Scott # 10 & # 182

Busted out my Scott's Minuteman Stamp Album that I haven't touched in 18 years. Have decided to get back in to collecting. My two oldest stamps are:

a Scott's # 10



and Scott's # 182



Any comments would be appreciated.

your 10 is a 26. Scott catalog number 10 is an imperforate stamp issued in 1851. Perforations were added to US stamps in 1857 and the resulting perforated stamps are given different numbers. Someone with more knowledge and skill in such matters can probably tell you which of the plates printed the stamp and what position on the plate it came from (from recutting marks and other little flyspeck characteristics).

Be careful of the bottom left corner where it is folded over. You don't want it to come off (missing corner is worse than folded corner).

Thanks for the info. I identified it as a #10 a looong time ago. I still need to order some reference material so I can study these some more. I'm in the process of photographing what I have right now so that I can catalog them better later.