Looking For A New Area To Collect..? Consider Guatemala

Looking for a country you can complete without breaking hte bank..consider Guatemala..which has always had an ultra conservative stamp issuing policy...i believe some years they did not issue any stamps...and you can get most of them for pennies...some stamps had a total printing of 3 Thousand...and yet they are readily available..i have an idea of how many serious Guatemala collectors there are..but I have to be careful....i think there is room for another collector or two before I have to worry too much about competition !!

There I go again..i JUST noticed this topic area is supposed to be non country specific !!

If you know of someone willing to trade Guatemala for U.S., I would consider it

buckeye I barely dabble in U.S. or I would swap with you...its very possible you will find someone here on the site for a trade !!

Phil:

I was just looking at the Scott Catalogue for Guatemala.

The 1902 Series is beautiful, and has a 2009 Cat Value of under $5 for mint!

And starting around the 1930s, there are a lot of beautifully engraved bi-color issues.

Like a lot of countries, they get less interesting (in my opinion) starting around the 1970s.

BUT all-in-all, as you said, there are some VERY attractive stamps and most have reasonable catalogue values.

Thanks for the information,
Kirk

Kirk, I think the best are the early quetzals up to 1900 and the 1902 waterlow set...the 10 cent orange and blue is my favorite (scott #118) when you get into the 1960s and 1970s then the fly speck collectors go crazy..they would use different sized perforating machines and I believe paper on the same issues..the specialized guys try to outdo one another with new finds !

@Philb.... Since on topic of Guatemala, I've now got a good spot to ask about this stamp displayed on my blog few weeks back:



What perforations does ISGC catalog state for this stamp? I'm asking because that general catalogs I have contradict. I know there are at least two different perfs.

Yes, I wasn't specific, but I was looking at the Waterlow set.

I notice that a LOT of the early issues are overprints and Scott says forgeries abound. That might be a potential problem, especially for a new collector, but not different from lots of other countries.

Today, I was catching up on reading APS magazine. I noticed on the back cover where they advertise Circuit Books, they do have a circuit for Guatemala. However, it is flagged with an * that means the circuits are few and far between because of the lack of material being offered through APS.

Has that been your experience? A dearth of material on the market?

Kirk

Ok, I will reply to Scb first..you picked a good one there..the Scott #c270....i looked it up...i live and learn.."Originally intended for use as a postal tax stamp.there were to have been one million each of 10 different color combinations...but only this one was actually printed and used for normal airmail ..in 1968 copies of this stamp were used as part of a promotion plan for Guatemalan coffee in Switzerland" thats interesting I would like to see one of those ! The I.S.G.C. identifies 3 different perfs 11.1 being the common and 12.4 and 10.8 being types A and B !!

Hi Kirk, in my opinion the normal listed overprints for the Waterlow set are ok...when you get into upside down and double imprints and red color when was only officially overprinted in blue or black..the type they try to sell on ebay all the time as rare or scarce...i would never pay a premium for them...if I get a fake or forgery at a fair price they go in the back of my book !

@Philb... Thank You :)

Hello,

back in 1963, when I was 11 years old, I went to the Coventry Philatelic Society Annual Fair, (in the English Midlands) and made my 1st serious purchase of stamps....10 pages of early Guatemala.
I had only collected short sets of British Colonial issues before then bought from the local newsagent shop but the Guatemalan stamps were just so exotic and different that I had to have them.
Cost if I remember correctly was about 10 shillings, ( a dollar or so).
I can definitely second philb's suggestion.....a fascinating country to collect.
Best wishes,
Brian....machins.

I would extend your recommendation into most of Central and South America.
Many stamp investment blogs are always banging on about how under-rated these countries are and I agree there are some beautiful, reasonable priced sets available.
There was a talk recently at my local club on El Salvador which was a real eye-opener and definitely one area I'll look out for.

Exactly ! Some of the leading Dealers anticipate these becoming a hot trend in the near future. I collect all of Latin & South America (Pre 1940) as they are not only attractive, but inexpensive.

Many collectors shied away from Central American stamps because of the Seebeck issues...for some reason countries like Costa Rica and Guatemala decided not to take the offer !

Thanks for the info Phil. More new stamp pages to print now :)

Costa Rica issues some beautiful stamps; I've had the pleasure of exchanging stamps with a student over there.

Cheers
ram
Ram