Learning About Early US Stamps

I've been a stamp collector since age six. That's... 45 years ago. I've collected Denmark, Sweden... and Scandinavia, in general, since the beginning. So I'm not a newbie to stamp collecting.

That said...

My 93-year old stepdad passed away, last year. He and my mom (who's also passed) lived in the south of Spain. He dabbled in stamps, and collected US, an interest he developed while they were living in the US, between 1980 and 2002. Recently, the remainder of the "stuff" from their apartment arrived here at my house, in Washington state. Included... my stepdad's accumulation/collection of (mostly early) US stamps.

As I looked through wads and wads of loose album pages, stock pages, glassines and boxes, I realized a couple of things: One, there's a LOT of "worthwhile" material in these boxes. Two, I know next to NOTHING about classic US... and it seems like a pretty intricate collecting area.

I'm not planning to start a US collection-- I already have more on my plate than I can keep up with. So I'm just trying to learn ENOUGH about these early stamps to be able to identify them, and come up with reasonable descriptions on ebay. And yes, I'm one of those "weird" people who thinks there should be more in an auction description than "see scan."

Here is a sample of a few of the prettier (at least to my non-expert eye) items I spotted, in just a tiny corner of the box, today. Now... if I could only figure out exactly which versions they are...

Cheers,
Peter


Seems much nicer and fresher than most, and not a messy cancel

This one is pale rose, but I presume not a faded stamp? Interesting cancel, I thought.

This is a very deep carmine red color, and the red cancel makes for a dramatic look-- but that's just me; not sure what an actual US collector would think.

This one is just bright. REALLY bright.

I'm guessing this is an early precancel, although it doesn't really look like any US precancel I've seen before.

I for one would love to own the 2nd & 3rd scanned stamps (probably a #148 or 159) for my personal collection! I have been a "serious" collector for about a year now and am still learning myself. it is a process and nothing you can just read a book about and be an expert...I wish it were that way sometimes but alas it's all in the details. I already own said stamp but the cancels and centering make it (to me anyway) desirable. I'm positive the more experienced members will shed some light on your inquiry so check back often. I'm out and on my cellphone so difficult to type. -Jeff

EDIT:
I just noticed that your a new arrival! friend and I hope you have many years of fun and friendship on S.C.F.!

Welcome to the family!

I love the last $0.04 Lincoln. Very nice centering. Keep us informed as to other specimens you find in your box o' chaos. My parents are heading down to Florida this April to visit my grandfather (who is 88). I've asked if I could take over stewardship of his collection since he's lost interest. I can't wait to see 1)if they come back with it, and 2) what could be between those pages!

Cardinal Bass

All of these stamps, although fairly common, are uncommonly well-centered and appear to be in excellent condition! Congrats!

I look forward to seeing more of your collection.

Welcome to SCF!

Brian

Welcome to the forum scanstamps

You have some very nice U.S. stamps.

A lot of informed members in here might be able to help you with information on them hopefully.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Great Early US Scanstamps

Once you get 50 posts under your belt, you could probably unload some if not all your US here.

Dianne

I believe the second stamp has a NYFM cancel... New York Foreign Mail

I believe your correct stampvirgin. I was just researching that this week so odd that would creep into a conversation here.

Peter-- welcome to the group.

The 1st stamp, the 3c 1861, is most likely a #65, and although it's a really pretty color something gives it away that it probably is not pink or rose pink.

The date on the cancel is April 8, and the pinks (#64, 64a and 64b) were all in 1861, and since the first use of any of those stamps is August of '61, this stamp can't be 1861, and thus is probably a pinkish-rose #65.

There are some pinks (especially out west) that are found with later dates. This one is a really pretty stamp, with great centering. If you put it on ebay, if you put #65 with VF-XF centering for the issue, you'll do well, because someone will bid thinking it's pink.

Hope this helps-- Thanks for posting, Ray

Welcome to the forum Peter. As already stated above you've got some very nice stamp here. I'm sure we'd all love to see more scans, I know I would, as these are the sorts of things I collect. Beautifully centred, nice examples. Your step father obviously had a good eye for these things.
Looking forward to seeing more.
Hopefully once you reach the requisite number of posts you'll consider auctioning some of them here and give us members first crack. (was that too subtle a hint?)

Thanks for the ongoing feedback!

The pictured stamps are definitely the "choice" items on the particular wad of pages I examined... also lots of damaged filler material that best could be used for making art collages, or something.

Because my stepdad "collected" by buying random glassine lots and wads of album pages, there's all kinds of stuff here.

I'm only going to take the time to sell the sound stamps; the faulty will probably end up in "by the pound" lots. Maybe not the $100+ CV stamps, but we'll see how ambitious I feel. My current "guesstimate" is that these two boxes probably contain 100,000+ stamps, of which maybe 2000-3000 are individually worthwhile. The remainder are faulty or have catalogue values under $1.




Thanks for the info! I'll just show my ignorance outright (and I'm trying to learn) and ask "How do we know the cancel year is 1861, since all we can see is 'APR 8?'" Were these in use for only a very short time?

I did have my first batch out on ebay last week (stamps I had an easier time identifying) and noticed that a few good quality US earlies definitely do inspire a bit of a "feeding frenzy," with a few XF items going for 5x catalogue value (or more), in spite of a 1 cent start. I guess there's a lot of faulty early US offered, but not much quality stuff... unless it's those "graded" stamps with certificates, which I'm not sure I understand... why pay $200 for a stamp that catalogs 50 cents? But that's just me. Someone did pay $11.50 for this (CV 35 cents), which I just added as an afterthought, because of the cancel.



Anyway, I'm still muddling my way through-- will post more as I get to it! I really appreciate everyone's feedback and help!

~Peter

Extra fine Stamps will almost always bring in a premium as I for one will pay more just so I don't have to purchase the Stamp again when a finer copy becomes available. The Air Mail you show is almost perfect for the centering and the SON Cancel being 100% inside the design helps.

That is quite a stamp but the stain would have turned me off completely.

Peter, we only know it CAN'T be 1861, since April 1861 would be 5 months earlier than the stamps were issued in August of 1861 (earliest known use is August 17, a first-day cover for the rose pink, 64b, and FDC on August 17 for the 64 pink).

This stamp could be 1863, when there were some shades of pinkish rose known as "Commercial" pinks or "Brooklyn" pinks...both still #65.

Still a beauty-- there are a lot of these offered on ebay, which are not pink at all, as pink, and yours is prettier than most of them.

When you sell it, I would recommend that you describe it as "not being an 1861 cancellation, and not cancelled during the time of the the pinks, but looks very pink?" Someone will still buy it, hoping it is pink.

Or you could always spend $5.00 plus return postage to send it to Bill Weiss for an ID of the color. You never know, unless you can compare it to an identified pink or rose pink.

There are always chances that someone bought a stamp at a post office that had been sitting there for awhile, or that they had a stamp at home-- but 3c was a lot of money then, and it's fairly doubtful that most common people had extra postage laying around. And there was so much mail, that it's hard to imagine that any of the pinks were still in post offices in April of '62, if it is '62.

Good luck-- beautiful stamp. Hope this helps, Ray

Your instincts are good!

Paying 30 times catalogue value seems a little crazy to some, but this is a really exceptional stamp, and in real world terms, $11.50 will barely buy you lunch and a cup of coffee.

As for the stain? There's a pretty good chance it will wash out in warm water and mild detergent.

Brian