crescent standing on its end; all the other pearls on the left-hand side have two similar lines, joined at the bottom, making a sort of curved V. The upper two pearls on the right-hand side have a sort of crescent, with a peak in the middle of the hollow part, as well as at each end; all the other pearls on the right-hand side have the curved V. The door of the castle is very darkly shaded, being almost the darkest part of the stamp.
Forged
Very much better done than the genuine. Typographed, in greenish-blue, on smooth wove paper, very hard. The letters of CORDOBA are thinner than those of CEN, and much clearer than in the genuine. There is never any stop after CEN. The background, behind the top of the castle, has hardly the faintest trace of the horizontal lines of shading. The white platform at the top of the castle, on which the three little turrets stand, has only one vertical line of shading, and the commencement of two or three others; all the rest of the platform being quite white. The square, white links of the chain-pattern are all alike; the one above the end of the N of CEN being just like all the others, and having the colored line through it. The head of the 5 is at a good distance from the chain-pattern. The whole of the pearls on the left hand side are shaded alike, with the curved v. All the pearls on the right-hand side also bear the curved V, except the lowest two, which have a U instead. The door of the castle is lightly shaded, but it has a dark outline.
1860. 10 Centavos, black.
Genuine
I have not been able to obtain any specimens of the genuine 10 c. for inspection; but I believe that it varies slightly in type from the genuine 5 c., and is lithographed on laid paper, and sometimes on wove, as before.
Forged
Typographed, like the forged 5 c., on the same smooth, hard, wove paper. The color is very different from that of the genuine, being a sort of greyish-brown, instead of black. The groundwork, behind the top of the castle, shows the horizontal lines of shading, like the genuine 5 c. With this exception, this forgery is exactly the same as the forged 5 c. described above, being evidently transferred from the same original design.
Bogus Stamps.
These are the 15 c., violet; 25 c., orange; 50 c., green; and 1 peso, rose-carmine. It will be seen that I have included the 15 c. here as a bogus value; for, though it has been cataloged for a long time, nobody has ever seen it, so I think it probable that it was never issued.
All the values above-mentioned are exactly like the forged 5 c. in every particular, except that some of them show more of the horizontal lines of shading behind the top of the castle. As none of these values are to be found in the genuine set, I need say no more about them.
Postmarks
Genuine.—I have never seen a postmarked copy of the genuine, though a great many specimens have passed through my hands lately.
Forged.—The forgeries are uncancelled; the bogus stamps ditto.
From: ‘Album Weeds’, 3rd edition by R. B. Eareé. 1906
Today I won an eBay lot which is the only one I have ever seen for a Cordova 15 centavo stamp. It is quite likely a forgery (almost certainly in fact based on the article above however there is always a chance ) but is certainly intriguing and a great story. As soon as it arrives I will add a normal and a high resolution scan here to share with you. Now this is definitely something I would never have expected as a result from the search for stamps for the Smithsonian album.
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I have had the following items for a couple of weeks now as I try to determine what to do with them, cut them up to add the stamps to the Smithsonian album as a cut square because of the space issue in the album (I cringe at the thought). Just keep them separate and continue to search for stamps for Curacao and Caribbean Netherlands for the album. Or what?
The empty spaces in the album beckon, yearning for completion. But the items are quite interesting in their own right. I have managed to find a standalone stamp for Saint Martin but Curacao and Caribbean Netherlands continue to elude me with four separate times being outbid. Interestingly the catalog value on the issues is $1.25 for Curacao and $1.50 for Caribbean Netherlands in the 2014 Scott catalog. Unfortunately the only offerings I have seen have either been much more expensive (as much as a factor of ten) or required $8 shipping fees for delivery. C'est la vie! (Such is life! 
)
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If I had known how difficult it is for you to find those stamps, I would have bought an extra copy for you when I was there in January.
I will be passing through Seattle this weekend. I am curious about the 2 stamp stores you mention. I know Aurora, but what is the other one?
Jan
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Ooh, that would have been nice! And quite a delivery service, nothing like a courier.
The other store is Belkirk Stamps Coins and Comics and is located in Kirkland just off of exit 20 on I-405. Bill has been very aggressive with purchases of some rather large collections over the past year and has a very interesting and wide-ranging stock especially in a back storage area although not as much in the way of volume I suspect as at Aurora Stamps. There will, also, be the Fenwick Stamp Show on Sunday, August 11th which is organized by Bill's daughter at the Red Lion Hotel just off of exit 2 on I-405 which I am planning to attend in the afternoon. Both stores should be open on Saturday.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 758 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for Germany - German occupation of Montenegro during WWII Scott #3NB2. The stamp was acquired via Hipstamp and received today from Firenze, Italy.
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Been away from the stamp loft all summer.. This got me all excited to get back at it !! Appreciate all your effort !
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I plan to be at the Fenwick show (part of the reason for this trip.) Perhaps I'll meet you there.
Jan
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Hope to see you there as well. I should be there in the early afternoon on Sunday.
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Great thread, I follow it religiously. Out of curiosity, what were the search term phrases that both you and your wife used while searching for the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong stamp that achieved different results? Knowing this might possibly allow someone searching for a hard-to-ffind stamp to find one that they otherwise might have missed.
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She used "stamps Japanese occupation" while I was using "Japanese occupation stamps". Same terms just ordered differently.
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That’s strange. I sometimes vary the terminology when I don’t get any results but I’ve never tried changing the order of the words.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 759 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is the issue for GENERAL SEMENOV - Anti-Bolshevik army occupation of Chita during Russian Revolution (also known as Far Eastern Republic Scott #N3) from the Occupations area of the album on page 127 which with this addition is no longer the page with the most missing stamps in the album (there are now three pages in the album in a tie with three missing stamps ). I have included a high resolution scan as this one is a bit harder to find!
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It's good to add a high-res scan of this one!
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can weigh in, but the surcharge doesn't look right. You're rushing headlong into issues that the catalogs warn about. Caveat emptor!
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It is my understanding that the surcharges were printed on the stamps. To me, it looks like the surcharge is a handstamp. I would be suspicious of this one. We have a Gibbons Russia specialized catalog, but I can't find it. Pictures and images of the stamp surcharged and of the surcharge in Scott (doesn't mention fakes) and Michel (does mention fakes) do not excatly match the surcharge in the picture here. That doesn't mean it isn't genuine. I could probably get a better idea if I could find the Russia Specialized catalog. However, for now I would be suspicious of this stamp.
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The picture in the Scott Classic catalog for 2017 looks exactly like the one from my scan. There is a slight lightness at the top of the first P and second P in the surcharge and light doubling/smudging of the bottom of the 5 just as shown in this scan. The key element would be finding several example stamps to compare against. There is a Russian Philatelic Society that is supposed to have a collection of stamp pictures for these issues but it is not available online as best I can tell.
It would be very nice to see any high resolution pictures of other stamps for this issue that anyone could supply.
Here is a link to Dr. Cheng Chang's world stamp album from the internet. You may have to page to the last page from the itemid listed to see the example for my stamp. I wouldn't say that the image is clear enough to say either way on the stamp.
http://worldstampalbum.com/Contents/ShowStamp.aspx?ItemId=220
If anyone can provide scans from the related page(s) for this stamp in Dr. R. J. Ceresa's monumental work on Russian stamps that would be very useful.
(Modified by Moderator on 2019-08-11 05:50:57)
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 761 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are Colombia - Bolivar State Scott #19 and Colombia - Santander State Scott #7. Stamps were acquired at a local stamp show today.
Had a great time at the show today and showed the album to a dealer who showed me his personal album, which is a Senf album from the 1890's with an incredible 19th century collection which if the stamps are all genuine likely catalogs for around $2 million dollars but easily contains two to three hundred thousands in catalog value regardless!! He says he bought the album several years ago which has a very ornate leather cover with embossing and to which he has been adding mostly telegraph and cut square items. He definitely questions whether some of the more expensive items are genuine and pointed out three stamps in a row in the album that if genuine would catalog over a hundred thousand dollars each. The stamps definitely look appropriate though. The album had at least ten different issues from Tuscany and a very wide range of stamps throughout the album which was at least 30% complete for the period. The album originally came with brass catches but the main hinged clasp is missing. It was definitely a real treat to see.
Other than the two back of the book issues for Colombia (probably the lowest catalog value stamps in my Smithsonian album but among the hardest for me to locate), I mostly looked for stamps for India up to 1940 and added 12 new mint stamps for the period so am up to 31 stamps in the India pages from my 1840-1940 section of the International album.
Also picked up a range of low value Mexico stamps from before 1900 for the International album to fill some blank spots and for Guatemala up through 1939 plus some stamps for Malaya and states for 1949-1959 for the later volumes of my International based 1840-1963 collection.
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The images in the Scott catalogue are not necessarily those of genuine stamps. Several of the stamp images of early Iran, for example, are not of genuine stamps. I and others have informed Scott of this. They have not replaced the images as of yet as they presumably haven't yet been able to find any genuine ones.
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Interesting quandary. I've left messages for the seller and for Greg Mirsky who advertises Russian material in the Scott catalogs to see if additional details, especially any other available high resolution stamp images, could be shared for the Far Eastern Republic "of Siberia" Chita N3 issue with overprint by General Semenov's forces or might be available. Michael points out that there are several images in the Scott catalog of fake stamps. The only online example I have seen so far is from Dr. Cheng Chang's collection at http://www.worldstampalbum.com/ but the image is not of high enough resolution to provide useful guidance plus it would only provide an either or option versus the picture in the Scott catalog. It was a bit disappointing that Dr. Ceresa's books did not have more definitive pictures or commentary on the stamp issues although not that surprising in such a monumental undertaking.
The stamp is a low enough value at $25 catalog that auction catalog results are not that likely to be prevalent either. Yes, definitely a quandary. I did find two sample pictures from the eBay derived Stamp Market Index with one picture being essentially identical to my stamp to my eye and the other just a touch different. Both sales were from 2019 and only one sale ever listed since 2004 provided a certificate and that transaction did not offer a picture. Older sales before 2019 did not have pictures available from the site.
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I wouldn't fret about it. Check it out if you ever come across a good resource for such a stamp.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 762 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is Japan - Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII Scott #N2. This is the stamp found by my wife by reordering my normal search terms.
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Received the 15 centavo Cordoba stamp that matches my 1892 Scott International Album's third listed stamp for Cordoba. Note that the stamp is almost certainly a forgery as currently the Scott catalog only lists 5 centavo and 10 centavo issues for Cordoba. Nevertheless it is a quite interesting issue. Still waiting on delivery of the real stamp for Cordoba so no change in album completion. See my previous posting on the Cordoba issues for a bit more detail on the issues for Cordoba.
There are three copies of the scan shown, from right to left and top to bottom, they are 600 dpi scan with Microsoft Paint, "sharpen" setting from IrfanView per scan instructions on preparing for Exhibits on Stamporama that Roy made some time ago, and my normal 150dpi scan with Microsoft Paint. I wanted to see if it made a noticeable difference in the image presentation.
The stamp itself is printed with a fairly pale violet ink as was listed in the 1892 Scott album page. See album page excerpt scan below:
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Wanted to note that I am not actually using the tenth edition, 1892 Scott International album that I have for stamps as the paper has definitely been discoloring. I do use it as a guide and keep toying with creating something similar to it using Album Easy or similar products. I have made some trial attempts but am finding that I just don't have enough time to get a decent start on the album's creation. I would particularly like a non-comprehensive starter, face different world wide album with stamp spaces designed for use of Scott mounts or similar to be available as a print it yourself album. Perhaps organization should be by continent or similar with some specific time periods. I particularly like, 1840-1899, 1900-1939, 1940-49, etc. similar to the Scott International but with a bit more comprehensiveness especially for the 1840-1899 period but not like the Steiner pages for which an 1840-1899 page set comes to over 1600 pages or the Vintage Reproduction Scott Brown pages which are 815 pages. Key element would be that the stamp spaces should support use of mounts effectively.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 763 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian Album.
New stamp added is for Ras Al Khaima Scott #1 from 1964. Stamp was acquired via eBay from the United Kingdom.
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Saw three Lallier stamp albums from the 1860's and 1870's advertised today! One on eBay and two at Sandafayre auctions.
UPDATE: The eBay auction copy sold for $140.50 plus shipping. The album was in very poor condition but all pages appeared to be present. Cover was separated but present. Still a fascinating truly early example of a stamp album with some stamps included.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 764 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for Cordoba 1858-1879 Scott #1 (!). This stamp was acquired from an auction held in Argentina by Jalil Philatino.
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Can't wait to see the scan of complete project !
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 766 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are for Nicaragua - Cabo gracias a Dios Scott #2L16 and Germany - German occupation of Lorraine during WWII Scott #N52. Items purchased through eBay and Hipstamp.
Update: Sorry, forgot the pictures initially even though I had scanned the stamps before adding them to the album! Spent the afternoon adding stamps to my International album set that were purchased from Stamporama sellers. I was seriously behind on adding them! Got the descriptions reversed on the Lorraine and Alsace occupations and have now corrected them.
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You're close on the German Occupation stamp, but that's occupation of Lorraine, not Alsace.
The Cabo stamps have a warning: "Dangerous counterfeits exist" and that smudge to the right would be a concern. At least 2L16 only has a CV of $2.75 while 121 is 50 cents, so it isn't as profitable to fake 2L16 from 121, but if you were going to practice before doing the rest of the set, this would make the most sense to start with. Caution is advised.
I haven't personally gone into this area yet, so I have no idea if there is a cause for concern with this particular stamp, but this is an area I expect to wade into shortly and with trepidation.
I'm not quite as far along as you are, but I'm close. I have expanded my collection a bit so I am at 915 of 961. The remaining 46 are:
5 that I just haven't run across yet
13 that are rather expensive, so caution is advised
28 that have explicit warnings in the catalog about counterfeits, forgeries, or reprints, or are so easy to fake it would be foolish not to be careful
This last bit will be slow going for me because I want to avoid adding weeds. Just yesterday, by accident, I discovered a weed that doesn't even have a warning in Scott.
It's tough sledding sometimes!
Lars
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Updated list for back of the book items for which I am still searching for the Smithsonian album (with specific items by country and catalog # where known):
MEXICO - Yucatan page 122 (Mexico - Yucatan Scott #'s 1-2, 4-5)
RUSSIA - Russian occupation before WWI page 127 (Russia Scott #'s 2N1-2N36)
THAILAND - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Trengganu, provinces of Malay ceded to Thailand by Japan page 127 (Malaya Scott #'s 2N1-2N6)
JAPAN - Japanese military personnel page 131 (Japan Scott # M3)
UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC - United Arab Republic military personnel page 132 (United Arab Republic - Egypt Scott # M16)
Updated list for front of the book items for which I am still searching for the Smithsonian album (with specific items by country and catalog # where known):
ARGENTINA - Corrientes 1856-1879 page 13
ROMANIA - Moldavia page 19 (Romania Scott #'s 6-10)
INDIA - East India Company page 78 (India Scott #'s 2, 4-5)
INDIA - Jammu page 82 (India - Feudatory States - Jammu Scott #'s 6-60)
INDIA - Kashmir page 83 (India - Feudatory States - Kashmir Scott #'s 62-73)
Based on this list once some items awaiting delivery arrive I will have 775 779 781 782 784 785 of 785 (actually 783 787 789 790 792 793 of 793 expanded items due to some duplication in the album, if an item is included more than once in the album I have duplicate items, and some minor additions like the Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWII, in addition to the regular WWI entry; Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWII, in addition to the regular WWI entry; Germany - German occupation of Alsace during WWII, in addition to the regular Lorraine entry; Australia - Van Diemen's Land, in addition to the regular Tasmania entry; and India - Holkar State, in addition to the regular Indore entry).
UPDATE: Found the missing India stamp but lost the auction at four times catalog for the Corrientes stamp in nice, mint condition. 
UPDATE AGAIN: I have made some additional progress on finding stamps missing for the album including a real stamp for Tuscany in addition to my existing stamp on stamp placeholder. The new stamp is used though as mint stamps for Tuscany continue to elude me.
UPDATE ONE MORE TIME: Just received word that I have won a Corrientes stamp from an auction in Argentina (well, won in a loose sense of the word since it means I was willing to pay more for the stamp than anyone else ).
UPDATE NEXT TO LAST TIME: Now have stamps coming from Romania/Moldavia and Yucatan plus received a replacement stamp for Mecklenburg-Strelitz to replace one of four used stamps in the album, remaining stamps are for Vancouver Island, Tuscany, and India - East India Company (but without East India Company on the stamps) so these are unlikely to be replaced due to cost and rarity. Only remaining stamp is for Kashmir. I do have four stamp on stamp issues remaining in the album but Poland #1, Basel Canton, Geneva Canton, and Zurich Canton issues are beyond me. Strangely, several nice candidates for all four of these appeared on eBay yesterday (Septermber 29th)! But I must resist even though there is a very strong temptation.
UPDATE FOR LAST TIME: Just received two candidate stamps for Kashmir and have added them to the album, both of them, as they represent completion of the album.
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I'm impressed how many you've been able to track down so quickly.
For the East India Company issues I suggest you widen your search list as far as Scott #18.
That would include the 1855-64 set, especially #11 and #12 which are relatively inexpensive.
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So far I have tried to find only India issues for the first series that look different from the second series of stamps, i.e. the 2nd series all say East India on them while the first series just indicates India. This was chosen to accentuate the differences in the two political control periods.
I will admit to struggling a bit with the Jammu and Kashmir issues on that point as the stamps don't seem that unique. Best choice there seems to be try to find color unique varieties if possible.
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That makes sense but an alternative solution would be an "East India" stamp from the East India Company period and a later "India" stamp from the British colonial period.
However, I do like the designs from the first issues.
For Jammu & Kashmir, the following designs seem to be specific to these territories:
Jammu - Scott A4, A5 & A5a
Kashmir - Scott A6 to A12
Jammu & Kashmir - Scott A13 to A19
i.e. exclude stamps with designs Scott A1 to A3.
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Smithsonian used:
Jammu and Kashmir 86 - 2a Numeral 1878 (A16)
Jammu 47 - 1/4r Numeral 1877 (A3)
Kashmir 73 - 8a Numeral 1866 (A12)
I haven't gotten Jammu or Kashmir yet due to official imitations being so common.
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I don't see Madagascar 1884-1886 on your list of missing stamps, so can you please verify the size of that stamp? I am trying to create a new page for that stamp and want to know how much room to allow. The catalog says "POSTAGE" is about 30 mm wide, so I used that to scale up the image in the catalog. I came up with 80 mm tall and 55 mm wide, but that is a very crude estimate. Am I close?
Lars
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Does anyone think it is weird that all of the stamps issued for the India - British Crown Colony say East India Company while there are stamps both with and without indication for East India Company issued for East India Company with one design A7 in the Scott catalog used for both with the type of watermark and paper separating the issues or some redrawn details?
My first acquisition of a mint stamp for the early India stamps was Scott #20 which says East India Company but which turned out to be a British Crown Colony issue. Strangely this particular issue keeps popping up in dealer stocks that I have examined as a mint stamp with almost nothing else appearing.
The only stamp that I have seen first hand that regularly appears is its twin, Scott #31 which is a redrawn design but otherwise identical! So I shall keep looking for Scott issues 1-7 but will probably have to include a used stamp as mint issues for these stamps are quite dear and so far unseen. Except that is for one recurring four stamp block of the Scott #4 1 anna red with a terrible hinge stain which shows on the front for which the owner wants more than catalog value. I have to admit that the bottom pair of the block is really nice!
The Jammu and Kashmir issues available in mint so far have been the issues with catalog values in the hundreds or thousands of dollars so I will keep looking. Supposedly a stamp dealer who has a specialty practice in India stamps will be present at the Seapex Stamp Show in a couple of weeks and I hope to find something in his available stock. If not, I will have to be patient for the right stamp to appear on eBay or other auction sites. Uptown Stamp Shop which has a storefront in Portland, Oregon will be at Seapex and Niko let me know that they have made some major acquisitions through auctions and they might have something as well.
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My Madagascar - British Consular Mail stamp measures roughly 5.5 cm wide and 8 cm tall. I used a 61mm Scott clear mount strip cut to size to mount the stamp in the album. If you need one let me know and I will be happy to mail you a strip to use. Since I had to buy a package of mounts I have quite a few spares. My stamp was pictured in the June 29, 2019 post in this thread.
Fortunately there are not a lot of stamps that require this large of a mount. Now blocks and souvenir sheets might make the mounts a bit more useful but I tend to avoid their purchase except in filling items in any Scott Hingeless Specialty albums that I come across and fortunately they already have mounts!
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" If you need one let me know and I will be happy to mail you a strip to use."
I appreciate that, but I have a broad range of sizes, including 61 mm. It's just a challenge to make room for a stamp that big!
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Added 4 new stamps to bring me to 770 of 785 issues for the Smithsonian album.
New items are for Caribbean Netherlands Scott #B1 (mint stamp), Curacao (mint stamp), India States - Bhor Scott #2, and Italy - Offices in Jerusalem Scott #3 (second stamp for the issuing entity since there are duplicate listings on pages 120 and 121 of the album).
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Updated the want list information for the posting on September 1st to reflect one lost auction item and one won auction item, essentially adding a stamp for Corrientes to the want list and removing a stamp for India from the want list.
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 773 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps added are for Germany - German occupation of Alsace during the Franco-Prussian War Scott #N2a (!), Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWI Scott #1N1, and Maoist Revolutionary Army - Maoist control of South China Scott #7L1.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 774 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for People's Republic of China - Communist Chinese military personnel Scott #M4. New stamp was acquired from eBay.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 775 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for India - East India Company Scott #4. This is the third stamp in the album which has been included as a used stamp. The other two were for Vancouver Island and for Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 776 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for France - French occupation of Mexico Scott #29. Purchase was made via eBay from Portugal.
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Added picture of last stamp added to the album. Also, updated my want list on the September 1st posting to reflect some recent purchases for which deliveries are pending.
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Attended the Seapex show but found no new stamps for the album although I did actually see one stamp that would have been appropriate for the album, a stamp for Moldavia, however at $5,000 discounted from $9,000+ catalog value decided that I should keep looking.
Found a few additional mint stamps to fill in spaces for India in the International 1840-1940 album. 
Spoke with one dealer who had quite a number of Far Eastern Republic stamps including a full set of the General Semenov stamps plus some additional copies both mint and used as it is an area he collects. He checked out my stamp and confirmed it as genuine and that it is in fact the doubled overprint version. He had quite a stock of Russian area stamps on display at the show.
Early this morning I watched a Sandafayre auction online where two Lallier albums were auctioned, the first and second editions for the English language version of the albums. The second edition album which had a large number of stamps in the album sold for 8,750 pounds against a pre-sale estimate of 5,000 to 6,000 pounds and the first edition album with many fewer stamps in the album sold for 3,750 pounds against a pre-sale estimate of 800 to 1,200 pounds! It was very interesting listening to the bids being reported during the live auction with both in person and internet bids being taken live. I picked up a small lot of stamps for Finland during the auction. The online auction format used actually worked much better than I expected although sometimes it seemed that the bidding closed before all bidders had finished as the auction hurried through the process. There was quite a range of auction items with items starting at 5 pounds as well as at 10,000 pounds with very little difference if any in the treatment of items during the auction. The only items that appeared unwanted for the most part were a series of items offered as blocks on album pages.
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I was also at Seapex yesterday. I managed to get about 10 new stamps for my album, but I doubt the Heligoland example will turn out to be genuine. It was real cheap, so will make a good space filler if not. I think I am over 600 now, but won't have an exact tally until I mount them.
Jan
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Made a bit more progress with some auctions for missing items from the album and have updated my want list on the September 1st post. I will add pictures and details once the items arrive.
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Added 1 new stamp to the album but no change in completion count as I had an existing stamp on stamp issue. This adds the last real stamp needed for the Italian States entities.
New stamp is for Italy - Tuscany Scott #18. New stamp was acquired from Hipstamp.
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Update: Just received word that I won a Corrientes mint stamp from an auction in Argentina (well, won in a loose sense of the word since it indicates that I was willing to pay more than anyone else that participated in the auction for the stamp ) and have updated my want list on the September 1st posting. Now down to three missing stamps for the album once the pending deliveries complete! Pictures will be posted as soon as the stamps arrive.
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 779 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps are India Feudatory State - Jammu Scott 8, Japan - Japanese military personnel Scott #M2 (!), and United Arab Republic - United Arab Republic military personnel Scott #M16. Stamps were acquired from eBay, Hipstamp, and Stamps2Go.
I had been trying to find Japan Scott #M3 but have only seen two stamps for it advertised in the last six months and both were used stamps. Fortunately I found an offering for Japan Scott #M2 instead at an affordable cost recently, actually three separate auctions for the stamp occurred within a three week period after only seeing one very expensive Japan Scott #M1 offered in the last six months (admittedly it was a VERY nice stamp).
The United Arab Republic M16 stamp is a low catalog value offering which I have been unable to locate in the stock of over 70 different stamp dealers during the past year at stamp shows and the only other one I have seen advertised is a used stamp on Hipstamp. Of course, it is probably readily available somewhere, just not in the northwest USA!
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 781 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps are for Russia (actually Latvia) - Russian occupation of Latvia before WWII Scott #2N23 and Thailand (actually Malaya) - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Trengganu, provinces ceded to Thailand by Japan Scott #2N1 (!).
Due to the low contrast on the Thai (Malaya) stamp I have added a second picture where I used the sharpen setting from Irfanview to enhance the contrast on the stamp image. it helps a bit but not that much! The first stamp was acquired from Latvia and the second stamp from a stamp dealer in Thailand, both from eBay. The Thai stamp arrived in the best packaging I have seen used for mailing a single stamp and came from CFCOLLECTIBLE in Chiangrai Thailand.
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Received notice that I have won an auction for a stamp from Romania/Moldavia and have crossed the item off my want list. Can anyone recommend a stamp dealer with a good stock of Mexico items that might have any stamps from the Yucatan issues of the early 1920s?
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Found several suggested dealers via the MEPSI web site (https://www.mepsi.org/ ) after wading through 16 pages of search items based on searches for the term "stamps Yucatan" on Google and have located the needed stamp and placed an order from http://www.greggnelsonstamps.com/ . Interestingly, I have only seen one stamp advertised on eBay or Hipstamp for this issue which was a used stamp and one set on zillionsofstamps.com at a very high price in the past year.
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Added a replacement stamp received today for my stamp for Mecklenburg-Strelitz (which was one of four used stamps in the album and a cut square from an envelope to boot as best I can tell). It was spotted on eBay and I made an impulse offer on the stamp and managed to get the stamp! Other three used stamps in the album are for Vancouver Island, Tuscany, and India - East India Company (issued before East India Company was on the stamps) but based on costs and rarity these are not likely to be replaced. New stamp is Scott #6 and I was unable to determine the original stamp's catalog number as it is a cut square and not in my catalog.
I, also, have four stamp on stamp issues in the album for Poland Scott #1, Basel Canton, Geneva Canton, and Zurich Canton issues but these are extremely unlikely to ever be replaced in the album as all four issues catalog at $2,000 each and way up in the case of Basel! Although by sheer chance, a candidate stamp for each of the four issues appeared on eBay this past Sunday! And two of the four even have certificates available. Oh, the temptation!! Although the credit limit is present ever paying them off would definitely be an issue.
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Jerrel,
I wanted to wait until you reached completion to post my updates that I've been working on, but one of the key features is that I gained access to the layouts and stamps used on the original panels at the Smithsonian. The pages you are working from are based on a set of panels in the Smithsonian, and they aren't identical. Spoiler alert: They don't have the Swiss Canton stamps on the panels! That's right, the three most expensive stamps in the album pages aren't even on the panels. All they have for Switzerland are modern Swiss and a 5c Envelope stamp used as an adhesive for Geneva. (Switzerland 2LU1). Granted, they have a note "For Basel and Zurich see Treasures of the World Exhibit", but I felt a LOT better about using reprints for those (Switzerland B131b, B132a, B607a).
Make Poland #1 your crown jewel!
Lars
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Interesting. Of course, at $2,400 catalog value, Poland #1 is quite a step. So far, the stamp for King George VII Land has the highest catalog value at $900 currently as a mint stamp otherwise in the album after the Canton issues and Poland #1.
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Poland #1 will tie with Vancouver Island as my most expensive CV, but I collect used so it's "only" $250 CV. I still have 45 stamps to go, but 42 of them are over $100 CV, often faked, or both. I would like to physically see them and I have very limited access to dealers, but I do intend to hit a show in Nashville next spring so I can start on those. So I'm down to 3 others I'm looking for, all of which are under $25 CV! One is under $5! But as you know, those last few can be tough. (One is Yucatan, and thanks for the link, but I'm just not ready to pay that much yet).
Good luck!
Lars
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 783 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are for Mexico - Yucatan Scott #2 and Romania - Moldavia 1858-1859 Scott #9.
The Yucatan stamp completes the back of the books issues for a major miletone! I included a higher resolution image for the Romania/Moldavia issue as it was quite a difficult stamp to locate.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 784 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for Corrientes Scott #6 (I think, as the paper color is a very dark blue).
I have added a 450 dpi scan in addition to my normal 150 dpi scan to provide better details. The stamp size was too large to include a 600 dpi scan.
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I received two new stamps yesterday for Kashmir as candidates for completing the Smithsonian album. It was an auspicious day to receive the stamps as it represents the 15th month anniversary of my starting on the album. By my estimate I have spent between 700 and 900 hours looking for stamps for the album and searching for vendors and candidate stamps, plus trying to find out more about the stamp issuing entities associated with the album.
New stamps are definitely the designs for Kashmir Scott #63 and Kashmir Scott #72 but I suspect are later reprints just because the #72 in particular is such a great copy. See what you think!
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Well done!
If you get the final product scanned and available via web link let us know!
Lars
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Added one replacement/additional stamp, a mint stamp for Tuscany Scott #19 as an alternative for my existing used stamp for Tuscany. While the stamp lacks four margins it is an interesting copy for Tuscany which came with a certificate from Sergio Sismondo.
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This just makes me happy watching this progress. I had to switch focus to a few exhibits for upcoming shows, but will back at the single specimen shortly. Keep leading the way !
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I have essentially completed the album with two used stamps rather than mint stamps now for Vancouver Island and for the India 1854 series and four stamp on stamp issues rather than actual stamps for the periods for Poland #1 and the Switzerland Canton issues but do keep making some auction bids on stamps that show up that could replace these items although I have not had much luck with the bids other than the Tuscany stamp which was my last successful replacement getting me a mint rather than used example for the album.
Lately I have been concentrating on the Finland collection I started in a new, old stock Scott Hingeless album and album filling in my International Part I through V collection for 1840-1963. I just reached 19.6% complete with mint stamps for the International albums. Decided I would see how far I can get with mint stamps with an eventual goal of 50% overall completion with mint stamps unless I win some kind of lottery. About 60% of the stamps in the album came from a Minkus Supreme Global based collection I bought through eBay in 2006 that I moved onto International pages starting in early 2017 and finishing on May 19, 2018. Since then I have been picking up items as they come available through Stamporama, smaller country collections through local stamp shows and eBay, U-pick albums, and one mostly mint International Part I album from eBay with about 3,000 stamps which I am still combining with my collection.
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Congratulations! That was quite a journey and I enjoyed following along!
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Congratulations Jerrel! Hopefully you will soon be able to replace your used and stamp on stamp issues.
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I tried to access the Smithsonian A Stamp for Every Country page this evening and I got a message reading, “Page Not Found.” Has anyone else tried to access it lately? Perhaps they took it down to rectify some of the errors and user complaints, such as it being in landscape mode rather than portrait mode.
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I was not able to locate the Smithsonian album download today when I checked either but hope that it can be restored soon. I found it to be a great motivation for a really interesting collection. If anyone needs a copy of the PDF file for it before the Smithsonian gets their site back together let me know through the Stamporama member messages system with an e-mail address and I can send the PDF document to you via e-mail along with a copy of the Excel based checklist that I created.
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Received one replacement unused stamp today for the Vancouver Island issue in the album. This replaces one of two remaining used stamps in the album. The other is for the first issues from India and although I actually located and purchased a one-half anna issue for India from 1854 I ended up using it for my International 1840-1963 collection as it filled the first stamp position for India!
New stamp is, also, Vancouver Island Scott #5 as was my original issue for this stamp issuing entity.
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Last week I had the opportunity to review several albums from a fellow collector's collection and found that he has multiple copies of Poland Scott #1! We identified three mint copies (one looked questionable, or possibly saw some ink damage from soaking at some point in its life since 1860, and one was absolutely stunning with a Royal Philatelic Society certificate) and five used copies in his various collections. We, also, found two of the Switzerland canton issues for Zurich and Geneva plus a cut square item for Geneva but all were used. He had sold his primary Switzerland collection a year or so ago which did contain the remaining Switzerland canton issue for Basel as well as mint copies of the other cantons! So the stamps do exist! He, also, had one of the Moldavia stamps as well. It was a real treat getting the chance to view the stamps and discussing his collection building over the years.
He shares my interest in older stamp albums and we went through every page of a Lallier album that he has been adding to over the past thirty years as he identifies items that will fit that he doesn't have another place for in his more normal albums. Because he often stores album in the album while he considers other mounting options there were as many fascinating items between the pages as on them!
We, also, discuessed the Club De Monaco stamp society which I had seen a video from this week after a mention on Stamporama and he pulled out a 2013 book issued by the society for me to review which provides a history of stamp collection, albums, catalogs, and collectors up to 1880. He has let me borrow it and I have finished the first 214 pages of the roughly 500 page book (including one stent staying up to almost 4 AM reading it and doing additional searches online for topics mentioned in the book). It is an incredible treasure of information about the early days of stamp collecting and has been great fun to review. I have really enjoyed seeing pictures of early stamp albums and notable items and personages associated with the hobby as well.
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Jerrel, I would love to have a legitimate copy of Poland #1!! I have collected Poland since my wife and I started collecting in the early 1970's. I need two stamps to finish pg#1 in my Minkus album, Scott #1 (expensive!) and #15 (haven't found yet!). That someone has multiple copies of that stamp is downright UNFAIR! If he decides to donate one to another collector please keep me in mind!
Edit: For a rare stamp there seems to be an awful lot of Poland #1's on E-Bay right now including several double copies on piece with really nice postmarks. I might be a bit naive but it seems very suspicious.
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I saw a collection change hands in an auction that had over ten of them so maybe they are being broken up. None of them in that auction were mint though although several were on covers. I admit that I would definitely prefer one with a certificate though if I were purchasing it.
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Just checked ebay using stamps Poland Scott 1 and stamps Poland 1860 search terms and see what you mean about the large number of listings for what is normally a rarely listed stamp. They are all coming from the same dealer as best I can tell and the vendor has sold others as well. The vendor does seem to have a wide ranging group of Poland related offerings which tends to occur if someone is selling off a large collection which is where I would expect this kind of offering to come from as well. The pricing seems VERY low however which is a bit suspicious and no recognized authority certificates are mentioned. Of course, that is not too unusual for these items either. One pair of mint stamps had a selling price of $274 which really seems suspicious for a stamp with a catalog value of $2,400 each. That type of stamp pair should have some provenance information available.
It is a bit telling as well that if you read the description that the seller suggests that they are not expertised and that he is selling them as fakes rather than attempting to expertise them.
The collector's stamps that I had mentioned before do have some history behind them and I know that he has made some very significant purchases over decades with a variety of well known dealers in the USA and overseas so am not really concerned that those stamps would be an issue with the possible exception of one of the stamps that I had mentioned.
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The Smithsonian National Postal Museum offers a user printable stamp for every country album through their web site as a downloadable PDF document. I have created a checklist for keeping track of the items you have collected for your album which can be requested through the Stamporama message system (or downloaded once I find a good place to post it for access online).
I printed my own copy of the album two sided on archival quality paper which is slightly higher weight than standard copy paper that I acquired from Archival Methods and bound it using a wire binding using oversize rings at Office Depot (so that the thickness increase of the album as stamps in mounts are added to the album can be handled) with clear frosted front and back plastic cover sheets. This turned out very well.
Note that I chose to print the landscape oriented album two sided with flipping on the short side. I mention this as one approach to the album. If you want to put it in a three ring binder in landscape mode you will probably want to print it with flipping on the long side if you print it two sided. A three ring binder would let you add additional content to the album on page inserts such as covers that you come across related to the the album's coverage or excerpts from news articles.
It would be interesting to hear of your experiences with your initial entries into your Smithsonian album such as how many entries were you able to make by pulling from your personal duplicates into the album and how you are progressing with your collection. I suspect that finding stamps for the Other Stamp Issuing Entities will be a significant challenge for most of us! But, of course, the search is the real reward of the collection effort.
Also, please be aware that there are quite a few possibilities for extending the album or making relatively minor corrections to its content but I believe it represents a very solid goal for the stamp collector as created by the author.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I've sent out some initial copies of the Excel based checklist for the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album and received responses indicating successful arrival.
Just went through my first duplicate album, a Scott International Part II as it happens, and can report that I have found 27 different countries to add to my newly printed and bound Smithsonian album. I am looking in my collected duplicates or remainder collections for a mint stamp to use for each entry in the album. Each was added to the album using a Scott mount. A slow start but quite interesting as I try to pick a stamp to use. I even found some stamps that I had somehow missed to add to my International I-V main collection as I verified each stamp to be sure that it was a duplicate!
Best find was an Italian Socialist Republic issue which filled one entry that I had not expected to see at all much less as a duplicate!
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Thank you for sending the checklist!
This is quite a list, I never thought there would be so many postal entities, over 600 on the main list. It does look like a fun collection.
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I just checked and there should be 785 separate stamps in a completed album so this is definitely going to represent a challenge. It should make for a very interesting time at a stamp show to look for candidate stamps for inexpensive entries for the album or here on Stamporama in the approvals section once I have completed my review of existing duplicate stamps. Fortunately there are a couple of stamp shows coming up locally within the next couple of months.
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Interestingly I am starting to notice new countries every day as I look through the postings here, on eBay, and even in today's new arrival of the The American Philatelist. I suspect that this collection may have some unexpected benefits in raising curiosity about both time and place as represented by the changing countries.
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Here is the link to the Smithsonian page with the album:
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/stampgallery/everycountryalbum.html
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"I just checked and there should be 785 separate stamps in a completed album so this is definitely going to represent a challenge."
Many of which we've never heard of!
The list is very interesting. There are a mess of Indian states, but Germany isn't broken down to eras such as the "Third Reich" and then modern German.
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I recently acquired a 1935 edition of the Scott Modern Postage Stamp album (now cleaned out and looking almost brand new!) and for comparison created an Excel spread sheet of the stamp issuing entitites and counted up the number of them detailed in that compact, just under 1" (24mm) thick album. It includes spaces for 395 different stamp issuing entities including a large number of Italian entities not covered by the Smithsonian album so even some small world wide albums can be helpful if you want to expand the scope. Interestingly many of the represented Italian entities don't seem to be in the current Scott catalogs although I will need more access to current catalogs to see if I am just not looking in the right place in the catalog for my admittedly hurried review.
Looks like I need to check out the representations in the International albums as well! More later after I go through the first five volumes which I have available.
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Continuing with the theme of the number of different countries represented in albums:
Internatlonal Part 1A1 through 1B2 - 370 not including Indian States
International Part 2 - 246
International Part 3 - 224
International Part 4 - 207
International Part 5 - 215
Note that these numbers are for the currently being offered pages from Scott/Amos Media. Earlier versions of the International Part I album do include some countries that were removed from later editions.
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For those interested in pursuing only the different countries portion of the album and who would prefer to leave out the military police, occupation, local posts, etc. issues there are 680 countries in the abbreviated version. Currently I am up to 368 of 680 using this method and only have 10 of 105 of the stamp issuing entries in the back sections as an example of the impact of this change on the 785 total in the album.
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Interesting...
There are some people who collect #1's from every country (and/or stamp-issuing entity). Obviously that could be quite expensive for many countries (but surprising not for many others!). Collecting ANY stamp from every country seems a bit "random" to me. For example, one could just get the cheapest modern stamps from each country, resulting in a not very interesting collection (in my opinion). Having more interest in classic stamps myself, I think it would be interesting to do more of a "hybrid" style, and say you're going to collect the earliest stamp you can reasonably afford from every country. That way, you'd have a good mixture of classic stamps and some more modern ones too.
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"Collecting ANY stamp from every country seems a bit "random" to me"
When it comes to modern countries you can easily select an appropriate stamp. I chose 231 (Columbian Expo) for US just because I like that series. One of my modern Bosnia stamps features Novak Djokavic because my wife and I both enjoy playing and watching tennis. When it comes to some of the older issues (like all of those India Convention States and Feudatory States) there are sometimes only a few choices and after factoring in issues that have prevalent fakes and expensive items, you may only have a handful of options.
But everyone is welcome to collect any way they choose! That's one of the nice things about this collection: There is a lot of room to tailor it to your needs, especially if you are able to create some of your own pages!
Lars
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Note that the Universal Postal Union currently has 192 members so that means there are at least 488 countries that are represented by older stamps plus in most cases as a stamp collector it is much easier to find older stamps than new stamps so I would not underestimate the challenge of completing this collection even if you ignore Basel with a current minimum catalog value in the thousands of dollars.
Had a great day finding stamps in a series of U-pick albums at a local stamp store today and now have 409 of 785 stamp issuing entities! Latest stamp issuing entities added to the album include Cape of Good Hope Scott #4, Muscat and Oman Scott #97, Libia Scott #2, Orange River Free State Scott #4, Tasmania Scott # 17, Saudi Arabia Scott #621, Northern Nigeria Scott #10, Senegambia and Niger Scott #2, Allenstein Scott #16, Egypt Scott #60, Indian State - Chamba Scott #50, Indian State - Jhind Scott #64, Transvaal Scott # 281, Kiauchau Scott #23, Hejd Scott #L10, German East Africa Scott #31, German New Guinea Scott #22, Elobey ... Scott #40, Ivory Coast Scott #45, German South West Africa Scott #26, Grand Comoro Scott #23, and Ubangi-Shari-Chad Scott #4. Of course, it should be mentioned that it took almost six hours to go through the U-pick albums to find these new items for the Smithsonian album.
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Received another stamp album yesterday and this evening went through it preparing a country list. New album is a fairly recent vintage H.E. Harris and Co. Traveler Worldwide Stamp Album copyright 2007. It has illustrations and spaces for 436 different countries with a wide mix of both modern and older countries. It seems quite surprising that this "beginner" album would encompass such an incredibly broad mix of issues. This version seems to have a bit more space between rows and stamp pictures than the H.E. Harris albums I remember from the past and which makes for a much nicer presentation.
I wonder if anyone ever completed one of these albums using the stamps covered by the album. Does anyone know of any that were completed by chance?
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Attended the Seapex 2018 show today and found quite a number of new additions for the Smithsonian album. I now have 450 of 785 items from the album. Also, discussed available local stamp clubs with a dealer who was able to introduce me to a couple of members of the Greater Eastside Stamp Society which meets not too far from me a couple of times a month so hope to visit the club for a meeting in the near future.
New additions included stamps for Diego-Suarez Scott #26, French Congo Scott #42, East Africa and Uganda Scott #62, India - Nabha State Scott #8, Penrhyn Island Scott #25, Hawaii Scott #74, Hawaii - Kingdom Scott #37, Hawaii - Provisional Government Scott # 55, Portuguese Congo Scott # 11, Ponta Delgada Scott #30, Lourenco Marques Scott #B2, Inhambane Scott #84, Horta Scott #3, Heligoland Scott #4, Cape Juby Scott #54, Togo Scott #16, Samoa Scott #68, Marshall Islands Scott #23, Mariana Islands Scott # 30, Iraq Scott #173, India - Jaipur State Scott #O30, Western Australia Scott #58, Victoria Scott #179, Queensland Scott #113, South Australia Scott #116, Samoa Scott #11g, Somaliland Protectorate Scott #129, Zanzibar Scott #224, Tuvalu Scott #362, Labuan Scott #95, Jersey Scott #249, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika Scott #70, Kenya and Uganda Protectorate Scott #21, DPR Korea Scott #4890, St. Lucia Scott #C1, and St. Kitts Scott #44. I think the prettiest stamp was the one from Jersey, a simple design on a 22x25mm format stamp with nice color choices. I spent almost six hours perusing offerings at the show and had a great visit.
Checked on the stamp from Basel that I had previously mentioned as being available from a dealer but found that the stamp has been sold already. Can't complain as I really can't justify spending that kind of money for a single stamp for this album. I do wish I had had the opportunity to see the stamp though as it is rare enough that it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity (especially one that was offered at a price that was low enough that I could seriously consider buying it due to its being damaged by being cut into at the top even though it is a significant rarity to see one offered).
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Received a 1930 copyright version of the Scott International Junior Postage Stamp Album today and went through it checking for listed stamp issuing entities. It has listings for 431
different entities not counting six India States which had surcharged British India stamps or the thirty "Protected States of the British Empire in India" which issued stamps that were mentioned at the top of otherwise blank pages.
Similar to the earlier mentioned 1935 Scott Modern Postal Album this one is in near perfect condition with even fewer stamps in the album and only stamps which fit the identified items in the album and unusually cleanly placed (more cleanly than I can do I am finding in working on my International I-V albums ). This album is quite noticeable in comparison to the regular Scott International Part I 1840-1940 albums that we know and love in that it has very few unidentified empty spaces in the album listings for choosing stamps from a set to include. Its title page indicates that it has "spaces for some 22,000 varieties from the earliest issues up to the time of publication".
The album is in book form with the dark blue library binding and roughly two inches thick. So far, it is my favorite of the early albums I have acquired trying to find an interesting coverage one volume album that is not too big to handle as a follow-on to the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album on which I have been working. Given the non-loose leaf nature of the album it would not be suitable for use with stamp mounts as if you began to fill it the binding would be stressed. This might even be a problem adding stamps with hinges based on some example albums I have seen lately. The binding side of the album is significantly thicker than the right hand edge so it does appear that it was designed to take into at least partial account the thickness of stamps with hinges once it was put into significant use.
It should be interesting comparing the coverage in the album against the new Scott International albums which are copyright 1997 that are currently being produced and sold through Amos Media.
I worked my way through counting the number of stamps for each stamp issuing entity in the album as well as the number of empty spaces in each entity. Total count for the album was 21,878 pictured and/or with text descriptions and 642 empty spaces so stopping at 1930 rather than 1940 as is done for the regular Part 1A1 through 1B2 albums of today reduces the total number of stamps for the first album significantly from 34,410 that I counted in the currently produced album pages which go to 1940. This album also includes quite a few countries that are excluded from the modern page set.
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I've updated the country count totals and added additional details for the Scott International Junior Postage Stamp Album with a copyright date of 1930.
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Added five new stamps to my Smithsonian album for 455 of 785 stamp issuing entities in the album. New stamps were found while migrating stamps from a Scott International Junior album copyright 1939 to my International Part I-V albums with coverage through 1963. That set of albums just reached 15,000 of 85,586 for 17.5% complete.
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Added ten new stamps today by going through a LARGE volume of u-pick albums so now at 465 of 785 for 59% complete . New countries include Malaysia - Seongei Ujong Scott #32, Malysia - Federated Malay States Scott # 18, Thailand Scott #337, Cyprus Scott # 206, Palestine - British Mandate Scott # 7, Turks Islands - Scott #52, Nevis - British Colony Scott # 21, Nevis - Independent State Scott # 574, Faroe Islands Scott # 16, and Albania - Italian Occupation Scott #300.
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Managed to add a small number of entries for the album this week to bring the album up to 468 of 785 items in place.
New items were for Thurn and Taxis - Northern District Scott #13, Tobago Scott #22, and New Brunswick Scott #9.
Still not a lot of progress on the stamp issuing entities items at the back of the album with only 12 of 105 added so far.
I have been able to attend three meetings for a local stamp club which has had from 12 to 15 members present at each meeting so far. I had the opportunity to share the Smithsonian album during a show and tell segment of one meeting and there was quite a bit of interest in the album. Collecting interests by those in attendance are quite broad with some areas of intense specialization by several members. This is the first opportunity I have had to meet with other collectors in a group setting in person so has been quite interesting.
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Added seven new modern issues today to bring my count to 475 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
Items added were for Belize Scott #385, Belarus Scott #79, Czechoslovakia Scott #2987, Russia Scott #6781(!), Ukraine Scott #240, Estonia Scott #278, and Croatia Scott #304.
Ooh, and checking a new album offering on eBay today saw a collection which contains stamps for Basel, Geneva, and Zurich (actually there were three Basel stamps so I am fairly sure a regular stamp, a proof, and a forgery are all in the collection!). Of course, the vendor expects a final sale price of between $100,000 and $125,000 for the album so this one is likely a pipe dream.
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Received a Whitman Publishing produced The Modern Collector's Postage Stamp Album today billed as having spaces for over 8,000 different stamps of the world of more than 300 stamp-issuing countries and containing more than 2,400 illustrations with a copyright date of 1935.
Counted countries, illustrations, and spaces in the album and came up with 311 countries, 2,565 illustrations, and 8,132 spaces for stamps. The album groups a number of items like Colombian, Italian, Indian, and Straits Settlements states under single heading such as Native States for Straits Settlements so the count of countries does understate the number of stamp issuing entities represented in the album.
I continue to be amazed at the number of different countries referenced in these albums.
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11:03:31pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
enjoying following the progress. I am working on this collection as well. it is a blast. I am in the 660s but have also included entities which have been discussed in the other thread. I have seen totals of "issuing entities and territories" into the several thousands depending on how you categorized offices abroad, occupations and such.
Keep us posted !
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The collection with the Basel, Geneva, and Zurich stamps on eBay sold for a lot less than the estimate with a final price of $13,433 against a vendor estimate of $100,000-$125,000. It really felt like the listing was inadequate as there were no lists of stamps with catalog values or any details on stamps with damage or that might have been forgeries.
I tried contacting the vendor to get more details on the collection and though the listing said the collection cataloged for in the range of $575,000 the response was that they didn't have a list of the stamps with catalog values or further details which seemed almost irresponsible for a collection that stopped in 1894 with this kind of estimate. The realized value was very disappointing given the hyperbole of the listing.
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Wow, 660's is VERY impressive. What would you say have been your most productive sources for stamps for the album?
I have been trying to find mint stamps only for all issues, or at least no cancels, but am continuing to play with the idea of starting a second album with all used stamps, ideally with an interesting cancellation. I have, also, thought about creating a similar album but using all "dead" countries only with brief statistics and notes on the dead country. Another idea was to create a Universal Postal Union collection with only stamps from current countries, also, with statistics and notes about each country and, possibly, a page devoted to each country to do a small representative collection for each country rather than a single stamp. Ideally with a range of stamps that would provide some insight into the stamp offerings that make up the country's postal offerings. I keep acquiring some older small albums for ideas to stimulate what might be produced. I believe that Album Easy would be a useful tool for implementing the album and it would also offer the user the option of further customization to meet their interests.
But first I will continue towards seeing how far I can get with the mint issues in my Smithsonian album that is in process.
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Found 9 new issues for the Smithsonian album to bring my total to 484 of 785 issues. Still only 12 of the last 105 issues though so these are definitely going to be quite a challenge.
New issues included stamps for Transvaal (South African Republic), New South Wales, North Ingermanland, Albania - Italian Domination, Croatia, Thrace, South West Africa, Shanghai, and Jhind (under India Convention States, actually listed in the album as Jind which is, also, listed later under Feudatory States. The first listing is a misspelling on page 79. ).
The new items were mostly found in an older International Postage Stamp Album Junior Edition from which I am pulling some items for my main International I-V album collection in which I have just reached 17.8% completion of the 85,594 stamps it will take to complete that collection. One stamp came from a partial Minkus album which will also be used for filling some spaces in the main International I-V albums (at least I am hoping there are usable stamps in the album).
I had a nice opportunity this morning before church to read through some of the country descriptions from a 100th edition Scott Catalog which was published in 1944. I started from the beginning of the catalog after reading the entries for Switzerland which had a really informative and clearer description of the Canton issues than the current catalog. It was really interesting reading the changing country descriptions that were occurring at the time as the German and Italian offensives were making their mark on Europe and Africa in particular. It, also, brought home to me that even though my school introductions to World War II made it seem like nothing else was happening in the world that at the same time books were being published (even stamp catalogs!) although there were mentions of resource constraints which might impact availability of supply items in the advertising for Scott products at the back of the catalog and there were a couple of insertions in the catalog suggesting the purchase of United States War Savings Stamps with a tagline "MAKE A HOBBY OF YOUR PATRIOTISM".
It was interesting as well to read the advertisement for the The International Album Bound Edition with a heading "TO BE DISCONTINUED" due to the "recent trend toward specialization". This was about the Brown albums which were being replaced by the new Specialty Series. I, also, noticed an advertisement for "THE TEL-I-TONG", a new and useful gadget which "combines a complete, accurate set of metal perforation gauges with a pair of well-balanced tongs and a powerful magnifying glass in nickel polished frame". Has anyone ever seen one of these?
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11:12:29pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
thanks..it is coming. I actually started the collection around the Single Specimen album from Terra Nova publishing which sadly is no longer available. It is a really cool album with a small description and map of each entity. So, that gave me the initial list. I pillaged my WW collection for the base and then created a want list. I attend quite a few stamp shows and have found the vast majority through dealers. At Garfield Perry in Cle I found a dealer who had a mess of Indian states that came from a specialty collection so were certified on the wild ones. I am down to a handful maybe 6 that are missing from the albums. But I personally expanded it quite a bit with offices, occupations, and other outliers. One of the hardest was South Sudan and a few of the modern entities. I also do quite a few auctions on line. Stampauctionnetwork is a great resource to find many auction houses in one place. New Britain and the the New Republic were a couple pricy ones I bit the bullet on recently.
Keep plugging ! I look forward to seeing the collection. I thing the interesting thing about this type of collection is how different each will be. Would be fun to have a group get together and see which stamps they picked to represent each entity.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added one stamp from an 1897 edition of the Scott International album to bring my total to 485 of 785.
New stamp for Brunswick was found while thumbing through a mostly empty album, less than 800 stamps in the album with most of them being for Austria, France, Germany, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. And the only stamp for Brunswick was unused to boot!
Had a nice visit at a local stamp club last night where a show and tell meeting included a really nice Guatemala collection with an almost complete array of air mails up through the early 1970's, catalogs from Ceres for France, Zumstein for Switzerland, and Unitrade for Canada, a twenty stamp sheet for Japan (from the nicest Japan album I've ever seen), and some unusual stampless covers from early Germany. I reviewed the Basel items in the Zumstein catalog as I continue to be fascinated by them. I recently purchased from eBay a pair of mint and cancelled souvenir sheets which celebrate the Basel stamp issuance and am awaiting their arrival from Italy. The sheets include a perforate version of the Basel designs as part of the sheet.
Also, saw APS sales books that the club receives monthly. There were some surpisingly nice stamps with most pricing around 30% of catalog. They just recently changed the countries they are receiving to include France, Great Britain, Switzerland and some others.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added two new stamps to bring the total to 487 of 785. New additions were for United Nations - Vienna and Germany - French Legion fighting in Russia with the German Army. The UN - Vienna stamp was on some pages at the back of an old Minkus All American Stamp Album found today, strangely the album only had UN pages which were almost all empty. The German area stamp is quite a strange issue and Lars was instrumental in my recognizing the possible stamps. It actually showed up in a small binder of labels that someone gave me yesterday and is only listed in the Michel catalog. Most of the pages in the small binder had a small quantity of some rather strange labels with one page of Easter and Christmas seals near the back which was why I kept it thinking I might run into someone with an interest. With these two additions I now have 14 of the last 105 "back of the book" issues in the Smithsonian album.
The adventure continues with input from quite unexpected places.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Acquired a Scott International Postage Stamp Album Nineteeth Century edition copyright 1919 today and went through it building a checklist of the referenced stamp issuing entities for the album and came up with a total of of 343 unique entities including Indian States, Straits Settlements, Colombian, etc. entities. While I have another copy this one prompted me to go through the album determining the number of stamp issuing entities. It provides for a fairly complete list of all stamp issuing entities through 1900.
The purchase was prompted by a combination of a great deal on the album with its included 239 stamps and the opportunity earlier this week to review a fellow collector's lifetime collection in a similar Scott International 19th Century album which is the most complete album of this type I have ever seen following a show and tell session at a local stamp club meeting. I was particularly interested in his pages of stamps for the notoriously difficult to identify early Afghanistan stamps which included some tip-in pages with different colored papers used for the stamps. The album definitely represented a long time labor of love with meticulous attention to detail! I really appreciate the opportunity he gave me to review the stamps which I have previously seen only through pictures from a catalog in a DVD collection of philatelic books.
During my section of the show and tell session I passed around my tenth edition of the Scott International album which is copyright 1892. I had thought the album had no stamps in it at all but during the detailed look by the members at the album which most seemed to find fascinating one pasted down stamp was found which had never been removed from the album probably because the person who originally removed stamps from the album couldn't find a way to remove the stamp. . While the stamp itself is neither valuable nor attractive its tenacity of attachment is somewhat admirable.
Another member showed us his mint only USA collection in a Scott National album which he started in 1960. While the stamps in the first Scott listed 150 stamps were fairly low in number the stamps that he had acquired over time were absolutely stunning in terms of condition. Highlights were Columbians up through the $2 value and a complete set of Trans-Mississippi issues plus a complete set of USA air mails excepting C3a, the Jenny invert. I particularly liked the way he had encased each page in the album in a page protector. He shared that the album has been at this level of completeness for twenty years with no additions as he has moved on to other collecting interests. One example of this which he has shown an excerpt from in a recent meeting is a still in process Japan collection.
Other items shared at the meeting were some censor marked covers from the Boer wars in South Africa which were sent to an address in Illinois. A brief overview of the history of the Boer wars was given as an introduction to the covers.
As you can tell from my postings I have become fascinated with vintage stamp albums!
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 12 new stamps to bring my total to 499 of 785 issues for the Smithsonian album yesterday during a visit to a coin and stamp show put on locally. While there were only three stamp dealers out of 40 total dealers at the show they had useful and interesting items to review. Stamps added were India State - Nowanuggur Scott #12, Lithuania Scott # 421, Malta Scott #584, Dijibouti Scott #697, Eritrea Scott # 278, Mauritius Scott #375, Seychelles Scott #491, Tanganyika Scott #19, Uganda Scott #922, Uganda Protectorate Scott #71, Libya Scott #410, and Afars and Issas Scott #J49.
One particularly fascinating item of offerings I examined was a binder at one dealer containing singles and sets of air mail stamps of the world. This might be an interesting theme for a stamp or set from every country collection if you wanted to keep your selections a bit more modern. To this end I started capturing a list of all countries which have issued air mail stamps (at least up to 1940/1952 per the Scott Classic Catalog depending on what the catalog covers). It is proving to be an entertaining review of the catalog entries for issued stamps in its own right whether I proceed with the collection or not.
Other purchases at the show were three folders containing abbreviated country collections for Swaziland, Indonesia, and Venezuela which will be used for adding issues to my International Parts I-V 1840-1963 album set. While the Swaziland folder had stamps up to 1968 all of the stamps for 1968 were used so still missing this entry for the Smithsonian album. Fortunately it contained several attractive, engraved production stamps which will add to my Swaziland issues in the International album.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added four new stamps to bring my total to 503 of 785 stamp issues for the Smithonian album. New additions were Guam Scott # E1 (unfortunately it arrived severely stuck down inside a glassine envelope so had to float it off in a water bath but I didn't cry - much ), India - Charkhari State Scott # 28, India - Travancore Cochin Scott # 16, and India - China Expeditionary Force Scott # M2.
Also, added an India - Indore Scott # 1 where the stamp actually says it is for Holkar State rather than Indore as an addition to my existing India - Indore stamp in the album as it seemed appropriate and the stamp presented itself. It took me quite a while with the Scott catalog to figure out that Holkar State was actually part of the Indore listing rather than a missing state from the India States area. I thought it was worth commemorating the learning experience by adding the stamp to the Smithsonian album!
Also picked up a few items for my International 1840-1963 albums from the India States area where my collection has very few items. I added individual stamps for each of India - Sirmoor, India - Hyderabad, India Offices Abroad - Laos, and India Office Abroad - Vietnam. The India Offices Abroad areas could be candidates for additions to the Smithsonian album if you desired. Interestingly several countries do have Office Abroad items in the section starting on page 119 of the album although the page heading does indicate that it is a SELECTED grouping.
I, also, looked at a very nice selection of British Columbia stamps but acquiring one would definitely represent the most expensive addition to this album so far. Interestingly although the dealer had a very nice selection of both mint and used British Columbia stamps he did not have ANY of the Vancouver Island stamps. Maybe after Christmas if he still has the British Columbia stamps a treat would be in order.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I am using the following item for Basel, a souvenir sheet from Switzerland Scott # B607 which commemorates the issuance of the stamp. I just got both a mint and first day cover for the souvenir sheet from an auction. Coincidentally, yesterday, I saw a page in an album with a stamp on stamp issue from Uganda which also incorporates the Basel stamp design so the Switzerland issue is not the only candidate for a placeholder for Basel if you are unable to come up with the $15,000 catalog value for the genuine stamp. . Note that the original stamp is imperforate while the stamp in the souvenir sheet is perforated.
I am not counting it in my completion total since it is a placeholder. Ended up using an alternate stamp on stamp issue for the Basel stamp design from North Korea (!) as the souvenir sheet was too large for the available space and I couldn't bear to take it apart. Also, did start counting the placeholder stamps but left the stamps on my want list in case a real stamp ever becomes available when funds are an option.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Received another older worldwide stamp album today entitled "Worldwide Stamp Album by John W. Nicklin" and copyright 1934. It purports to have space for stamps of two hundred and sixty-seven countries. It has the best write-ups for individual countries with statistical data and historical and philatelic notes that I have seen. It is somewhat similar to the Great Britain Windsor albums in that the left side of each page has country notes, pictures of selected stamps, and sometimes descriptions of philatelic items from the country. The right side has a grid work for placing stamps rather than the typical blocks for stamps found in the Windsor album. I haven't seen any other album use this approach.
Stamps are mounted only on the right hand page so no interleaves are required so is quite a nice approach to an album.
The author mentions that over 100,000 stamps have been issued by the year of publication in his description of the rationale for the album and that the goal is for a representative collection for all countries. I like it. Does anyone have further information on John W. Nicklin?
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09:57:15pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Sounds like a neat album. I have become interested in old albums and hobby promotion history lately. Amazing how much variety there is out there.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I found a bit of additional information on John W. Nicklin. He was either the author or a primary contributor to several different albums as well as to the Sanabriar Air Post Catalogue. He, also, authored a book on Famous Stamps.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
A few other notes:
1) saw a Scott Brown album advertised on eBay and reviewed the photos from the album. During the review noted that it shows a Basel stamp in the album as well as a couple of Geneva canton issues. Purported total catalog value for the album is $17,000. Don't know if the Basel stamp is genuine but it does appear that the consigner of the album believes it to be genuine.
2) discussed a Switzerland album that was consigned to an auction in Switzerland which was auctioned this past Friday by a local collector and he indicated that his album did include a Basel stamp. It will be interesting to hear the results from the auction once he hears about it. Hopefully the auction results did do justice to the collection. I don't know any information about the condition of the stamp.
3) I saw another stamp on stamp issue of the Basel dove design from Central Africa on eBay this week in addition to the previously mentioned souvenir sheet from Switzerland and stamp on stamp issue from Uganda.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Found another stamp on stamp issue including the Basel canton stamp. It was issued by Niue upon the centenary of the death of Sir Rowland Hill. There is, also, an overprinted issue for hurricane relief of the same stamp. I believe the Scott #'s are 242 and B21. Also, the stamp was incorporated in a souvenir sheet listed as Scott # B245a.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I really like that concept for space fillers!
Are there other suggestions?
There are a LOT of stamps in the Smithsonian album that are subject to fakes, but the fakes themselves would be the space fillers, I suppose, if properly identified and marked.
There are a FEW items that are rather expensive that I would not pay more than a dollar for a good fake, but your suggestion is even better of using a "dedication" stamp (or whatever it's called). Any ideas for the following:
Canada - British Columbia
Canada - Vancouver Island
Canada - United Crown Colony of BC + VI (this is one I added for myself)
Argentina - Cordoba
Switzerland - Zurich
Switzerland - Geneva
Switzerland - Basel (this is the one you highlighted)
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added two stamps to my Smithsonian album to bring me to 505 of 785 stamps. New stamps were British Columbia #8 (!) and a stamp for the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and Nanking in World War II.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Identified three stamp on stamp placeholder issues for the rarer issues in the Smithsonian album:
Switzerland Zurich 1943 centenary issue
Switzerland Geneva 1943 centenary issue Scott B132 souvenir sheet
Switzerland Zurich and Geneva 1968 stamp has stamp on stamp for both canton issues on a single stamp
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 13 new stamps to bring my Smithsonian album total to 518 of 785 issues.
New stamps include: Stellaland Scott #3 (!), Benin Scott #361, Algeria Scott #742, Swaziland Scott #278, Nigeria Scott #119, South Nigeria Scott #11, Nossa-Be Scott #32, Natal Scott #85, Obock Scott #48, Niger Coast Protectorate Scott #43, French Colony of Benin Scott #36, Orange River Colony Scott #63, and Korea Scott #39.
Stellaland was found in a dealer counter book of new material to the dealer. The other twelve items were found by searching through red boxes containing items on stock cards at another dealer. All were acquired today.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added one new issue to bring my total to 519 of 785 for the Smithsonian album. This one is another unusual issue, New Zealand Scott #131d for Victoria Land from an auction on eBay and one of the three most expensive stamps I have added to the album with British Columbia and Stellaland being the other most expensive stamps to date.
On a side note: I went through the Scott International Junior album copyright 1930 that I had acquired recently and counted up all of the stamps required to complete the album that were potentially issued before 1900 and came up with a total of 5,720 stamps covering 267 unique countries or offices out of the 22,528 positions in the album with 431 unique countries or offices. This might be a borderline achievable goal.
Next is to determine the catalog numbers associated with the issues and gain an idea of the total catalog value as well as review any partial sets that might be worth expanding to build a representative collection for 19th century stamps. I know that using the old Scott Brown albums which cover the major numbers from the 19th century is NOT an attainable goal and I would like some semblance of possibility for completion before embarking on the journey. Magic question is whether to put them in the existing album or create something using Album Easy to make it available to others. The scale of this would seem to allow for that as a practical solution as well as allow for customization for expansion as well as adding details on the stamps and issuing authorities to increase my involvement and learning from the project. Anyone interested in this?
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 25 stamp issues to bring my total to 544 of 785 stamp issues for the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album during a visit to a local stamp show in Redmond, Washington put on by the Greater Eastside Stamp Society.
New issues include Antigua and Barbuda Scott #905, Aruba Scott #20, Castelrosso Scott #73, Burundi Scott #C103, Botswana Scott #306, Guinea Scott #169, Netherlands New Guinea Scott #B15, Guernsey Scott #189, Cocos Islands Scott #52, Kiribati Scott #416, Switzerland United Postal Union Scott #9O11, South Africa Scott #J40, Cameroun Scott #C207, Maldive Islands Scott #10, Isle of Man Scott #19, Christmas Island Scott #11, Fiji Scott #449, India States - United State of Saurashtra Scott #39, India States - Rajasthan Scott # 1b, British South African Company Scott #50, New Zealand - Ross Dependency Scott #L2, NiuaFo'Ou Scott #207, and Bechuanaland Scott #33.
Also, added an additional stamp to Australia - Tasmania for Van Diemen's Land Scott #31 as a forerunner name for Tasmania. This is the first stamp I have added to the album as a Used issue. I added it in commemoration of reading about the development of postal services in the area in the Stamp World History Atlas book that I have been reading and perhaps a bit because the name of the country is so off the wall. Also, I felt it was my own way of responding to the very interesting posts that Rob1956 and Horamakhet have been making about Australia area stamps in general.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Returned for the second day of the stamp show and added 12 new stamps to bring me to 556 of 785 stamp issues in the Smithsonian album. Eleven of the stamps were found in red boxes on 102 cards and one was a lucky find for Hatay in a Scott International U-Pick album that a dealer had at the show. It is the first time I have seen a mint stamp for Hatay in any U-Pick International album to which I have had access. Fortunately, a dealer had several of the more modern issues this weekend which is quite unusual in my experience looking for stamps for the album.
New additions were Hatay Scott #1 (!), Oman Scott #193, Kuwait Scott #377, Sri Lanka Scott #778, Hong Kong Scott #? (stamp is after 2006 but no catalog # was provided and I don't have a catalog that goes to that era ), Mali Scott #C1, Transvaal Scott #139 (!), Angola Scott #779, Tanganyika Scott #57, Slovakia Scott #531, Moldava Scott #37, and St. Martin Scott #13.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 1 new stamp today to bring me to 557 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp added was for Germany - Occupation of Belgium in WWI Scott #N19.
Took a vacation day today and while moving some mint stamps from a really beat-up old International Part I album into an older but superb condition International Junior album copyright 1930 found an odd stamp in Belgium that had a denomination only overprint on a German stamp. While trying to find a location for it realized that there was a similar stamp under France in the album that had Belgique with a denomination overprint but that the correct stamp in the space should not have Belgique. Under the description for the overprinted stamps in Belgium was a note that the issues were used in parts of Belgium and France. Following some additional sleuthing found that the album had a German occupation stamp for Belgium during WWI in the wrong place in the France section of the International album and moved it to the Smithsonian album and moved the overprint lacking Belgique to the France section of the International album. Corrected a placement error and managed to locate one of the hard to identify (because of my lack of expertise for the areas) and acquire stamps in the back of the book area of the Smithsonian album!
All told I moved about 200 stamps into the new album today. Next country to move is Central Lithuania which has at least ten stamps to move. Found two nice stamps during the move including a mint $17.50 catalog Australian stamp in nice VF condition and an used $11.00 catalog value stamp from 1857 (can't remember the country). I really only expected to find minimum catalog value stamps in the album so these were both very fortuitous. The Australia stamp was the ONLY stamp for Australia in the album so this was definitely a lucky break.
Just had a chance to go back and check on the used stamp that I added and found that it was from Austria.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I have been going through the Smithsonian album trying to identify appropriate Scott # ranges for the various stamps I am missing and identified another challenging stamp to locate based on a current catalog value in mint, hinged condition of $2,400. I suspect Poland Scott #1 is going to be a really good candidate for locating a possible stamp on stamp issue assuming one exists. So far it has the second highest catalog value for the album after the Basel cantonal issue of Switzerland. By the way I found another nice stamp on stamp issue for the Basel issue which is part of a miniature sheet from Hungary issued in 1974.
Looks like some of the German States and Italian States issues are going to be a challenge cost wise. Plus the close to home Vancouver Island stamp is, also, quite expensive. India States issues are proving quite challenging to locate regardless of catalog value. To date, I have found 19 of 47 issues for India States. Similarly in the back of the book area for the album I now have 19 of 105 issues although hopefully many of these should not prove to be that expensive, just difficult to identify and locate.
I forgot to mention that during my recent stamp show foray that my wife attended with me on the first day as her birthday present to me which I appreciate very much. We had a great day and celebrated with a dinner date afterward.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I have identified several stamp on stamp issues with images of the Poland Scott #1 stamp as possible placeholders for the Smithsonian album. Poland's Scott #909 was issued for the centenary of the issuance of Poland's stamp in 1960. Poland's Scott #934, 934a, and B107 were, also, issued in 1960 and incorporate the design. And in 1979 a stamp for the celebration of Rowland Hill's death centenary incorporated the design as well, Poland Scott #2351.
Information was found at http://www.stampsonstamps.org/Rammy/Poland/Poland.html .
In addition a very nice write-up on the Poland Scott #1 issue was found at http://stampspoland.nl/series/preware/0001.html .
Poland Scott #909 is part of a set of stamps with several stamp on stamp issues issued in 1960, Scott #'s 909-913. The set is included in the pages of the Scott International Postage Stamp Album for Part V under Poland.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
And here is the scan for Poland Scott # 1 from a stamp on stamp issue of Poland Scott # 2351 which I located in a Rowland Hill topical collection which I happened to have which was acquired via a token bid on eBay some time ago that I remembered today!
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
And here is my copy of the Hungary with Basel stamp on stamp issue that I had mentioned previously which arrived recently.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
"I have been going through the Smithsonian album trying to identify appropriate Scott # ranges for the various stamps I am missing and identified another challenging stamp to locate based on a current catalog value in mint, hinged condition of $2,400. I suspect Poland Scott #1 is going to be a really good candidate for locating a possible stamp on stamp issue assuming one exists."
I understand that you are collecting mint, but why would a mint stamp on stamp issue be better than the real thing used? $250 isn't cheap, but that's the CV for a used Poland #1. I don't understand why an actual used stamp is a less desirable placeholder. If the $250 is the obstacle, it's likely a damaged stamp could be had for less than $50.
For the Swiss Canton stamps, I agree that reprints of some sort are the only viable option given the prices. I decided that I preferred getting reprints directly from Switzerland:
In addition to expensive stamps, you also need to be wary of heavily faked stamps. Be sure to check each country in your catalog for notes about fakes, forgeries, and reprints. I'm not saying I won't use a reprint or two for the India Feudatory States, but if I do then I plan to pay less and annotate the entry as such.
I show 3 stamps in South America, 6 in Europe, 4 in Africa, 8 in Asia, and 6 in BOB that have specific warnings. It would be helpful to learn together how to spot fakes for those.
Pricewise, after the Swiss Cantons and Poland #1 and British Columbia, there is Argentina/Cordoba which is both expensive AND heavily faked. (Corrientes and Buenos Aires are not expensive, but also heavily faked). Next would be New Zealand 121a and 131d on page 117. Those would seem to be rather easy to fake (or at least try to), so care is advised there. Moldavia and Madagascar round out the list of stamps that have a CV of over $50, even used if that is cheaper.
Lars
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I agree, in this case though the stamp on stamp issue for Poland Scott #1 (actually Poland Scott #2351) was about $3 delivered rather than $250 for a real stamp. For now it is a placeholder but I do hold out hope for a real one some day. Basel may be a bit much to hope for at $17,500 current catalog in Scott's 2017 Classic catalog.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Lars,
Forgot to mention, your Switzerland section looks great! Not to mention the rest of the page is, also, very nice. Thanks for the details on other expensive as well as frequently counterfeited areas. I have been going through the notes on the pages as I review the stamps that make up the entries in the Scott Classic catalog per your suggestion and haven't seen any issues so far with stamps that I have acquired to date although having enough expertise to really know tends to mean that one has access to multiple originals and fakes and other resources for comparison. I have read through the excerpts from the Serrane guide that were published in the American Philatelist several years ago but I suspect that the issues involved for the Smithsonian album are going to require other resources than those to which I have access. The collection continues to be a very worthwhile broadening experience for my philatelic knowledge.
(Now if I could just remember everything I have read maybe something like the Billig Handbooks would be a nice resource. I did try going to the Seattle Public Library thinking that surely they would have quite a few books on the collection shelves that I could peruse for additional information. It was very disappointing. I think the Milton High School library in Florida when I was in the 7th grade and just beginning with stamps had a better collection of stamp collecting related books. I did discover that the Northwest Philatelic Library in Portland, Oregon exists and has a very nice library collection. They have a web site at http://www.nwpl.org/ with an online library catalog with resources that can be checked out via interlibrary loan options. Hopefully I will get a chance to visit in the next few weeks. It is about a three and a half hour drive each way so might be doable in a day or maybe with an overnight stay in the process plus there are a couple of stamp shops in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR that I would love to visit as part of an expedition. Strangely I don't think there is a similar library in Seattle but I will do some additional searching to verify as time permits.)
So far, it appears that regarding modern issues only South Sudan is likely to be somewhat expensive.
Also, I did get the Switzerland souvenir sheet with the perforated Basel stamp but couldn't bear to take the souvenir sheet apart since it will not fit in the space on the page when intact so ended up using an odd stamp on stamp issue from North Korea issued with a Basel stamp in the design. Even the mini-sheet from Hungary was too nice to take apart. I, also, now have the Uganda stamp on stamp issue so have quite a selection to choose from for the album. There is one much more expensive souvenir sheet item that also has the Basel design on it that I haven't managed to acquire as the sheet seems to normally be listed at $60+. As a sideline I have attempted to get every stamp on stamp issue with the Basel design that I can identify for use in a potential future simple exhibit either at a stamp show or perhaps here on Stamporama and will continue looking for new items. Just realized that I had mentioned that I had the Switzerland sheet before.
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03:54:08pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
" I did discover that the Northwest Philatelic Library in Portland, Oregon exists and has a very nice library collection. They have a web site at http://www.nwpl.org/ with an online library catalog with resources that can be checked out via interlibrary loan options. Hopefully I will get a chance to visit in the next few weeks."
It is definitely worth a visit. It is much longer drive for me, but I do go through Portland a couple of times per year. (I plan to be there this weekend.) I prefer to go on the second or fourth Saturday of the month as there is also a stamp bourse there.
The Western Philatelic Library in Redwood City, California is much larger.
I have been building a personal philatelic library for years. Recently I bought a box of books at a local auction. Included was a reproduction of the Fournier Album of forgeries - 171 pages full of examples from hundreds of countries (yes, he did the Basel dove stamp.) Another book which may become useful is a book on the classical issues of Europe. For the Basel dove stamps it gives 22 points of comparison to aid in weeding out forgeries. So I am ready if I ever get one.
I enjoy these discussions. I am also working on such an album, but have still far to go to catch up with you. I currently stand at about 300 stamps in the main country part. I haven't started on the BOB part yet.
Jan
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
"Forgot to mention, your Switzerland section looks great! "
Thanks, but it was your idea to use those kind of stamps for placeholders. I really like the idea since I never intend to pursue the actual stamps. Everything else I intend to pursue, either mint or used.
"Also, I did get the Switzerland souvenir sheet with the perforated Basel stamp but couldn't bear to take the souvenir sheet apart."
Yeah, and I had to cut B131 and B132 to get single stamps, but I have extra singles of each I am going to offer, along with extras from just about EVERY section, when I get finished with Asia. Perhaps 4 to 6 weeks from now. Still working on Africa. (I have added a few stamps here and there as I deem appropriate to my personal pages).
From the original Smithsonian pages, assuming the Swiss Cantons are now "covered", I'm at 733/785, but I was at 727 about 6 months ago, and half of those I gained are the Swiss Cantons! There are very few left that aren't over $10 each or heavily faked (and those are scarce, else I would have them by now). That puts me at 93%, but if I look at a calendar, I'm probably just over half way (and I've been working on this for a few years)!
The 50 or so missing stamps are:
4 in the Americas - 1 in Canada and 3 in Argentina (two expensive, two heavily faked)
13 in Europe (mostly Italian states and German States, plus Poland, Moldavia, and Karelia)
8 in Africa (Madagascar and 4 heavily faked stamps)
12 in Asia (mostly fakes, many in India States)
2 in Antarctica - CV over $50 each
11 in BOB (some fakes, some expensive, some hard to find)
Hopefully we can focus on one area at a time and learn from each other about spotting fakes. German States, Italian States, and Indian States may be a good place to start.
Lars
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I will have to check out the Western Philatelic Library as well. Thanks for the information plus I will look for the Fournier book as well. I've accumulated several hundred (600+) reference items as PDF documents and will see if it is by chance included.
Wish I could get to Portland this weekend but we have a snow storm coming in Friday evening according to the weather which will be a problem. Do you happen to know the hours for the NWPL and what days they are open? I don't remember seeing that information on the web site.
Just checked the web site again and the posted hours are 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on the 2nd and 4th Saturday and some Tuesdays as well. Looks like it is going to take some trip organization to find them open. I will work it out.
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Attended the local stamp club that I joined a few months ago and had a chance to ask about a philatelic library for Seattle and it was reported that the Seattle club used to have a very decent library but a water pipe burst destroying most of the book collection and they sold off the surviving items and it never got rebuilt.
We had a show and tell discussion during the meeting and we had a wide ranging discussion about the stamp for every country approach to a collection. All said they had not heard of anyone doing this except as a #1's of the world collection before. One member had his 19th Century Scott Brown album with him and I was able to see his items from Moldavia-Wachovia. He has about eight different stamps from the period in the album almost all of which are mint. It was very neat to see them. I brought along the 1930 Scott International Junior album to which I have started adding stamps and he was impressed that I had completed the page for Carinthia. That was actually done by accident as the old broken International album from which I am pulling stamps just happened to have that country complete and the country is not present in the latest edition of the Scott International Part I album on which my main International 1840-1963 collection is based so I had not previously pulled any stamps from the country for that album. All were impressed that the album was so clean and showed virtually no wear despite its 1930 copyright.
I like the album because it allows me to carry a single album which encompasses a large range of items yet isn't as overwhelming (or bulky) as the full International Part I. As I get more involved in it I am noticing more and more the differences as compared to the full 1840-1940 albums. It is quite interesting the deletions and additions that occurred from 1930 to 1943 in terms of the album's coverage for the Scott International Junior album. It does represent something of a duplication with my main collection but is providing a lot of fun and encouraging me to review more closely my main collection and the Scott catalog.
Just starting to read the Asia section about China in the Stamp World History Atlas book that I have been reading so am now about 2/3's through the book.
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Added one new stamp today to bring me to 559 of 785 issues.
Most recent additions were a placeholder stamp for Poland - Russian Domination Poland Scott #2351 stamp on stamp issue and St. Christopher Scott #8.
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Added ten new stamps to bring me to 569 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album. Four items are placeholders for Italy States from a stamp on stamp Italy Scott #1651 souvenir sheet though and one item is my second used stamp to be added to the album following the additional add-on for Van Diemen's Land (alternate name for Tasmania) mentioned previously.
New stamps are Vancouver Island Scott #5 (!) used, Russian Provisional Government - Civil War Scott #131, Italy - Lombardy-Venetia Scott #22, Bosnia and Herzegovina Scott #237, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosnian Croat Administration Scott #315, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosnia Serb Administration Scott #502, Italy - Modena (plalceholder), Italy - Parma (placeholder), Italy - Romagna (placeholder), and Italy - Tuscany (placeholder).
At this point I have six stamp on stamp placeholders in the album.
This morning I managed to create a standalone want list of my remaining needs as an alternate worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet that I use to track entries for the album. The want list does contain the placeholders among the missing issues in case an affordable stamp ever shows up!
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Found two resources for detecting forged stamps in my PDF based collection of books:
1) Album Weeds or How to Detect Forged Stamps by Rev. R. B. Earee published in 1882
2) Forged Stamps: How to Detect Them by Thorton Lewes and Edward Pemberton published in 1863
Most interesting resources that I rediscovered during the search were:
1) Paper Chase, the Amenities of Stamp Collecting by Alvin F. Harlow copyright 1940
2) Stamp Collector's Magazine, Volume 1 from 1863
Obviously the problem of stamp forgeries started early in the history of the postage stamp and stamp collecting!
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Added 1 new stamp to bring my total to 570 for 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamp is Turkey - Eastern Rumelia Scott #18 and it was identified while moving three other issues to the International Junior 1930 album. I was doing additional research on the group of four stamps as the new album location only showed three spaces and even the old album indicated the odd stamp was in the wrong place and checked just to be sure that I had the country for the "extra" stamp in the Smithsonian album and lucked out. It is a shame though that the perforations measure 11.5 as a perf 13.5 would have been a really nice find. Of course, I am very happy to fill the country in the Smithsonian album!
Note that there are two different Eastern Rumelia stamps in the album, one is actually Southern Bulgaria (rename that occurred for Eastern Rumelia) on page 17 whereas the other issue is on page 101.
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"Note that there are two different Eastern Rumelia stamps in the album, one is actually Southern Bulgaria (rename that occurred for Eastern Rumelia) on page 17 whereas the other issue is on page 101."
Can you elaborate? That's one I'm trying to properly document.
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The Scott Classic Catalog for 2017 implies in the listings for Eastern Rumelia that an area of Turkey broke away to become a part of Bulgaria known as Southern Bulgaria. Stamps were overprinted and used in the breakaway area.
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There is a nice summary in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Rumelia
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Nigel,
Thanks for the posting of the Wikipedia content reference for Eastern Rumelia. It adds significantly to the level of detail and makes much more clear why there are two antecedent stamp issuing entities in the Smithsonian album which we have questioned previously in the other threads on the Smithsonian albums.
Jerrel
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"Thanks for the posting of the Wikipedia content reference for Eastern Rumelia. It adds significantly to the level of detail and makes much more clear why there are two antecedent stamp issuing entities in the Smithsonian album which we have questioned previously in the other threads on the Smithsonian albums."
This link provides more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_Eastern_Rumelia
but neither link answers the underlying question that I have not seen answered in previous threads. If this has been asked and answered elsewhere, please let me know where.
Stamps for Eastern Rumelia (South Bulgaria) were initially overprints of stamps of Turkey. In 1881-1884 a new series (A4 in Scott) was issued by Turkey and in 1885 those issues were overprinted by Bulgaria. I get all that.
However, the questions remain:
1. Why do we need more than one stamp for Eastern Rumelia? The area was autonomous under Turkey and then was annexed by Bulgaria, so the stamps 20-40 would be considered local stamps, right?
2. Even if we accept that two different stamps are needed for Eastern Rumelia (and I have yet to see compelling evidence for that), why would the two stamps, for the same area, be in different continents? It makes no sense! If we are placing stamps in the continent of the issuing authority we need to move a BUNCH of Caribbean stamps to Europe!
This is a far from settled issue as far as I know. If there is a definitive conclusion, please point me to it.
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There are stamp series in the catalog that are not overprinted or use a different overprint and I suspect that is the difference. Those stamps represent an area that was and probably remained part of Turkey. The overprinted stamps are for the new area South Bulgaria which became part of Bulgaria. At least this is why the Smithsonian album includes issues in each location. The usage area for the stamps was not completely one or the other I suspect in terms of with what country parts of the territory ended up. It is, also, possible that I am mixing up the two issue groupings.
After some additional review, it appears that the stamps issued from 1885 up are for South Bulgaria (Scott #'s 20-40) while the stamps issued for 1880 through 1884 are the stamps that should go on page 101 for Turkey (Scott #'s 1-19). Argh, unfortunately both stamps I have are from Scott #'s 1-19 so I must subtract one from my current status so only have 569 of 785.
Checked through the older International albums that I have and they only list stamps for 1880-1884 for Eastern Rumelia but do not include any mention of Southern Bulgaria or issues for Bulgaria for 1885 so these stamps may be a bit difficult to locate and the catalog values indicate they are much more expensive than the earlier issues. Forgeries appear to abound as well, many listings on hipstamp.com are for forgeries per the lister so real stamps may be the exception!
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Added some additional details on the Eastern Rumelia stamp quandary on my last post before this one.
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As to the geographic location of the Eastern Rumelia stamps for Bulgaria versus Turkey, I suspect that Bulgaria is historically considered to be an Eastern Europe country while Turkey is normally considered to be in Asia.
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You are correct that 1-19 are "Eastern Rumelia" and 20-40 are "South Bulgaria", but they are the exact same place with different names. All of the stamps 20-40 are design A4 with overprints, and as you said, counterfeits are plentiful.
Yes, Turkey is considered Asia and Bulgaria is considered Europe, but I don't see why a part of modern Bulgaria would be considered a part of Asia when stamps were issued for it by Turkey, and then magically become a part of Europe when Bulgaria adds an overprint.
Eastern Rumelia was an autonomous province. Turkey issued stamps for Eastern Rumelia/South Bulgaria not because it was a part of Turkey, but because they were required to do so as part of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. In 1885 Bulgaria took over control and placed an overprint (often a handstamp) on the existing Turkish stamps. The next year Bulgarian stamps were used.
It sure seems that Eastern Rumelia should be considered as a part of Europe only. It also seems that ANY stamp 1-40 would do for this briefly autonomous province since it didn't fundamentally change during its brief existence. If anything, 20-40 should be considered local stamps.
However, even if you believe Eastern Rumelia should be in both places, under Turkey the dates should be 1880-1884 (not 1885) and for Bulgaria it should just be 1885 (not 1885-1920).
I know this is all complicated, but I believe it is useful to understand because it is even more complicated with Thrace. Thrace is where Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey come together, so it could be considered a precedent country to all 3. There is a listing on page 28 for Greece, a listing on page 101 for Turkey, and another on page 124.
The Thrace stamps for Greece and Turkey both have 1913-1920. It seems that one stamp should be in one location (Greece, Turkey, or Bulgaria) and a note added to the other two. The stamps of Thrace are 1-33. 1-4 could be considered a local issue for the Glumulzina District. 5-9 may be the most desirable as unique to Thrace, 10-15 are overprints on Turkish Stamps, 16-21 are overprints on Bulgarian stamps, and 22-33 are overprints on Greek stamps. It seems odd to me to have the same listing under Turkey and Greece. I suppose you could put an overprint of a Greek stamp on the page for Greece and an overprint of a Turkish stamp on the page for Turkey, but wouldn't you then need an overprint on a Bulgarian stamp as well? I really don't think this was thought out very well.
Another twist is page 124. Here you have Allied Occupation of Thrace after WWI. That's catalog numbers N1-N25. (Greek Occupation is N26-N84 and not called out in these pages). These stamps are NOT what's called for on pages 28 and 101.
I think these are likely the two most confusing entities I encountered in this effort. I already know what I am going to do for both of these, but I hope others can see for themselves what the issues are and decide for themselves how they wish to deal with it.
I'm not trying to pitch a point of view but expose what I believe to be a paradox in the pages.
Lars
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I found an interesting notation for Bulgaria in Scott:
In 1885 Bulgaria, then a principality under the suzerainty of the Sultan of Turkey, was joined by Eastern Rumelia. Independence from Turkey was obtained in 1908.
Stamps listed for Bulgaria begin 1879.
It still looks like Eastern Rumelia was an entity 1880-1885. Bulgaria was a pricipality first issuing stamps in 1879. Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia combined in 1885 and became a kingdom in 1909, a Socialist Republic in 1946, and a Democratic Republic in 1991.
I still fail to see any justification for two stamps for Eastern Rumelia. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Lars
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02:43:18am
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Hi Lars,
I have been puzzling about this area for some time, so I am glad you are raising this. The following information is from The Stamp Atlas:
Bulgaria was a province of the Ottoman Empire until 1877. It became a principality in 1878 and the area south of it (Eastern Rumelia) became a semi autonoumous region at the same time, but both remained under Turkish suzerainty. In 1885, Rumelia revolted in favour of untion with Bulgaria. In 1908 an independent kingdom. In 1913 Bulgaria added Western Thrace. In 1918 Bulgaria lost eastern Thrace (is this a typo? It should be Western Thrace. ) to Greece and has remained largely within the same boundaries ever since.
As I understand this, Eastern Rumelia went: province of Turkey -> semi autonomous -> part of Bulgaria. Only in the middle part did it issue its own stamps, and thus it should only appear as a precedent country of Bulgaria.
Jan
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Jan,
As I understand it, Northern Thrace essentially became Eastern Rumelia / Southern Bulgaria. The powers did not want to call it Southern Bulgaria because Bulgaria itself was not considered a country, and wasn't even represented at the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 at Russian insistence.
The rest of Thrace was divided up after various wars (Balkan Wars, WWI, Greco-Turkish War) with Eastern Thrace only briefly in possession of Greece. But I think Eastern Thrace was taken from Turkey, not Bulgaria, by Greece. Greece and Turkey agreed to a land and people swap with the Othodox Greeks moving out of Eastern Thrace and Muslims moving out of Greece. It's really quite a story! Now Thrace is divided amongst Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
I agree that two stamps for Eastern Rumelia don't make a lot of sense.
Lars
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Jerrel,
Per Jan's excellent suggestion, we are taking our discussion elsewhere since we've gone deep enough here.
I know you are trying to make as much sense as possible of the pages as presented by Smithsonian, and for Eastern Rumelia I believe you are correct that 1-19 belong with Turkey and 20-40 belong with Bulgaria.
We will talk about how much sense that makes elsewhere.
Cheers!
Lars
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Added four new stamps to bring me to 574 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps added were France - Offices in Alexandria Scott #19, Germany - Offices in Morocco Scott # 7, Austria - Occupation of Italy Scott # N2, and Italy - Sardinia Scott # 11. New stamps were found in a series of U-Pick albums in, stangely enough, a set of Harris Scott Standard albums! Most of the items are from the back of the book section of the Smithsonian album, i.e. Occupations or Offices Abroad.
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Previously I mentioned a souvenir sheet with stamp on stamp designs for Italian States as placeholders. Here are a series of scans showing the stamp on stamp design in a higher resolution as well as the original stamp from the souvenir sheet. Most of these issues would be expensive to very expensive for the real stamp. Note that the most expensive stamp looks like the image used in the actual stamp design may have come from a scan itself!
Stamp designs listed are from Lombardy-Venetia Scott # 3, Modena Scott # 3, Parma Scott # 10, Romagna Scott # 8, Tuscany Scott # 5, Two Sicilies - Naples Scott # 3, and Two Sicilies - Sicily Scott # 10.
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With the stamp on stamp issues from the last posting I am up to 576 of 785 issues for the Smithsonian album. Two new issues were identified for Italian States from the souvenir sheet which I was not able to identify from the online picture that I originally had available for the souvenir sheet. One of the stamp designs has a catalog value of $6,500 which is one of the lower priced stamps in mint condition from that Italian State. Only one newspaper stamp from that Italian State would be considered possibly affordable in mint condition for most stamp collectors. Can you identify which Italian State that would be?
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Received another new to me Modern Postage Stamp Album copyright 1930 from Scott Stamp and Coin Co. in my continuing collection of beginner stamp albums where I am counting up the number of stamp issuing entities covered, stamps pictured, and spaces in the album. Totals were 371 stamp issuing entities, 4,450 pictured stamps, and 13,104 total spaces for stamps. Album shows a bit of shelf wear and aging but appears to have never been used. It makes a nice counterpoint to the International Junior Postage Stamp Album copyright 1930 that I, also, have and in which I have started putting stamps as well as building an Excel spreadsheet for the covered issues.
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Today, I received an additional entry for the Smithsonian album, a genuine Italy - Lombardy-Venetia Scott #22 which I placed beside my prior entry of a stamp on stamp issue because they look quite nice together. No change in album completion count though.
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Had to replace the Eastern Rumelia stamp from page 17 with a later issue as it was from the wrong time period and replaced it with a new stamp, Eastern Rumelia Scott #39, which arrived today. So still holding at 576 of 785 issues.
Saw a really nice Geneva canton issue on eBay and it is even mint but sad to say still far out of my budget.
Stamp club meeting is tonight and I am looking forward to it!
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Added two new placeholder stamps to bring me to 578 of 785 stamp issuing entities. New entries to the album are Switzerland - Zurich Scott #287 and Switzerland - Geneva Scott #B132. Obviously these are not the real stamps but are placeholders where the original issues' designs were included on later stamp issues. In these cases the new stamps are from Switzerland and were issued in commemoration of the 100 hundred year anniversary of the original issue. Given Scott catalog values for the real stamps of $2,175 for the minimum cost Zurich issue and $2,350 for the minimum cost Geneva issue as mint stamps these look quite nice in the album as alternatives!
Recently I have been making a bit more progress with the so-called back of the book issues for the album. Currently I have 22 of the 105 issues from pages 119-132 of the album.
I have found a few of the more modern, inexpensive stamps online but have been unable to justify spending $2.00 plus to have a stamp cataloging 25 cents shipped to me. Some of the issues involved include Caribbean Netherlands from 2010-Present, Curacao 2010-Present, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Muslim Government in Sarajevo 1993-Present, Macedonia 1992-Present, Montenegro 2006-Present, Slovenia 1991-Present, Serbia 2006-Present, Serbia and Montenegro 2003-2006, Comoro Islands 1978-Present, Mayotte 1997-Present, Mozambique 1975-Present, South Sudan 2011-Present (these may be a bit more expensive based on the advertised issues I have found), Central African Republic 1979-Present, Democratic Republic of the Congo 1998-Present, Zaire 1971-1998, Sao Tome and Principe 1975-Present, Namibia 1990-Present, Benin 1975-Present, Burkina Faso 1959-Present, Cape Verde 1975-Present, Equatorial Guinea 1968-Present, Guinea-Bissau 1974-Present, Macao 1999-Present, Brunei 1983-Present, Myanmar 1990-Present, Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1976-Present, Republic of North Vietnam 1951-1976, Bahrain 1971-Present, Georgia 1993-Present, Kazakhstan 1992-Present, and Kyrgyzstan 1992-Present, Tajikistan 1992-Present, Turkmenistan 1992-Present, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 1974-Present, United Arab Emirates 1972-Present, and others. So far none of these have showed up through local stamp dealers or shows.
Of course, there are lots of more expensive stamps as well with in many cases neither advertisements nor availability of mint stamps within my budget for now. And the search continues!
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07:59:41pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I only have the first two because I travelled there in January. It cost more to get there than $2 though.
I am also missing most of the rest. Modern stamps from some areas can be surprizingly difficult to find.
Jan
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Sounds like a nice trip. Don't think I can talk my wife into that to get some stamps though. But I do think it might be a fun conversation.
We have talked about going to the APS HQ in Bellefonte, PA with a side trip to Louisa May Alcott's home which interests her and should be interesting. The trip is on my bucket list for the future.
Most definitely modern issues are often the toughest to locate, not necessarily expensive, just hard to locate.
UPDATE: We talked about the trip. She thought it might be interesting to do some travel at some point. She did say that she might pass up the Louisa May Alcott trip rather than go to APS HQ though so I will have to work on that a bit.
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Added one new stamp to bring me to 579 of 785 stamp issuing entities. New stamp is for British Central Africa.
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Completed the Stamp World History Atlas book which I have been reading. I am simply amazed by the number of politically motivated changes in countries that have occurred in Europe and Africa especially as discussed by the book.
Started watching the first episode of a new Netflix show The Immortals and picked up on a large number of country names mentioned in the opening that relate to the countries in the Eastern and Southern European areas of the album. These stood out for me particularly as they are some countries for which I am searching for some representative stamps.
I have, also, started reading The One-Cent Magenta, Inside the Quest to Own the Most Valuable Stamp in the World by James Barrow. The author is painting an interesting picture in words of stamp collecting and some notable collectors who had a relationship with the stamp through various involvements. Fortunately the book was available at my local library branch which does have the Scott Catalogs for 2019 available in their reference section.
On another note regarding books, I have agreed to purchase a Stanley Gibbons Stamps of the World 1840-1970 catalog as issued in 2010 from a fellow collector in my local stamp club who is paring down his duplicate catalogs. It should be interesting to compare it to the Scott catalogs which I have used for some time.
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"Stanley Gibbons Stamps of the World 1840-1970 catalog as issued in 2010"
Good choice! I picked up a 2005 copy of Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840-1952. It really helps in Africa, Canada, Caribbean, India, and Oceania.
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Thank you for posting a link to the Smithsonian album. I have long been contemplating starting such a collection but have yet to get around to it. Now that I know of the existence of the Smithsonian album, I will have more motivation to begin. When I was first considering it, I found a list of stamp issuing entities on Wikipedia (3 different links) that you might be interested in. I never got around to counting them but there are quite a few.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entities_that_have_issued_postage_stamps_(A–E)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entities_that_have_issued_postage_stamps_(F–L)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entities_that_have_issued_postage_stamps_(M–Z)
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Thanks for the Wikipedia links as they provide some interesting options for extensions of the Smithsonian album project. For now, the album as it stands is more than enough of a challenge for me. I am continuing to make some additions to my sideline project of the International Junior Postage Stamp Album copyright 1930 though.
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07:28:43pm
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Hi, just joined Stamporama, and am taking time looking through all the pages. I came across this thread and dived right in. After reading a few of the comments and understanding the aims of the Stamp for Every Country Album, I downloaded the file. Imagine how surprised and disappointed I was when I could not find any stamps from Scotland,(my home country) or Northern Ireland, or Wales. There were spaces for one of the Channel islands and also for the Isle of Man, but neither of these has ever been called a country. Have not read all of the comments on this subject above mine, and hope you have not answered this issue before but. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have been issuing stamps for their respective countries for over 70 years now.
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There are a series of other postings related to the Smithsonian albums where discussions are taking place regarding additions and updates to the content covered by the Smithsonian album. It is quite interesting that the constituent parts of the United Kingdom don't get any recognition in the album. Perhaps because they are considered as part of the whole rather than as independent countries when the Smithsonian presentation on which the album is based was constructed. Is there a difference politically between the relationship of Scotland, Wales, etc. and the provinces that came together to create Canada or the constituent parts that combined to form Australia? I don't think that the states that make up the United States of America today had independent postal issues in the form of stamps prior to becoming part of the United States.
Are the stamp issues for Scotland, Wales, etc. good for use throughout the United Kingdom and the stamps without regional markings similarly good in Scotland, Wales, etc. If so, this is probably why they are not singled out. Just guessing, of course!
I have been reading the book, The Queen's Stamps, The Authorised History of the Royal Philatelic Collection, by Nicholas Courtney which is providing a fascinating glimpse into the history of the collection's formation and the United Kingdom and Commonwealth stamp issues so can get a glimmer of the richness of the stamp related history in which you are interested! The book is incredible with its stories regarding the formation of among the finest if not the finest stamp collection in the world.
I did finish the book about The One-Cent Magenta which I had previously mentioned and would highly recommend it to others as well. It is a fascinating story.
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Gudgie,
The focus of the Stamp for Every Country album is countries. Sometimes they leave things out, and sometimes they add things that don't belong (like Isle of Man).
Scotland - not a country
Northern Ireland - not a country
Wales - not a country
Channel islands and Isle of Man? No idea why they would be included.
But something you didn't mention was the lack of proper naming and change of geography in the UK in 1927. This is what my OFEC page looks like for your country:
The Smithsonian album is a GREAT starting point, and some folks may want to stay as true to that as they can. This is a great place to be if that is your preference. Others may wish to define their own parameters, and I encourage that on the OFEC pages I am sponsoring. Feel free to hang out where you feel comfortable or bounce back and forth or blaze your own trail if you wish. It's all good!
Cheers!
Lars
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Added 5 new stamps to bring me to 584 of 785 stamp issuing entities at a stamp show today in Chehalis, WA. The show was held at a very interesting facility called the Yardbirds Mall which houses a large number of businesses selling antiques, "junque", and Americana items as well as some service related businesses.
New stamps include issues for France - Offices in China - Mong Tseu Scott # 18, Germany - Offices in China Scott # 37, Italy - Offices in China - Peking Scott # J3, Germany - Bergdorf Scott # 5, and Mecklinburg-Strelitz cut square issue.
Some notes: I completed reading the Queen's Stamps book and highly recommend it especially for the stories relating to the building of the collection over the years. It has some beautiful pictures of many of the more famous and rare items in the collection. Also, I have started reading a book which details the processes used in producing line-engraved stamps from engraving to final production as well as extremely detailed discussion of how various plating and production flaws can yield differences in produced stamps. The book was written by James H. Baxter and its title is Printing Postage Stamps by Line Engraving. The book was originally written in 1939 and the author added some corrections when it was re-published in 1982 by the American Philatelic Society. It is proving to be very interesting.
Had a chance today to meet the author of a recent article in the American Philatelist on stamp designers who were associated with the Pratt Institute in New York. He, Niko Courtelis, is, also, a design graduate of the institution and former instructor with several stamp designs to his credit and wrote a book called Philatelic Atrocities that was released in 2014. By chance the daughter of two of my favorite friends from graduate school graduated from the Pratt Institute as well after growing up in Thailand and Honolulu, Hawaii and is currently working in New York. She, Aris Suchinroj, hasn't worked on stamp designs but has done some very interesting design work on clothing designs based on my internet searches for her work. Recently she has completed work on a new design for a reflective vest for bicyclists that is going to market!
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Forgot to mention that I just received the 2010 Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps for 1840-1970 catalog that I had previously mentioned that I was acquiring from a fellow member of the local stamp club which I have joined. I have been reviewing the catalog and making a checklist of Commonwealth and British Empire stamp issuing entities with the idea of possibly creating a similar album to the Smithsonian album as an introduction to the stamps of the Commonwealth.
I have noted that there are a huge number of additional Indian States references in the Stanley Gibbons catalog although an initial review indicates many of the states are recognized more by the cancellations of stamps rather than unique stamp designs or production. That fact raises an alternate approach for a collection based on the use of stamps in various postal localities as a stamp for every post office. Now that would be an extreme challenge!
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 9 new stamps to bring me to 593 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps included Panama - Department of Colombia Scott #8, Burma Scott #324, Central African Republic Empire Scott #384, Mozambique Scott #553, Netherlands New Guinea Scott #44, Saint Marie De Madagascar Scott #1, South West Africa, Alexandretta Scott #1, and Burkina Faso Scott #1126. Stamps were found by a diligent search through a set of red boxes at a local dealer.
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Added 9 new stamps to bring me to 602 of 785 stamp issuing countries for the Smithsonian album. Two milestones reached, 75% plus completion and over six hundred unique entries! New finds were at a local commercial stamp show today. One dealer let me select some individual stamps from three Indian States collections he had in manila folders which was a godsend!
New stamps include Indian States - Bundi Scott #36, Indian States - Wadhwan Scott #3, Indian States - Nangdaon Scott #1, Indian States - Faridkot Convention State Scott #O1, Indian States - Rajpeela Scott #1, Cameroun - United Kingdom Trust Territory Scott #71, Zaire Scott #893, Central African Republic Scott #1121, and Rio De Oro Scott #98.
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Added 38 new stamps to bring me to 640 of 785 stamp issuing entities in the Smithsonian album at a stamp show today. Best day ever for new entries to the album.
New items include Turkey - military personnel in Thessaly, Italy - Occupation of Corfu, Italy - occupation of Ionian Islands, India - Saurashta Scott #22b, India - Idar Scott #3b, Guinea-Bissau Scott #524, Moheli Scott #17, Mayotte Scott #268, Comoro Islands Scott #504, Congo Free State Scott #2, Grigualand West Scott #98 (!), New Republic Scott #55 (), Nauru Scott #89, Nauru - United Nations Trusteeship Scott #34, Gilbert Island Scott #308, Allied Entente Powers - Allied Occupation of Thrace after WWI Scott #M6, Marshall Islands Scott #38, Free French Provincial Goverment - Allied Occupation of areas of France, Niue Scott #317, Palau Scott #67, Kazakhstan Scott #490, Kyrgyzstan Scott #12, Georgia Scott #329, Socialist Republic of Vietnam - North Viet Minh issues Scott #1L7, Samoa - Partitioned between Germany and United States Scott #32, Ajman Scott #C7, British New Guinea Scott #2, Socialist Republic of Vietnam Scott #2511, Socialist Republic of Vietnam - Republic of North Vietnam Scott #94, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Scott #50, United Arab Emirates Scott #75, Abu Dhabi Scott #1, Uzbekistan Scott #476, Vanuatu Scott #304, West Irian Scott #45, and two other that I marked in the spreadsheet and put in the album without recording the countries for later entry here .
Several stamp dealers spent quite a bit of time with me looking up items to make sure they met the specifics of the Smithsonian album and one even donated one stamp from his personal collection's duplicates for the Turkey - military personnel in Thessaly issue. Another collector observing my search donated a new stamp for a new stamp issuing entity based on a Cinderella issue for a "country" created as a Seattle area based entity. So it was a VERY good day with several others looking at the album as well.
Amazingly I even saw five additional countries but decided they were too expensive for me for a stamp from the area (one item would have required purchase of a full set for $92, ouch). Of course, it was a full set of the four stamps issued for Kionga! Another item was a real stamp for Two Sicilies rather than the stamp on stamp placeholder I currently have. Three other items would have been souvenir sheets or stamps that were simply too large for the space in the album.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 641 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the Smithsonian album.
New issue is Kionga Scott #2.
Finished reading the book about production of line engraved stamps by James H. Baxter (no known relation ). It is a really detailed look at the production processes used for engraved postage stamps with quite detailed descriptions of how and what errors can result from the production processes including how plate varieties can occur, inking related varieties, etc.
Also received a new old stock Scott Hingeless album for Finland copyright 1972 and will be starting a new collection! Often I have had some stamps for a country as I start a collection but in this case I have almost nothing that is not spoken for in other albums so this will be a start from zero collection. I looked on eBay for some available starter collections but have decided that I will not take the easy way out of building on a prior collection and do everything from scratch and see how it grows. Album has spaces for 760 stamps with Scott mounts in place covering regular issues, semi-postal stamps, air post stamps, military stamps, occupation stamps for Karelia, and occupation stamps for Russia. It should be an interesting diversion and springboard for learning more about the history of an area for which I know virtually nothing.
Coincidentally I have started reading a new book, Prisoners of Geography, by Tim Marshall which was recommended in another posting. It starts with the impact of geography on Russian political decisions and development and Finland is definitely a component so much food for thought. So far the writing in the book comes across as absolutely masterful.
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"Finished reading the book about production of line engraved stamps by James H. Baxter"
That is a GREAT book!
"Printing Postage Stamps by Line Engraving by Baxter, James H."
If you're lucky, you might spot one of the 550 First Edition issues from APS in 1939.
It really explains how there can be so many varieties on 19th century plates in a way that makes total sense!
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05:00:12pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Getting close !! Been loving watching the journey !! So many great oddities and little know entities !
Love it when a dealer takes the time to really help and meet our customer needs. I always make sure to go back to those kind of guys.
I love following the guys developing the corrections and additions to the album. I have really gone off on the tangents of occupation and military stamps as to me they are a different combination of issuing entity and geographic usage which makes them unique.
Keep us posted !
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No new stamps this week for the album but continuing with my theme of the number of different countries represented in albums I have a new album to report, The Imperial Stamp Album copyright 1928 and produced by Scott Stamp and Coin Co. It is the Ninth Edition of the album.
Interestingly eBay today had quite a few copies of the Imperial Stamp Album ranging from a Fourth Edition copyright 1899 through versions from the 1950s although the later versions changed to a portrait format which is taller than it is wide. Stanley Gibbon also produced an album known as the Imperial Stamp Album but it is quite different in terms of its intended audience and considerably more comprehensive.
The album contains 117 pages and has 1,461 pictured stamp issues plus another 1,911 empty spaces for a total capacity of 3,372 stamps. It covers 297 different stamp issuing entities. It uses a landscape format and is 9.75 inches wide and 7.25 inches tall. Interestingly there are no pictured stamps for the United States but 56 empty spaces are available for the country. The album had seen light use and has some hinge remnants but no stamps remaining.
I have continued reading the Prisoners of Geography book and would continue to recommend it as a guide to the impact of geography on political decisions and quite a useful motivation for learning more about stamp issuing entities as represented by governments and the impact of natural and artificial borders on them through time.
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Added 37 new stamps to bring me to 678 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album.
New items include Yemen Democratic People's Republic Scott #40, Federated States of Micronesia Scott #23, Brunei Scott #575a, Bahrain Scott # 61, Tajikistan Scott #4, South Georgia Scott #101, Penrhyn Scott #340, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Muslim Government Scott #261, Sao Tome et Principe Scott #660a, Equatorial Guinea Scott #73, Montenegro Scott #197, Serbia Scott #296, Prussia Scott #17, India States - Morvi Scott #1, Turkmenistan Scott #9, India States - Alwar Scott #2, Japan - Offices in China Scott #1, Japan - Offices in Korea Scott #1 (!), Bangkok Scott #14 (!), Annam and Tonkin Scott #2 (!), New Britain Scott #19 (!), Fiji - Kingdom Scott #40 (!), Italian States - Modena Scott #3 (!), Italian States - Two Sicilies - Naples Scott #27b (!), Italian States - Romagna Scott #9 (!), Bosnia and Herzegovina - Province of Turkey Scott #1a (!), Germany Schleswig-Holstein Scott #12, Germany - Oldenburg Scott #19, Cape Verde Scott #471, Namibia Scott #665a, Macedonia Scott #621, Slovenia Scott #216, Germany - Lubeck Scott #3 (!), Germany - Mecklenburg-Schwerin Scott #6, Germany - North German Federation Scott #24, Germany - Bremen Scott #15a (!), Serbia Scott #631, and Germany - Thurn and Taxis Southern States Scott #60. Also added a stamp for La Aguera from an eBay purchase.
Stamps were found through the APS Stamp Store. I have now completed all German States items and have added genuine stamps for Italian States to my existing placeholders for all but three of the Italian States entries with only Italian States - Parma, Italian States - Tuscany, and Italian States - Two Sicilies - Sicily left to go. The largest group of remaining items in the main section all relate to India States. These are proving particularly difficult to locate so far as mint stamps.
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That's a big bump, especially this close to the finish line!
I will have to try APS for German States (still missing 5) when I get back to this project. I'm just now getting back to checking out the threads after being off for a bit to have my rotator cuff repaired. I'm down to needing 4 Italian States (I haven't gotten Romagna yet), so I'm behind you there, too.
Just keep swimming!
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It turned out fairly well using the APS Stamp Store in that I found several very tough issues, especially noteworthy were the issues for Bangkok, Annam and Tonkin, and New Britain for which I had not seen any stamps whether mint or used in my searches to date.
Italian States have been particularly difficult to find mint stamps but several issues were found for them as well. In fact, I really was very satisfied with the placeholder stamps but particularly liked that I found a genuine stamp that matched the stamp on stamp issue placeholder that I was using. I left both in the album just for the novelty of them.
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Added 7 new stamps to bring me to 685 of 785 stamp issues for the album during a local stamp show this afternoon. Also, recounted my items in the album and picked up one entry that I had failed to count previously which is why the total is 685 rather than 684.
Only got to increase by seven on my count as one entry for Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWI which I acquired requires a Scott N1 or N2 was found to be a Scott N3 which is a Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWII during my checking at home when adding the stamp to the album! I, of course, added the stamp to the album underneath the position for the WWI entry due to the novelty of it.
New entries added were all for the back of the book area and include Italy - Island of Lero Scott #1, Italy - Island of Rhodes Scott #24, Austria - Offices in Crete Scott #15, China - For Yunnan Province currency control Scott #55, Finland - Aland Scott #5, Great Britain - British Occupation of Togo after WWI Scott #176, and Greece - Greek occupation of North Epirus during WWII Scott #N208. Four entries were also won from eBay purchases for Indian States areas with stamps coming for Faridkot, Bijawar, Jhalawar, and Soruth but these will be added to the count after their arrival and verification. Some are coming from Singapore and the United Kingdom so it may be a while.
Made a good contact with a dealer who believes he has several of the back of the book items in some albums at home which might be mint whereas the stamps he had at the show were all used. In particular he is fairly sure he has several of the issues related to Montenegro, Alsace, and Lorraine for back of the book items and will check for them. He is an active collector as well and a catalog expert with a tremendous breadth of knowledge and was very helpful today in identifying appropriate stamps for the back of the book areas in the album. If I was willing to accept additional used stamps over my current Vancouver Island issue I could have had another five stamps for the album today from his stock. But I am holding off for now, maybe I will relent if I haven't found candidate stamps after another couple of years. Originally my decision to try collecting mint examples was done more to slow down my purchases than for any other reason and the decision has definitely made for some challenges in selected areas where availability and sometimes cost is a significant factor, for example, the aforementioned Vancouver Island issue where I did relent at least partially because the used example I found is particularly nice and clean and was significantly less expensive than some mint issues I was seeing when I found it.
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11:44:59am
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
You are doing impressively well. I thought I was catching up (currently at 526 for the basic album), but you are leaving me in the dust.
A mint copy of BC #1 (actually British Columbia and Vancouver Island) sold very recently at a local auction for $20500, so I can understand your reluctance for a mint copy.
Jan
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 686 of 785 issues.
New stamp is for Indian States - Jhalawar Scott #2.
While waiting for my wife who was attending the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for a young man for whom she had acted as a merit badge counselor for a couple of his requirements, I visited a local library and read the June 2019 issue of the Stamps magazine which was part of their periodical collection. Stamps had a really nice article in this issue on Germany's occupation stamps from the WWI period which I highly recommend.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 687 of 785 stamps.
New stamp was for Indian State - Bijawar Scott #1. Purchase was from Singapore via eBay.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 688 of 785 issues.
New issue is for Tibet Scott #17. Stamp was purchased from Hipstamp.
I have completed the Prisoners of Geography book and would highly recommend it to everyone as a vehicle to understanding the impact of geography on political decisions. I found its descriptions of geographic areas based on a series of ten maps to offer interesting insights into the relationships between countries on the world and regional stage.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 689 of 785 issues.
New stamp is for Indian States - Orchha State. Purchase was from eBay.
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Added 4 new stamps to bring me to 693 of 785 stamp issues for the album.
New items are France - French offices in Zanzibar Scott #43, Nicaragua - Zelaya (Bluefields) Scott #1L93, Switzerland - League of Nations mail Scott #238, and United Nations - UN Interim Administration Kosovo Scott #1. All items were purchased from Hipstamp.
A previously mentioned item for Faridkot - India Feudatory State was removed as the stamps received are not from Scott N1-N7 although they do appear to be from Faridkot but may actually be revenue stamp issues. One is blue and the other orange whereas N1-N7 are ultramarine. I now have 33 of the 105 back of the book album issues so have made significant progress recently on these issues. Following are pictures of the Faridkot issues that I received from my purchase:
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Hi Jerrel,
There were a number of so-called reprints created in different colours after the Faridkot post office closed.
They're not really reprints as they were printed from new plates.
I'm guessing this is what you have here.
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Interesting and thanks for the additional information on the Faridkot issues. My curiosity about the Indian States issues has been rising as I have been trying to find the stamp issues and finding a paucity of available stamps and information on them. I am finding that they seem to sell for higher proportions of the catalog value than many other countries' stamps, especially the issues related to the Feudatory States. There, also, seem to be more bids on eBay for the collections that appear from time to time. I did see one auction catalog for a truly outstanding Indian States collection recently for the "Gaur Family Collection" which is among the nicest auction catalogs I have ever seen. Incredible photographs and great write-ups on the stamps. The catalog was nice enough that I have been looking for a copy to keep.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Hi Jerrel-
You are relentless! Even at this point of completion, you are adding material at a mad rate!
Would you be able to post images with your posts? It would be interesting to see the stamps as you acquire them. Also, it would be really neat to see the entire album on-line. This site has space for exhibits and I'm sure Don would want it on Stamp Smarter too!
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I will do a retrospective on the stamps and add scans for the album pages.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 694 of 785 issues.
New stamp added is for Switzerland - World Intellectual Property Organization mail.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 695 of 785 issues.
New stamp receive is for Mexico - Sinaloa Scott #1. Purchase was from Hipstamp.
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Added 4 new stamps to bring me to 699 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album.
New stamps are for Indian States - Junagarh, India - East India Company Scott #20, Ecuador - Galapagos Islands Scott #LC4, and Poland - Polish government in exile in Great Britain during WWI Scott #3KB1. Purchases were from a mix of eBay and Hipstamp sellers. Found that the stamp that I had for Soruth is actually for Junagarh per the initial description of entries under Soruth where the stamps with Scott #'s 1-10 are actually for Junagarh. Discovered this when I could never locate any stamps being offered with a description of Junagarh and re-checked the Indian States section of the catalog trying to find additional information.
Another offer for Republic of Madagascar - Madagascar for 1884-1886 (British Consular Mail) has been accepted and should be arriving within a week or so from a Hipstamp purchase. This will be, by far, my most expensive purchase for this album and is quite exciting.
Some known expensive or known difficult stamps remaining are New Zealand - King George VII Land $$, Argentina - Cordoba $, Argentina - Corrientes, South Sudan (modern issue) $, Romania - Moldavia $$, Romania - Moldavia-Walachia $, Indian States - Feudatory States (Bamra, Bhor, Bussahir, Dhar, Duttia, Faridkot, Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu, Jasdan, Junagarh, Kashmir, and Poonch, some expensive and all proving elusive in mint state ), and Ras Al Khaima first issues from 1964 which are not expensive but so far only located as part of a full set which is quite expensive. And, of course, the back of the book items continue to require much searching and remain challenging to locate and identify. Lars has been a huge help with assisting in identifying some of the appropriate stamps for these issues.
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Added two new stamps to bring me to 701 of 785 stamp issuing entities for a new milestone breaking 700 entries in the album.
New stamps are for Great Britain - Offices in China Scott #17 and Tetuan Scott #7.
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Added pictures for several of my more recent additions and will continue to add more as time permits. I will need to do some experimentation to figure out how to scan the album pages so that they could be posted. Suggestions would be appreciated!
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 704 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps are for India State - Barwani, Madagascar Scott #16, and Italy - Italian offices in Jerusalem (Ottoman Empire) Scott #4.
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Have been enjoying your posts and am amazed at the progress you have made. The pictures make it even better! Thanks for sharing
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Added 5 new stamps to bring me to 709 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps added for Italy - Italian Occupation of Trieste during WWII Scott #111 (note that the album says WWI but the Scott catalog does not include any items for WWI), Italy - Italian occupation of Ethiopia Scott #N5, Italy - Italian military personnel Scott #M4, Finland - Finnish military personnel Scott #M2, and Egypt - Egyptian occupation of Gaza after Suez War Scott #NC1. Stamps were found by going through u-pick albums at a local dealer.
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Added 7 new stamps to bring me to 716 of 785 different stamp issuing entities.
New stamps added were for Trucial States Scott #2, Korea - United States Administration Scott #57, Bophuthatswana Scott #265, Ciskei Scott #80, Transkei Scott #36, Egypt - Egyptian military personnel Scott #m12, and China - Chinese military personnel during WWII Scott #M2. Items were found in red boxes at a local stamp dealer and on eBay for the Trucial States issue.
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 718 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps are for Democratic Republic of the Congo and People's Republic of China - Imperial China Scott #100.
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Now down to just 18 8 5 missing stamps for the main body of the Smithsonian album and new issues are becoming much harder to locate (several of the stamps are not particularly expensive but sometimes the postage costs to get them from the few advertised copies have been truly exorbitant! And some of the other issues have proved really challenging due to few genuine, mint stamps being available, but the search continues.):
Checklist Period Page #
Caribbean Netherlands 2010-Present 6
Curacao 2010-Present 7
Argentina - Cordoba 1858-1879 13
Argentina - Corrientes 1856-1879 13
Romania - Moldavia 1858-1859 19
Albania - German Administration 1943-1943 25
India - British Crown Colony 1860-1876 78
India - Bamra 1888-1893 80
India - Bhor 1879-1904 80
India - Bussahir 1895-1900 81
India - Dhar 1897-1900 81
India - Duttia 1893-1920 81
India - Jammu 1867-1877 82
India - Junagarh 1862-1868 83
India - Kashmir 1866-1870 83
India - Soruth 1877-1949 85
Timor-Leste 2002-2002 94
United Arab Emirates - Ras Al Khaima 1964-1964 102
New Zealand King Edward VII Land 1908-1908 117
I have a few pending deliveries but none for any of these issues. The back of the album issues are making some progress with my primary limitations on the search being a combination of identification of an appropriate stamp and location from local inventories or limited advertised availability for low value items. Updated to reflect additional pending or later deliveries following some new acquisitions with strike-throughs on 7-20-2019. Updated again to indicate progress on the main body of the album on 8-27-2019.
This coming Sunday will mark the one year anniversary since I printed out and bound the album and began this journey. It has been great fun and brought me into familiarity with many new aspects of stamp collecting not to mention many new to me stamp issuing entities!
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Added 8 new stamps to bring me to 726 of 785 stamp issuing entities. Also added 2 real stamps for Italian States issues in addition to the stamp on stamp placeholders I had in the album previously leaving only Tuscany with a placeholder stamp only for the Italian States entries. Also, added one stamp under Austria - Austrian occupation entries for Serbia during WWI. There are now only four placeholder stamps in the album including stamps for Poland Scott #1 and the cantonal issues for Basel, Geneva, and Zurich.
New stamps added are Indian States - Jasdan Scott #1a (previously in the catalog but now considered to be a revenue stamp per a footnote under Scott #1, interestingly it is the same design but a different color, I like it anyway ), Indian States - Poonch Scott #6, Venda - Self-governing tribal homeland enclave of South African, Macao - 1999-Present Scott #1062, Denmark - Danish military personnel Scott #M1, France - French military personnel Scott #M6, Germany - German military personnel - Scott #MQ3, and Moldavia-Walachia Scott #21 (!).
Note that I managed to scan the stamp for Poonch sideways!
New stamps added for Italian States were for Italy - Two Sicilies Scott #3 (used stamp) and Italy - Parma Scott #11 (mint stamp). New stamp for Austria - Austrian occupation of Serbia during WWI is Scott #N27. This last item was added to the album as a gift from a stamp dealer who has been providing some guidance on the back of the book items.
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 728 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps are for Ukraine Government in Exile from page 132 of the album. Now I finally have stamps on every page of the album for a new milestone. Making progress on the back of the book items now with 70 of 105 entities with a representative stamp in the album.
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 730 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamps added are India - Feudatory States - Faridkot Scott #2 and India - Feudatory States - Dhar Scott #2.
First scan is at 150 dpi and the second scan is at 300 dpi to provide a bit more detail on these relatively crudely produced stamps.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 731 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamp is for Romania - Romanian occupation of Pokutia after WWI Scott #N9. These issues are a bit obscure to locate in the catalog as they appear under Western Ukraine Occupation Stamps in the Scott Classic catalog. The original stamp is from Austria and is a postage due stamp of the period 1910-1917. The original Austria stamp is catalog number J49. It is quite a bit more valuable according to the catalog with the overprint issued for the Pokutia occupation!
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 732 of 785 stamp issuing entities.
New stamp is United States of America - United States offices in Shanghai China Scott #K1. Stamp was acquired through Hipstamp.
Now have three pages in the back of the book area completed with many more to go.
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Updated my missing stamps list for the posting on July 4, 2019 by using strike-throughs on the text for the pending or delivered stamps acquired since the posting.
Particularly noteworthy item is my most expensive purchase, a New Zealand - King Edward VII Land stamp in mint condition, which is likely to be the most expensive stamp ever acquired for the album, since there are nice stamp on stamp alternatives for the Swiss canton issues and the Poland under Russian Dominion issue, thanks to proceeds from some unexpected computer work for a long time client. (I shared the album with him during my visit and, although he no longer collects stamps after selling his personal collection as part of a move to pay for his children's college expenses, he paged through every page of the album in detail reviewing the stamps and their issuing countries reminiscing about the items and countries he remembered from his collection and really enjoyed the opportunity.)
I will update my postings as the stamps arrive and include pictures at that time.
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In trying to find out why I can not find any stamps advertised for Junagarh I revisited the Scott catalog listings for Indian States and discovered that the stamps are listed as a section of stamps with Scott #'s 1-10 under Soruth. Re-checked the stamp I had (and the other one that was part of the purchase I had made due to a single lot containing both stamps and found that both stamps were from Scott #'s 1-10) so have updated the original posting as well as my missing stamps list from the July 4th posting after placing an order for the needed Soruth issue which is a lot easier to find online than Junagarh! I am now missing 9 stamps from the main section of the album pending some outstanding deliveries and 32 stamps from the back of the book section pending one outstanding delivery so will be at 744 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album once the deliveries complete.
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My rather constant reviews of the India and India States issues lately have prompted me to take a look at my primary collections for India and India States and their current status. Although I did not expect to see a large number of stamps I found to my chagrin that my main India pages in the Scott International 1840-1940 portion of my International 1840-1963 collection has no stamps at all! And only one stamp in the India States pages in the album, a really lovely 6 pies stamp from 1894-99 for Sirmoor which probably was part of a lot that contained an extra stamp, or an accidental duplicate order during an acquisition rush, oops.
Given how much time I have been spending searching for stamps for India and India States issues I have started an Excel checklist as a want list for India and hope to spend some time at the next local stamp show (and local stamp dealers plus Stamporama approvals and auctions) looking for some candidate mint stamps for the album. I will start with the 1840-1940 issues in Part 1A1 and then work forward through Parts 2 to 5, 1940-1963. Fortunately I have at least some existing stamps in the 1940-1959 period (although absolutely nothing in the Scott International Part V, 1960-1963, album)!
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Received 1 new stamp to bring me to 733 of 785 stamps in the album.
New stamp is Albania - German Administration 1943 Scott #E3. Stamp was acquired from Hipstamp.
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Received 1 new stamp to bring me to 734 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the album.
New stamp is for Italy - Saseno Scott #4 under Local Stamps in the back of the album. Stamp was acquired from an eBay lot. Interestingly it was from a local collector in this area.
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You are doing a great job and I'm enjoying being along for the ride!
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Thanks for the encouragement!
Spent the entire day at a stamp show today but had no success locating any additions for the Smithsonian album which is the first time that has happened. Part of the reason is that I spent quite a bit of time looking for stamps for a Finland album on which I recently started working. Details of my success with it are in another message thread. I did extremely well with finding new issues for the Finland album.
I, also, spent quite a bit of time looking for mint stamps for India from 1840-1940 for my International album. While many additional used stamps were available from dealer stocks at the show, restricting my purchases to lower cost mint stamps definitely reduced the available options. Several dealers did have some album collections with India issues but I am only making purchases from a want list that I prepared from the Scott International 1A2 pages and not purchasing any "starter" collection at least partially because I haven't seen one that all stamps were mint that didn't go far beyond my albums' boundaries in terms of their date range. Also, I haven't added official stamps to the want list as yet.
New India stamps acquired were Scott #'s 39, 40, 47, 60, 78, 89, 129, 132, 133, 135, 142, 143, 157, 160, 161, and 161A for 16 of 109 stamps in the International Part I album for India as of now.
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I have been following this thread since you started it. You have made amazing progress in such a short period of time!
Thank you for adding pictures of the newly added stamps, it helps seeing the stamps. I really enjoy watching you inch your way to completion.
Keep up the good work!
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
"Spent the entire day at a stamp show today but had no success locating any additions for the Smithsonian album which is the first time that has happened. "
That's what happens when you have already gotten all the easy ones! I'm finding the same with my NJ postmark collection. Even though I'm still around 40% complete, the ones I need are elusive!
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I've managed to find a reasonable cost item for Timor-Leste 2002 online and placed an order for it then received shipping confirmation today. I have updated my July 4th post to indicate that the item is no longer needed. This brings me to 8 missing stamps for the main part of the Smithsonian album.
Now just need a couple of outstanding offers on a couple of items to be accepted to reduce me to 6 missing stamps. It is going to be really hard to type while keeping my fingers crossed. Update: did not get the first item but still pending on the second. Second update, did not get the other item either so back to the drawing board on the missing issues.
I did not get a chance to return to the second day of the stamp show due to other commitments. One of the last things I saw at the stamp show on Saturday was a really interesting ancient Yvert album for up to the 1890's. The dealer had worked up the catalog values for the album to be approximately $14,000 not including some more obvious damaged items and some foreign cut square items. Interestingly while many stamps appeared at first to be stuck down we found that the original owner had placed two hinges on the stamps, one at the top and one at the bottom to keep them from rising off the paper and catching on other items on facing pages. First time either he or I had ever heard of anyone doing this. The typography, i.e. the lettering of text identifiers, etc, for the pages in the album was very attractive. I would even say beautiful. There were many very seldom seen items in the album and the overall condition of the album and stamps while not perfect was much better than I usually see in old albums of this type. Unfortunately if I came home with it, it might be safer to not come home.
It was certainly a very interesting album and one that I would like to have a lot more time to study.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 735 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for Jammu and Kashmir Scott #80 as best I can tell. The stamp was issued in 1878-1880.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 736 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for South Sudan Scott #1. Stamp was acquired through an eBay auction.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 11 stamps to bring me to 747 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps added are Belgium - Belgian military personnel Scott #M1, Indian States - Soruth Scott #11, Belgium - Belgian occupation of German East Africa during WWI Scott #NB1, Vietnam - South Vietnamese military personnel during the Vietnam war Scott #M1, North Vietnam - North Vietnamese military personnel during the Vietnam war Scott #M1, Australia - Australian military on occupation duty in Japan after WWII Scott #M1, Indian States - Duttia Scott #22, Indian States - Bamra Scott #10, Indian States - Bussahir Scott #23, Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWI Scott #N2 (!), and New Zealand - King Edward VII Land Scott #121a (!).
New stamps were acquired after a mammoth review of items through the Scott catalogs and searches on eBay and Hipstamp for appropriate stamps plus several offer attempts on some of the more expensive items over a period of weeks, most notably the King Edward VII Land stamp. Interestingly all eleven arrived in yesterday's mail from senders all over the world with two being picked up at the post office due to signature required parcels.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
"Added 11 stamps to bring me to 747 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album."
Wow! That's like 95% completion.. you must be excited. Heck, I'm excited! Congrats!
I've added a bunch of new covers to my NJ postmark collection, but cannot get over 41% completion!
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Added 5 stamps to bring me to 752 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are India - Indian UN Forces in Gaza Scott #M62, Germany - German occupation of Alsace during WWII Scott #N42, Chad - Chad military personnel Scott #M2, Japan - Japanese occupation of Netherlands Indies during WWII Scott #N9, and Netherlands - International Court of Justice mail Scott #O55. Stamps were purchased from Hipstamp.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 753 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for Venezuela Port of Carupano - Port of Carupano isolated by British and German blockade Scott #5 (!).
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 756 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are Timor-Leste Scott #1, China - For Manchuria currency control Scott #15, and Germany - German occupation of Poland during WWII Scott #N47. Stamps were acquired from eBay and Hipstamp.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
What are you doing to verify your purchases? There are about 25 stamps listed as "dangerous counterfeits", "official imitations", or "reprints". Jammu, Soruth, and Carupano are among them. I had planned to spend quite a bit of time learning about the fakes before diving in to those areas.
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My general experience is that it would take far too much experience and access to too many stamps to ever begin to recognize the differences. Mostly I find that it is necessary to trust people. Yes, I do try to examine the stamps and perhaps something slips through and perhaps not. It is not worth spending my life on agonizing about it. Overall I am fairly confident in the sources despite their variety and maybe because of it.
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OK, then. Best wishes and carry on. You should be finished in no time.
Lars
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Don't know about finished as there are still stamps in the back of the book section that I am unable to identify what stamp would be a valid example for the space. I am beginning to think the issues may not be Scott listed at all. I know that one issue that I found earlier due to a mention from Lars is NOT Scott listed and it would appear that this may be true of some other items as well.
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Tell me which ones specifically and I will tell you what Smithsonian has in their display.
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So far the one's I am having trouble identifying are:
Mexico - Yucatan from page 122
Maoist Revolutionary Army - Maoist control of South China from page 122
Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWI from page 124
France - French occupation of Mexico from page 125
Germany - German occupation of Lorraine during WWII from page 125 (I may have found this one yesterday under France, a range of catalog #'s not a stamp )
General Semenov - Anti-Bolshevik army occupation of Chita during Russian Revolution from page 127
Russia - Russian occupation before WWI from page 127
Thailand - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, ... ceded to Thailand by Japan from page 127 (I "may" have identified these as Malaya 2N1-2N6, medium expensive stamps in mint)
Japan - Japanese military personnel from page 131 ( I believe these are Japan M1-M5, medium to high expensive stamps in mint)
The remaining items that I am missing have more to do with locating a source for the stamps that actually has one where shipping doesn't break the bank or just general rarity of the less expensive issues for the remaining Indian States issues in mint condition: specifically Bhor, Jammu, and Kashmir plus the India Scott #2-4 stamp. Interestingly I am finding that mint stamps in general for India before the 1920's are not frequently encountered, at least in this area.
Today, I received notice that I won an auction for a Cordoba mint stamp. It will be my first purchase that requires a bank/wire transfer so both exciting and nervous and the second most expensive stamp for the collection for me although from its pictures it looks like a really beautiful copy for the stamp. I am reasonably sure of the vendor and the provenance of the stamp just working in a new world with bank transfers for me. PayPal really does simplify a lot of the quandaries related to purchases.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
"Mexico - Yucatan from page 122"
Smithsonian used Mexico - Yucatan #1 - look at the end of Mexico after the Airmails and Officials. That is true of many of these. Delcampe has one for $67.
"Maoist Revolutionary Army - Maoist control of South China from page 122"
Smithsonian and I both used #7L1 from PRC
"Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWI from page 124"
Smithsonian used 1N3, I used 1N1 from Montenegro
"France - French occupation of Mexico from page 125"
This is one of my favorites, and one that I am moving to the main section because I don't see it as an Occupation - but that's a different thread. You want any stamp during the rule of Emperor Maximilian. Smithsonian and I both used Mexico 27.
"Germany - German occupation of Lorraine during WWII from page 125 (I may have found this one yesterday under France, a range of catalog #'s not a stamp Sad )"
Smithsonian used France N58. I used N50.
"General Semenov - Anti-Bolshevik army occupation of Chita during Russian Revolution from page 127"
Far Eastern Republic N1-N4 - Smithsonian uses N3. I haven't gone there yet due to counterfeits.
"Russia - Russian occupation before WWI from page 127"
OK, this one was tricky! Smithsonian used Latvia 2N36, so apparently it SHOULD have read: "Russian occupation of Latvia AFTER WWI". You can use 2N1-36. 2N45-57 are from 1940 so I'm not sure if they would be appropriate. (2N37-44 were not placed in use). HOWEVER, if they REALLY meant Russian occupation of Latvia BEFORE WWII, 2N45-57 would be in play, I would think. That one is a misprint on the panel itself.
"Thailand - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, ... ceded to Thailand by Japan from page 127 (I "may" have identified these as Malaya 2N1-2N6, medium expensive stamps in mint)"
Yup. Malaya 2N1-2N6. Smithsonian uses 2N6.
"Japan - Japanese military personnel from page 131 ( I believe these are Japan M1-M5, medium to high expensive stamps in mint)"
Correct. They are also listed as "excellent forgeries exist"
Cheers!
Lars
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Thanks for the details on these. This will help tremendously in the search.
I will check out the Delcampe item although I haven't quite adjusted to those kinds of amounts on the back of the book items. I have resigned myself on several of the more interesting countries in the main section and will probably end up relenting on the other items as well (but with a few tears).
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 757 of 785 issues for the album.
New stamp is for Peru - Arequipa Scott #3N22. It was purchased via Hipstamp and arrived today from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I will update this post with the stamp picture once I go upstairs.
On Sunday for the first time my wife looked through the album. She noticed the entry for Japan - Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII and did a search for it on eBay as a proposed anniversary present (we first met in August of 1986). To my shock she found the stamp online and we placed a bid for it. I've looked for a copy for several months without seeing it listed. She put the same search terms in that I had used but used a different order for the words than I would have chosen and the stamp popped up. I tried again using the sequence that I would normally use and the stamp did not appear. Argh! Today, I received a notice from eBay that the lot had been won so I should be able to add it once it arrives.
Sunday, otherwise, was spent going through the Stamporama auctions looking for items for my International album with quite a few items being located. Saturday, I spent at a local stamp store about an hour away going through a new 10 cent u-pick album and found 52 stamps for the 1930 International album (unless I find I am missing the stamps in my main International Parts I-V album which is where the stamps from Stamporama are going). During my Stamporama review I ended up going up and down stairs 10 times to get additional albums and catalogs as I went through the listings so managed some mild exercise.
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During my recent auction reviews looking for a candidate stamp for Cordoba (not to mention the last six months of searches onlne, at stamp shows, and at the two local stamp stores in the greater Seattle area) I have seen VERY few stamps offered. Strangely the current catalog only lists two stamps as being issued for Cordoba, Scott #1 a five centavo issue in blue and #2 a ten centavo issue in black both imperforate stamps on laid paper. But my 1891 copyright tenth edition Scott International album has a space for a third stamp, a fifteen centavo issue in violet. I found some information last night in a book entitled Album Weeds for which I have a DVD based PDF copy as follows:
1860. 5 Centavos, blue.
Genuine
Lithographed, in various shades of more or less pale, chalky blue, on moderately stout, rough laid paper, and also on plain wove paper, the latter being rare; indeed, I have not yet seen them on wove, though I know that they exist. The letters of CORDOBA are thick, almost as thick as those of CEN, but smaller. One type of the 5 c. has a stop after CEN. The background, behind the top of the castle, is filled with horizontal lines of shading, in short dashes; the shading on the left being darker than that on the right. The white platform, upon which the three little turrets stand, is shaded with short, vertical lines almost the whole way across. The central oval is surrounded by a sort of chain-pattern, with square, white links, each link having a dark line through it; but one of the links, above and after the N of CEN, is smaller than the rest, and has 110 colored line through it. The head of the 5 very nearly touches the chain-pattern in lightly-printed copies, and in heavily-printed ones it actually touches it. The upper three pearls on the left-hand side of the stamp are shaded alike, each of them bearing a single, thick, curved line, like a sort of crescent standing on its end; all the other pearls on the left-hand side have two similar lines, joined at the bottom, making a sort of curved V. The upper two pearls on the right-hand side have a sort of crescent, with a peak in the middle of the hollow part, as well as at each end; all the other pearls on the right-hand side have the curved V. The door of the castle is very darkly shaded, being almost the darkest part of the stamp.
Forged
Very much better done than the genuine. Typographed, in greenish-blue, on smooth wove paper, very hard. The letters of CORDOBA are thinner than those of CEN, and much clearer than in the genuine. There is never any stop after CEN. The background, behind the top of the castle, has hardly the faintest trace of the horizontal lines of shading. The white platform at the top of the castle, on which the three little turrets stand, has only one vertical line of shading, and the commencement of two or three others; all the rest of the platform being quite white. The square, white links of the chain-pattern are all alike; the one above the end of the N of CEN being just like all the others, and having the colored line through it. The head of the 5 is at a good distance from the chain-pattern. The whole of the pearls on the left hand side are shaded alike, with the curved v. All the pearls on the right-hand side also bear the curved V, except the lowest two, which have a U instead. The door of the castle is lightly shaded, but it has a dark outline.
1860. 10 Centavos, black.
Genuine
I have not been able to obtain any specimens of the genuine 10 c. for inspection; but I believe that it varies slightly in type from the genuine 5 c., and is lithographed on laid paper, and sometimes on wove, as before.
Forged
Typographed, like the forged 5 c., on the same smooth, hard, wove paper. The color is very different from that of the genuine, being a sort of greyish-brown, instead of black. The groundwork, behind the top of the castle, shows the horizontal lines of shading, like the genuine 5 c. With this exception, this forgery is exactly the same as the forged 5 c. described above, being evidently transferred from the same original design.
Bogus Stamps.
These are the 15 c., violet; 25 c., orange; 50 c., green; and 1 peso, rose-carmine. It will be seen that I have included the 15 c. here as a bogus value; for, though it has been cataloged for a long time, nobody has ever seen it, so I think it probable that it was never issued.
All the values above-mentioned are exactly like the forged 5 c. in every particular, except that some of them show more of the horizontal lines of shading behind the top of the castle. As none of these values are to be found in the genuine set, I need say no more about them.
Postmarks
Genuine.—I have never seen a postmarked copy of the genuine, though a great many specimens have passed through my hands lately.
Forged.—The forgeries are uncancelled; the bogus stamps ditto.
From: ‘Album Weeds’, 3rd edition by R. B. Eareé. 1906
Today I won an eBay lot which is the only one I have ever seen for a Cordova 15 centavo stamp. It is quite likely a forgery (almost certainly in fact based on the article above however there is always a chance ) but is certainly intriguing and a great story. As soon as it arrives I will add a normal and a high resolution scan here to share with you. Now this is definitely something I would never have expected as a result from the search for stamps for the Smithsonian album.
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I have had the following items for a couple of weeks now as I try to determine what to do with them, cut them up to add the stamps to the Smithsonian album as a cut square because of the space issue in the album (I cringe at the thought). Just keep them separate and continue to search for stamps for Curacao and Caribbean Netherlands for the album. Or what?
The empty spaces in the album beckon, yearning for completion. But the items are quite interesting in their own right. I have managed to find a standalone stamp for Saint Martin but Curacao and Caribbean Netherlands continue to elude me with four separate times being outbid. Interestingly the catalog value on the issues is $1.25 for Curacao and $1.50 for Caribbean Netherlands in the 2014 Scott catalog. Unfortunately the only offerings I have seen have either been much more expensive (as much as a factor of ten) or required $8 shipping fees for delivery. C'est la vie! (Such is life! )
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01:11:22pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
If I had known how difficult it is for you to find those stamps, I would have bought an extra copy for you when I was there in January.
I will be passing through Seattle this weekend. I am curious about the 2 stamp stores you mention. I know Aurora, but what is the other one?
Jan
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Ooh, that would have been nice! And quite a delivery service, nothing like a courier.
The other store is Belkirk Stamps Coins and Comics and is located in Kirkland just off of exit 20 on I-405. Bill has been very aggressive with purchases of some rather large collections over the past year and has a very interesting and wide-ranging stock especially in a back storage area although not as much in the way of volume I suspect as at Aurora Stamps. There will, also, be the Fenwick Stamp Show on Sunday, August 11th which is organized by Bill's daughter at the Red Lion Hotel just off of exit 2 on I-405 which I am planning to attend in the afternoon. Both stores should be open on Saturday.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 758 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for Germany - German occupation of Montenegro during WWII Scott #3NB2. The stamp was acquired via Hipstamp and received today from Firenze, Italy.
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11:55:33pm
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Been away from the stamp loft all summer.. This got me all excited to get back at it !! Appreciate all your effort !
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12:54:31am
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I plan to be at the Fenwick show (part of the reason for this trip.) Perhaps I'll meet you there.
Jan
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Hope to see you there as well. I should be there in the early afternoon on Sunday.
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Great thread, I follow it religiously. Out of curiosity, what were the search term phrases that both you and your wife used while searching for the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong stamp that achieved different results? Knowing this might possibly allow someone searching for a hard-to-ffind stamp to find one that they otherwise might have missed.
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She used "stamps Japanese occupation" while I was using "Japanese occupation stamps". Same terms just ordered differently.
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That’s strange. I sometimes vary the terminology when I don’t get any results but I’ve never tried changing the order of the words.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 759 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is the issue for GENERAL SEMENOV - Anti-Bolshevik army occupation of Chita during Russian Revolution (also known as Far Eastern Republic Scott #N3) from the Occupations area of the album on page 127 which with this addition is no longer the page with the most missing stamps in the album (there are now three pages in the album in a tie with three missing stamps ). I have included a high resolution scan as this one is a bit harder to find!
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It's good to add a high-res scan of this one!
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can weigh in, but the surcharge doesn't look right. You're rushing headlong into issues that the catalogs warn about. Caveat emptor!
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It is my understanding that the surcharges were printed on the stamps. To me, it looks like the surcharge is a handstamp. I would be suspicious of this one. We have a Gibbons Russia specialized catalog, but I can't find it. Pictures and images of the stamp surcharged and of the surcharge in Scott (doesn't mention fakes) and Michel (does mention fakes) do not excatly match the surcharge in the picture here. That doesn't mean it isn't genuine. I could probably get a better idea if I could find the Russia Specialized catalog. However, for now I would be suspicious of this stamp.
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The picture in the Scott Classic catalog for 2017 looks exactly like the one from my scan. There is a slight lightness at the top of the first P and second P in the surcharge and light doubling/smudging of the bottom of the 5 just as shown in this scan. The key element would be finding several example stamps to compare against. There is a Russian Philatelic Society that is supposed to have a collection of stamp pictures for these issues but it is not available online as best I can tell.
It would be very nice to see any high resolution pictures of other stamps for this issue that anyone could supply.
Here is a link to Dr. Cheng Chang's world stamp album from the internet. You may have to page to the last page from the itemid listed to see the example for my stamp. I wouldn't say that the image is clear enough to say either way on the stamp.
http://worldstampalbum.com/Contents/ShowStamp.aspx?ItemId=220
If anyone can provide scans from the related page(s) for this stamp in Dr. R. J. Ceresa's monumental work on Russian stamps that would be very useful.
(Modified by Moderator on 2019-08-11 05:50:57)
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 761 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are Colombia - Bolivar State Scott #19 and Colombia - Santander State Scott #7. Stamps were acquired at a local stamp show today.
Had a great time at the show today and showed the album to a dealer who showed me his personal album, which is a Senf album from the 1890's with an incredible 19th century collection which if the stamps are all genuine likely catalogs for around $2 million dollars but easily contains two to three hundred thousands in catalog value regardless!! He says he bought the album several years ago which has a very ornate leather cover with embossing and to which he has been adding mostly telegraph and cut square items. He definitely questions whether some of the more expensive items are genuine and pointed out three stamps in a row in the album that if genuine would catalog over a hundred thousand dollars each. The stamps definitely look appropriate though. The album had at least ten different issues from Tuscany and a very wide range of stamps throughout the album which was at least 30% complete for the period. The album originally came with brass catches but the main hinged clasp is missing. It was definitely a real treat to see.
Other than the two back of the book issues for Colombia (probably the lowest catalog value stamps in my Smithsonian album but among the hardest for me to locate), I mostly looked for stamps for India up to 1940 and added 12 new mint stamps for the period so am up to 31 stamps in the India pages from my 1840-1940 section of the International album.
Also picked up a range of low value Mexico stamps from before 1900 for the International album to fill some blank spots and for Guatemala up through 1939 plus some stamps for Malaya and states for 1949-1959 for the later volumes of my International based 1840-1963 collection.
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The images in the Scott catalogue are not necessarily those of genuine stamps. Several of the stamp images of early Iran, for example, are not of genuine stamps. I and others have informed Scott of this. They have not replaced the images as of yet as they presumably haven't yet been able to find any genuine ones.
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Interesting quandary. I've left messages for the seller and for Greg Mirsky who advertises Russian material in the Scott catalogs to see if additional details, especially any other available high resolution stamp images, could be shared for the Far Eastern Republic "of Siberia" Chita N3 issue with overprint by General Semenov's forces or might be available. Michael points out that there are several images in the Scott catalog of fake stamps. The only online example I have seen so far is from Dr. Cheng Chang's collection at http://www.worldstampalbum.com/ but the image is not of high enough resolution to provide useful guidance plus it would only provide an either or option versus the picture in the Scott catalog. It was a bit disappointing that Dr. Ceresa's books did not have more definitive pictures or commentary on the stamp issues although not that surprising in such a monumental undertaking.
The stamp is a low enough value at $25 catalog that auction catalog results are not that likely to be prevalent either. Yes, definitely a quandary. I did find two sample pictures from the eBay derived Stamp Market Index with one picture being essentially identical to my stamp to my eye and the other just a touch different. Both sales were from 2019 and only one sale ever listed since 2004 provided a certificate and that transaction did not offer a picture. Older sales before 2019 did not have pictures available from the site.
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I wouldn't fret about it. Check it out if you ever come across a good resource for such a stamp.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 762 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is Japan - Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII Scott #N2. This is the stamp found by my wife by reordering my normal search terms.
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Received the 15 centavo Cordoba stamp that matches my 1892 Scott International Album's third listed stamp for Cordoba. Note that the stamp is almost certainly a forgery as currently the Scott catalog only lists 5 centavo and 10 centavo issues for Cordoba. Nevertheless it is a quite interesting issue. Still waiting on delivery of the real stamp for Cordoba so no change in album completion. See my previous posting on the Cordoba issues for a bit more detail on the issues for Cordoba.
There are three copies of the scan shown, from right to left and top to bottom, they are 600 dpi scan with Microsoft Paint, "sharpen" setting from IrfanView per scan instructions on preparing for Exhibits on Stamporama that Roy made some time ago, and my normal 150dpi scan with Microsoft Paint. I wanted to see if it made a noticeable difference in the image presentation.
The stamp itself is printed with a fairly pale violet ink as was listed in the 1892 Scott album page. See album page excerpt scan below:
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Wanted to note that I am not actually using the tenth edition, 1892 Scott International album that I have for stamps as the paper has definitely been discoloring. I do use it as a guide and keep toying with creating something similar to it using Album Easy or similar products. I have made some trial attempts but am finding that I just don't have enough time to get a decent start on the album's creation. I would particularly like a non-comprehensive starter, face different world wide album with stamp spaces designed for use of Scott mounts or similar to be available as a print it yourself album. Perhaps organization should be by continent or similar with some specific time periods. I particularly like, 1840-1899, 1900-1939, 1940-49, etc. similar to the Scott International but with a bit more comprehensiveness especially for the 1840-1899 period but not like the Steiner pages for which an 1840-1899 page set comes to over 1600 pages or the Vintage Reproduction Scott Brown pages which are 815 pages. Key element would be that the stamp spaces should support use of mounts effectively.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 763 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian Album.
New stamp added is for Ras Al Khaima Scott #1 from 1964. Stamp was acquired via eBay from the United Kingdom.
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Saw three Lallier stamp albums from the 1860's and 1870's advertised today! One on eBay and two at Sandafayre auctions.
UPDATE: The eBay auction copy sold for $140.50 plus shipping. The album was in very poor condition but all pages appeared to be present. Cover was separated but present. Still a fascinating truly early example of a stamp album with some stamps included.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 764 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for Cordoba 1858-1879 Scott #1 (!). This stamp was acquired from an auction held in Argentina by Jalil Philatino.
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10:26:58pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Can't wait to see the scan of complete project !
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 766 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are for Nicaragua - Cabo gracias a Dios Scott #2L16 and Germany - German occupation of Lorraine during WWII Scott #N52. Items purchased through eBay and Hipstamp.
Update: Sorry, forgot the pictures initially even though I had scanned the stamps before adding them to the album! Spent the afternoon adding stamps to my International album set that were purchased from Stamporama sellers. I was seriously behind on adding them! Got the descriptions reversed on the Lorraine and Alsace occupations and have now corrected them.
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You're close on the German Occupation stamp, but that's occupation of Lorraine, not Alsace.
The Cabo stamps have a warning: "Dangerous counterfeits exist" and that smudge to the right would be a concern. At least 2L16 only has a CV of $2.75 while 121 is 50 cents, so it isn't as profitable to fake 2L16 from 121, but if you were going to practice before doing the rest of the set, this would make the most sense to start with. Caution is advised.
I haven't personally gone into this area yet, so I have no idea if there is a cause for concern with this particular stamp, but this is an area I expect to wade into shortly and with trepidation.
I'm not quite as far along as you are, but I'm close. I have expanded my collection a bit so I am at 915 of 961. The remaining 46 are:
5 that I just haven't run across yet
13 that are rather expensive, so caution is advised
28 that have explicit warnings in the catalog about counterfeits, forgeries, or reprints, or are so easy to fake it would be foolish not to be careful
This last bit will be slow going for me because I want to avoid adding weeds. Just yesterday, by accident, I discovered a weed that doesn't even have a warning in Scott.
It's tough sledding sometimes!
Lars
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Updated list for back of the book items for which I am still searching for the Smithsonian album (with specific items by country and catalog # where known):
MEXICO - Yucatan page 122 (Mexico - Yucatan Scott #'s 1-2, 4-5)
RUSSIA - Russian occupation before WWI page 127 (Russia Scott #'s 2N1-2N36)
THAILAND - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Trengganu, provinces of Malay ceded to Thailand by Japan page 127 (Malaya Scott #'s 2N1-2N6)
JAPAN - Japanese military personnel page 131 (Japan Scott # M3)
UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC - United Arab Republic military personnel page 132 (United Arab Republic - Egypt Scott # M16)
Updated list for front of the book items for which I am still searching for the Smithsonian album (with specific items by country and catalog # where known):
ARGENTINA - Corrientes 1856-1879 page 13
ROMANIA - Moldavia page 19 (Romania Scott #'s 6-10)
INDIA - East India Company page 78 (India Scott #'s 2, 4-5)
INDIA - Jammu page 82 (India - Feudatory States - Jammu Scott #'s 6-60)
INDIA - Kashmir page 83 (India - Feudatory States - Kashmir Scott #'s 62-73)
Based on this list once some items awaiting delivery arrive I will have 775 779 781 782 784 785 of 785 (actually 783 787 789 790 792 793 of 793 expanded items due to some duplication in the album, if an item is included more than once in the album I have duplicate items, and some minor additions like the Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWII, in addition to the regular WWI entry; Germany - German occupation of Estonia during WWII, in addition to the regular WWI entry; Germany - German occupation of Alsace during WWII, in addition to the regular Lorraine entry; Australia - Van Diemen's Land, in addition to the regular Tasmania entry; and India - Holkar State, in addition to the regular Indore entry).
UPDATE: Found the missing India stamp but lost the auction at four times catalog for the Corrientes stamp in nice, mint condition.
UPDATE AGAIN: I have made some additional progress on finding stamps missing for the album including a real stamp for Tuscany in addition to my existing stamp on stamp placeholder. The new stamp is used though as mint stamps for Tuscany continue to elude me.
UPDATE ONE MORE TIME: Just received word that I have won a Corrientes stamp from an auction in Argentina (well, won in a loose sense of the word since it means I was willing to pay more for the stamp than anyone else ).
UPDATE NEXT TO LAST TIME: Now have stamps coming from Romania/Moldavia and Yucatan plus received a replacement stamp for Mecklenburg-Strelitz to replace one of four used stamps in the album, remaining stamps are for Vancouver Island, Tuscany, and India - East India Company (but without East India Company on the stamps) so these are unlikely to be replaced due to cost and rarity. Only remaining stamp is for Kashmir. I do have four stamp on stamp issues remaining in the album but Poland #1, Basel Canton, Geneva Canton, and Zurich Canton issues are beyond me. Strangely, several nice candidates for all four of these appeared on eBay yesterday (Septermber 29th)! But I must resist even though there is a very strong temptation.
UPDATE FOR LAST TIME: Just received two candidate stamps for Kashmir and have added them to the album, both of them, as they represent completion of the album.
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I'm impressed how many you've been able to track down so quickly.
For the East India Company issues I suggest you widen your search list as far as Scott #18.
That would include the 1855-64 set, especially #11 and #12 which are relatively inexpensive.
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So far I have tried to find only India issues for the first series that look different from the second series of stamps, i.e. the 2nd series all say East India on them while the first series just indicates India. This was chosen to accentuate the differences in the two political control periods.
I will admit to struggling a bit with the Jammu and Kashmir issues on that point as the stamps don't seem that unique. Best choice there seems to be try to find color unique varieties if possible.
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That makes sense but an alternative solution would be an "East India" stamp from the East India Company period and a later "India" stamp from the British colonial period.
However, I do like the designs from the first issues.
For Jammu & Kashmir, the following designs seem to be specific to these territories:
Jammu - Scott A4, A5 & A5a
Kashmir - Scott A6 to A12
Jammu & Kashmir - Scott A13 to A19
i.e. exclude stamps with designs Scott A1 to A3.
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Smithsonian used:
Jammu and Kashmir 86 - 2a Numeral 1878 (A16)
Jammu 47 - 1/4r Numeral 1877 (A3)
Kashmir 73 - 8a Numeral 1866 (A12)
I haven't gotten Jammu or Kashmir yet due to official imitations being so common.
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I don't see Madagascar 1884-1886 on your list of missing stamps, so can you please verify the size of that stamp? I am trying to create a new page for that stamp and want to know how much room to allow. The catalog says "POSTAGE" is about 30 mm wide, so I used that to scale up the image in the catalog. I came up with 80 mm tall and 55 mm wide, but that is a very crude estimate. Am I close?
Lars
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Does anyone think it is weird that all of the stamps issued for the India - British Crown Colony say East India Company while there are stamps both with and without indication for East India Company issued for East India Company with one design A7 in the Scott catalog used for both with the type of watermark and paper separating the issues or some redrawn details?
My first acquisition of a mint stamp for the early India stamps was Scott #20 which says East India Company but which turned out to be a British Crown Colony issue. Strangely this particular issue keeps popping up in dealer stocks that I have examined as a mint stamp with almost nothing else appearing.
The only stamp that I have seen first hand that regularly appears is its twin, Scott #31 which is a redrawn design but otherwise identical! So I shall keep looking for Scott issues 1-7 but will probably have to include a used stamp as mint issues for these stamps are quite dear and so far unseen. Except that is for one recurring four stamp block of the Scott #4 1 anna red with a terrible hinge stain which shows on the front for which the owner wants more than catalog value. I have to admit that the bottom pair of the block is really nice!
The Jammu and Kashmir issues available in mint so far have been the issues with catalog values in the hundreds or thousands of dollars so I will keep looking. Supposedly a stamp dealer who has a specialty practice in India stamps will be present at the Seapex Stamp Show in a couple of weeks and I hope to find something in his available stock. If not, I will have to be patient for the right stamp to appear on eBay or other auction sites. Uptown Stamp Shop which has a storefront in Portland, Oregon will be at Seapex and Niko let me know that they have made some major acquisitions through auctions and they might have something as well.
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My Madagascar - British Consular Mail stamp measures roughly 5.5 cm wide and 8 cm tall. I used a 61mm Scott clear mount strip cut to size to mount the stamp in the album. If you need one let me know and I will be happy to mail you a strip to use. Since I had to buy a package of mounts I have quite a few spares. My stamp was pictured in the June 29, 2019 post in this thread.
Fortunately there are not a lot of stamps that require this large of a mount. Now blocks and souvenir sheets might make the mounts a bit more useful but I tend to avoid their purchase except in filling items in any Scott Hingeless Specialty albums that I come across and fortunately they already have mounts!
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" If you need one let me know and I will be happy to mail you a strip to use."
I appreciate that, but I have a broad range of sizes, including 61 mm. It's just a challenge to make room for a stamp that big!
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Added 4 new stamps to bring me to 770 of 785 issues for the Smithsonian album.
New items are for Caribbean Netherlands Scott #B1 (mint stamp), Curacao (mint stamp), India States - Bhor Scott #2, and Italy - Offices in Jerusalem Scott #3 (second stamp for the issuing entity since there are duplicate listings on pages 120 and 121 of the album).
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Updated the want list information for the posting on September 1st to reflect one lost auction item and one won auction item, essentially adding a stamp for Corrientes to the want list and removing a stamp for India from the want list.
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 773 of 785 stamp issuing entities for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps added are for Germany - German occupation of Alsace during the Franco-Prussian War Scott #N2a (!), Austria - Austrian occupation of Montenegro during WWI Scott #1N1, and Maoist Revolutionary Army - Maoist control of South China Scott #7L1.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 774 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for People's Republic of China - Communist Chinese military personnel Scott #M4. New stamp was acquired from eBay.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 775 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for India - East India Company Scott #4. This is the third stamp in the album which has been included as a used stamp. The other two were for Vancouver Island and for Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
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Added 1 new stamp to bring me to 776 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamp is for France - French occupation of Mexico Scott #29. Purchase was made via eBay from Portugal.
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Added picture of last stamp added to the album. Also, updated my want list on the September 1st posting to reflect some recent purchases for which deliveries are pending.
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Attended the Seapex show but found no new stamps for the album although I did actually see one stamp that would have been appropriate for the album, a stamp for Moldavia, however at $5,000 discounted from $9,000+ catalog value decided that I should keep looking.
Found a few additional mint stamps to fill in spaces for India in the International 1840-1940 album.
Spoke with one dealer who had quite a number of Far Eastern Republic stamps including a full set of the General Semenov stamps plus some additional copies both mint and used as it is an area he collects. He checked out my stamp and confirmed it as genuine and that it is in fact the doubled overprint version. He had quite a stock of Russian area stamps on display at the show.
Early this morning I watched a Sandafayre auction online where two Lallier albums were auctioned, the first and second editions for the English language version of the albums. The second edition album which had a large number of stamps in the album sold for 8,750 pounds against a pre-sale estimate of 5,000 to 6,000 pounds and the first edition album with many fewer stamps in the album sold for 3,750 pounds against a pre-sale estimate of 800 to 1,200 pounds! It was very interesting listening to the bids being reported during the live auction with both in person and internet bids being taken live. I picked up a small lot of stamps for Finland during the auction. The online auction format used actually worked much better than I expected although sometimes it seemed that the bidding closed before all bidders had finished as the auction hurried through the process. There was quite a range of auction items with items starting at 5 pounds as well as at 10,000 pounds with very little difference if any in the treatment of items during the auction. The only items that appeared unwanted for the most part were a series of items offered as blocks on album pages.
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05:51:38pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I was also at Seapex yesterday. I managed to get about 10 new stamps for my album, but I doubt the Heligoland example will turn out to be genuine. It was real cheap, so will make a good space filler if not. I think I am over 600 now, but won't have an exact tally until I mount them.
Jan
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Made a bit more progress with some auctions for missing items from the album and have updated my want list on the September 1st post. I will add pictures and details once the items arrive.
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Added 1 new stamp to the album but no change in completion count as I had an existing stamp on stamp issue. This adds the last real stamp needed for the Italian States entities.
New stamp is for Italy - Tuscany Scott #18. New stamp was acquired from Hipstamp.
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Update: Just received word that I won a Corrientes mint stamp from an auction in Argentina (well, won in a loose sense of the word since it indicates that I was willing to pay more than anyone else that participated in the auction for the stamp ) and have updated my want list on the September 1st posting. Now down to three missing stamps for the album once the pending deliveries complete! Pictures will be posted as soon as the stamps arrive.
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Added 3 new stamps to bring me to 779 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps are India Feudatory State - Jammu Scott 8, Japan - Japanese military personnel Scott #M2 (!), and United Arab Republic - United Arab Republic military personnel Scott #M16. Stamps were acquired from eBay, Hipstamp, and Stamps2Go.
I had been trying to find Japan Scott #M3 but have only seen two stamps for it advertised in the last six months and both were used stamps. Fortunately I found an offering for Japan Scott #M2 instead at an affordable cost recently, actually three separate auctions for the stamp occurred within a three week period after only seeing one very expensive Japan Scott #M1 offered in the last six months (admittedly it was a VERY nice stamp).
The United Arab Republic M16 stamp is a low catalog value offering which I have been unable to locate in the stock of over 70 different stamp dealers during the past year at stamp shows and the only other one I have seen advertised is a used stamp on Hipstamp. Of course, it is probably readily available somewhere, just not in the northwest USA!
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 781 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamps are for Russia (actually Latvia) - Russian occupation of Latvia before WWII Scott #2N23 and Thailand (actually Malaya) - Thai occupation of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Trengganu, provinces ceded to Thailand by Japan Scott #2N1 (!).
Due to the low contrast on the Thai (Malaya) stamp I have added a second picture where I used the sharpen setting from Irfanview to enhance the contrast on the stamp image. it helps a bit but not that much! The first stamp was acquired from Latvia and the second stamp from a stamp dealer in Thailand, both from eBay. The Thai stamp arrived in the best packaging I have seen used for mailing a single stamp and came from CFCOLLECTIBLE in Chiangrai Thailand.
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Received notice that I have won an auction for a stamp from Romania/Moldavia and have crossed the item off my want list. Can anyone recommend a stamp dealer with a good stock of Mexico items that might have any stamps from the Yucatan issues of the early 1920s?
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Found several suggested dealers via the MEPSI web site (https://www.mepsi.org/ ) after wading through 16 pages of search items based on searches for the term "stamps Yucatan" on Google and have located the needed stamp and placed an order from http://www.greggnelsonstamps.com/ . Interestingly, I have only seen one stamp advertised on eBay or Hipstamp for this issue which was a used stamp and one set on zillionsofstamps.com at a very high price in the past year.
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Added a replacement stamp received today for my stamp for Mecklenburg-Strelitz (which was one of four used stamps in the album and a cut square from an envelope to boot as best I can tell). It was spotted on eBay and I made an impulse offer on the stamp and managed to get the stamp! Other three used stamps in the album are for Vancouver Island, Tuscany, and India - East India Company (issued before East India Company was on the stamps) but based on costs and rarity these are not likely to be replaced. New stamp is Scott #6 and I was unable to determine the original stamp's catalog number as it is a cut square and not in my catalog.
I, also, have four stamp on stamp issues in the album for Poland Scott #1, Basel Canton, Geneva Canton, and Zurich Canton issues but these are extremely unlikely to ever be replaced in the album as all four issues catalog at $2,000 each and way up in the case of Basel! Although by sheer chance, a candidate stamp for each of the four issues appeared on eBay this past Sunday! And two of the four even have certificates available. Oh, the temptation!! Although the credit limit is present ever paying them off would definitely be an issue.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Jerrel,
I wanted to wait until you reached completion to post my updates that I've been working on, but one of the key features is that I gained access to the layouts and stamps used on the original panels at the Smithsonian. The pages you are working from are based on a set of panels in the Smithsonian, and they aren't identical. Spoiler alert: They don't have the Swiss Canton stamps on the panels! That's right, the three most expensive stamps in the album pages aren't even on the panels. All they have for Switzerland are modern Swiss and a 5c Envelope stamp used as an adhesive for Geneva. (Switzerland 2LU1). Granted, they have a note "For Basel and Zurich see Treasures of the World Exhibit", but I felt a LOT better about using reprints for those (Switzerland B131b, B132a, B607a).
Make Poland #1 your crown jewel!
Lars
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Interesting. Of course, at $2,400 catalog value, Poland #1 is quite a step. So far, the stamp for King George VII Land has the highest catalog value at $900 currently as a mint stamp otherwise in the album after the Canton issues and Poland #1.
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Poland #1 will tie with Vancouver Island as my most expensive CV, but I collect used so it's "only" $250 CV. I still have 45 stamps to go, but 42 of them are over $100 CV, often faked, or both. I would like to physically see them and I have very limited access to dealers, but I do intend to hit a show in Nashville next spring so I can start on those. So I'm down to 3 others I'm looking for, all of which are under $25 CV! One is under $5! But as you know, those last few can be tough. (One is Yucatan, and thanks for the link, but I'm just not ready to pay that much yet).
Good luck!
Lars
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Added 2 new stamps to bring me to 783 of 785 stamps for the album.
New stamps are for Mexico - Yucatan Scott #2 and Romania - Moldavia 1858-1859 Scott #9.
The Yucatan stamp completes the back of the books issues for a major miletone! I included a higher resolution image for the Romania/Moldavia issue as it was quite a difficult stamp to locate.
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Added 1 stamp to bring me to 784 of 785 stamps for the Smithsonian album.
New stamp is for Corrientes Scott #6 (I think, as the paper color is a very dark blue).
I have added a 450 dpi scan in addition to my normal 150 dpi scan to provide better details. The stamp size was too large to include a 600 dpi scan.
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I received two new stamps yesterday for Kashmir as candidates for completing the Smithsonian album. It was an auspicious day to receive the stamps as it represents the 15th month anniversary of my starting on the album. By my estimate I have spent between 700 and 900 hours looking for stamps for the album and searching for vendors and candidate stamps, plus trying to find out more about the stamp issuing entities associated with the album.
New stamps are definitely the designs for Kashmir Scott #63 and Kashmir Scott #72 but I suspect are later reprints just because the #72 in particular is such a great copy. See what you think!
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Well done!
If you get the final product scanned and available via web link let us know!
Lars
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Added one replacement/additional stamp, a mint stamp for Tuscany Scott #19 as an alternative for my existing used stamp for Tuscany. While the stamp lacks four margins it is an interesting copy for Tuscany which came with a certificate from Sergio Sismondo.
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12:49:37am
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
This just makes me happy watching this progress. I had to switch focus to a few exhibits for upcoming shows, but will back at the single specimen shortly. Keep leading the way !
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I have essentially completed the album with two used stamps rather than mint stamps now for Vancouver Island and for the India 1854 series and four stamp on stamp issues rather than actual stamps for the periods for Poland #1 and the Switzerland Canton issues but do keep making some auction bids on stamps that show up that could replace these items although I have not had much luck with the bids other than the Tuscany stamp which was my last successful replacement getting me a mint rather than used example for the album.
Lately I have been concentrating on the Finland collection I started in a new, old stock Scott Hingeless album and album filling in my International Part I through V collection for 1840-1963. I just reached 19.6% complete with mint stamps for the International albums. Decided I would see how far I can get with mint stamps with an eventual goal of 50% overall completion with mint stamps unless I win some kind of lottery. About 60% of the stamps in the album came from a Minkus Supreme Global based collection I bought through eBay in 2006 that I moved onto International pages starting in early 2017 and finishing on May 19, 2018. Since then I have been picking up items as they come available through Stamporama, smaller country collections through local stamp shows and eBay, U-pick albums, and one mostly mint International Part I album from eBay with about 3,000 stamps which I am still combining with my collection.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Congratulations! That was quite a journey and I enjoyed following along!
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Congratulations Jerrel! Hopefully you will soon be able to replace your used and stamp on stamp issues.
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I tried to access the Smithsonian A Stamp for Every Country page this evening and I got a message reading, “Page Not Found.” Has anyone else tried to access it lately? Perhaps they took it down to rectify some of the errors and user complaints, such as it being in landscape mode rather than portrait mode.
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I was not able to locate the Smithsonian album download today when I checked either but hope that it can be restored soon. I found it to be a great motivation for a really interesting collection. If anyone needs a copy of the PDF file for it before the Smithsonian gets their site back together let me know through the Stamporama member messages system with an e-mail address and I can send the PDF document to you via e-mail along with a copy of the Excel based checklist that I created.
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Received one replacement unused stamp today for the Vancouver Island issue in the album. This replaces one of two remaining used stamps in the album. The other is for the first issues from India and although I actually located and purchased a one-half anna issue for India from 1854 I ended up using it for my International 1840-1963 collection as it filled the first stamp position for India!
New stamp is, also, Vancouver Island Scott #5 as was my original issue for this stamp issuing entity.
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Last week I had the opportunity to review several albums from a fellow collector's collection and found that he has multiple copies of Poland Scott #1! We identified three mint copies (one looked questionable, or possibly saw some ink damage from soaking at some point in its life since 1860, and one was absolutely stunning with a Royal Philatelic Society certificate) and five used copies in his various collections. We, also, found two of the Switzerland canton issues for Zurich and Geneva plus a cut square item for Geneva but all were used. He had sold his primary Switzerland collection a year or so ago which did contain the remaining Switzerland canton issue for Basel as well as mint copies of the other cantons! So the stamps do exist! He, also, had one of the Moldavia stamps as well. It was a real treat getting the chance to view the stamps and discussing his collection building over the years.
He shares my interest in older stamp albums and we went through every page of a Lallier album that he has been adding to over the past thirty years as he identifies items that will fit that he doesn't have another place for in his more normal albums. Because he often stores album in the album while he considers other mounting options there were as many fascinating items between the pages as on them!
We, also, discuessed the Club De Monaco stamp society which I had seen a video from this week after a mention on Stamporama and he pulled out a 2013 book issued by the society for me to review which provides a history of stamp collection, albums, catalogs, and collectors up to 1880. He has let me borrow it and I have finished the first 214 pages of the roughly 500 page book (including one stent staying up to almost 4 AM reading it and doing additional searches online for topics mentioned in the book). It is an incredible treasure of information about the early days of stamp collecting and has been great fun to review. I have really enjoyed seeing pictures of early stamp albums and notable items and personages associated with the hobby as well.
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12:35:04pm
re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Jerrel, I would love to have a legitimate copy of Poland #1!! I have collected Poland since my wife and I started collecting in the early 1970's. I need two stamps to finish pg#1 in my Minkus album, Scott #1 (expensive!) and #15 (haven't found yet!). That someone has multiple copies of that stamp is downright UNFAIR! If he decides to donate one to another collector please keep me in mind!
Edit: For a rare stamp there seems to be an awful lot of Poland #1's on E-Bay right now including several double copies on piece with really nice postmarks. I might be a bit naive but it seems very suspicious.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
I saw a collection change hands in an auction that had over ten of them so maybe they are being broken up. None of them in that auction were mint though although several were on covers. I admit that I would definitely prefer one with a certificate though if I were purchasing it.
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re: Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album and Checklist
Just checked ebay using stamps Poland Scott 1 and stamps Poland 1860 search terms and see what you mean about the large number of listings for what is normally a rarely listed stamp. They are all coming from the same dealer as best I can tell and the vendor has sold others as well. The vendor does seem to have a wide ranging group of Poland related offerings which tends to occur if someone is selling off a large collection which is where I would expect this kind of offering to come from as well. The pricing seems VERY low however which is a bit suspicious and no recognized authority certificates are mentioned. Of course, that is not too unusual for these items either. One pair of mint stamps had a selling price of $274 which really seems suspicious for a stamp with a catalog value of $2,400 each. That type of stamp pair should have some provenance information available.
It is a bit telling as well that if you read the description that the seller suggests that they are not expertised and that he is selling them as fakes rather than attempting to expertise them.
The collector's stamps that I had mentioned before do have some history behind them and I know that he has made some very significant purchases over decades with a variety of well known dealers in the USA and overseas so am not really concerned that those stamps would be an issue with the possible exception of one of the stamps that I had mentioned.
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