Assistance With Revenue Stamps

After a 50 or so year hiatus in stamp collecting I'm trying to get my collection back in order again. I've run across some revenue stamps that I need some help with. One is a two cent, red, has a picture of a ship on it, Series of 1898, and below that "Documentary."



I realize this is probably a pretty poor picture so if anyone has any advice on how to take better photos of stamps I'd appreciate it. I have several more I'd like to post pictures of. This was taken with my Sony Mavica. Can anyone help me identify this revenue stamp?

Thanks
Chris

Hi Chris--
First- welcome!
Second- Isn't this hobby great in the way you can put it away for years, and then pick it up later?

The stamp you're showing is R164, a common U.S. Revenue, with a Scott Cat Value of about $.30, whether used or unused.

Suggestion #1, would be for you to consider going out to ebay and buying any copy of a Scott's U.S. Specialized catalog-- you can find them a few years old very reasonably. The prices will not have changed significantly, and it will still list every U.S. stamp you have from back in '61.

Next is to post with an image from a scanner instead of a camera-- much easier with the scanner, and much closer pictures.

Good Luck, welcome back, Ray

To answer your question, the stamp appears to be a R164. Roulerre 5 1/2 with a catalog value is $0.25 from the "Battleship" series.

But, let me say its great that you're back into your collection.

Pictures are great, everyone loves them. I never had much luck taking pictures of a stamp with a camera, the image was either too small or too blurry to be really helpful. I suggest getting a scanner, HP makes many models with prices all over from $50.00 to $500.00. Wally World or Staples, any place that sells that kind of stuff. I always used the adage "Get the best you can afford". A good scanner will allow others to help identify stamps as well as for you to share your collection with us.

Again, great to hear that your back into collecting. The people on this forum are always willing to help and there are many very knowledgeable collectors that haunt this forum.

Chris,

I just read your bio and want to thank you for your many years of service.

Thanks both of you. I'll definitely look up the Scott's catalog on ebay. I've got so many foreign stamps too that I should get a complete catalog so I can print out my own pages for those. I've got an old HP scanner though I don't believe it's compatable with my Linux OS, I'll have to look around for a newer model that will work without any problems.

Again, thanks for the welcome and the information.

Chris

that HP scanner will most probably work if you use the Picasa 3 program. Picasa came with my computer but I think it is shareware and can be downloaded. Worth a shot eh?

P.S.

For whatever it's worth, here's an image of the same stamp scanned by using a $50 HP multi-function printer at 300 dpi:

Nice picture, thanks to all for the advice. I can see I'll be looking for something such as this.

Chris

here are some more "Battleship" revenues from the same series.

Same series, but aren't those are "Proprietary" and not "Documentary" revenues? The "Proprietary" stamps go from 1/8 cent to 5 cents; the "Documentary" from 1/2 cent to 80 cents.

Holy smokes you got me again wt1! I'd better get on the ball eh? Thank you though I hadn't noticed.

Both the "Proprietary" and "Documentary" series if 1898 come in HH7 (Hyphen Hole), as well as Roulette 5.5 to further complicate the series.