Greetings! My Father's Early US Collection. Seeking Council.

Hello all from California! I have been a coin collector for a few years, and am known under this same username in the coin community forum. My father passed away about a year ago, and he was an extremely avid stamp collector. He specialized in Ryukyu Islands which makes up the majority of his collection...but he also has a fairly extensive US collection. I have been selling Ryukyus on ebay for a while now, and am just starting to delve into the US material, as I realize there is some value here.

US looks challenging to me, because of all the subtle differences between stamps that have huge value changes. He has a complete set of mint airmails, many of the early used stamps, many mint commemoratives....and he also has some serious collections of some of the "back of the book" material. I will want to focus on some of the "Newspaper and Periodical" stuff, and try to figure out what some of these are worth. It looks like a lot of them have a high cat value(though I realize in this market, 30-50% of cat is more realistic). Some of them have the scott number written on back(which helps me a lot)....does this hurt the value? Here are a couple of his collection. Is anyone familiar with how to determine which series these are in(other than the obvious number in the back in this case)? I see "hard" vs. "soft paper in Scott, but I am still having a hard time...and some of them catalogue over $1k



He also has a used #39, which by reading previous posts, I am learning that the cancels may be counterfeitted on mint stamps. I assume my dad knew what he was doing, but I will probably send it in to be sure. How would it grade? Here is a scan of it



Here is a scan of a few of our early material.


Anyways, my goal will be to sell most of it for my mom, but she said I can keep stuff I am interested in collecting(I have yet to determine what that is). I think I like the commemoratives and airmails, they are easy. I am hoping I can seek advice from you guys regarding this material, as I have a lot more material I will need to ask about. I know Ryukyu, but US is a whole different animal....much more complicated.

Johnny

I'm going to use a reply from an earlier post.

90cent, looks to be Scott# 39, value for this one is actually worth more used. Needs to be verified as an authentic postal cancel.


Good example below why you should have these looked at.
The obtaining of a certificate from the expertization process is an assurance as to the condition, quality, and genuineness of a philatelic item based on it being "reviewed" by at least three philatelic experts. The "certificate" may implicitly suggest an acknowledgement to collectors, dealers and auction houses that this item is the real "cookie" and may be "special" or "valuable." Most higher quality or higher value stamps and covers should have a certificate, otherwise it is "buyer beware" and "buyer could be sorry." It is usually understood that a stamp or cover accompanied by a PF certificate, which is less than five years old, should not be returned except for extenuating circumstances. This rule is usually found in the "conditions of sale" included with every auction catalogue.

So the "certificate" gives the stamp or cover a "respected blessing" by nature of its having been carefully examined by philatelic experts who do this for a living. It also may have been reviewed by "consultants" whose opinions are recognized as being highly respected in the philatelic community. There is always the human element that mistakes can be made and new information or new standards could result in a change of opinion, but for most cases the certificate will be correct.

The value of the item will depend on what is stated in the certificate. For instance, a stamp which appears to be an unused ten-cent 1847, Scott number 2 may not be worth anything close to its Scott Catalogue value of $35,000.00 especially if it is certified as a used example with a removed cancellation, re-gummed, with a repaired tear and a filled thin. A U.S. #2 with this on its certificate would most certainly be worth less than $100.00.

Welcome. I'm not the person to talk to about most U.S. issues, but now that you've said hello, you might want to ask specific questions in separate topics. That might get more eyeballs, especially if you craft good titles.

Best of luck with your endeavor.

Hi Johnny54321, From just the few pictures I see I would suggest you talk locally to a member of a stamp club if you can find one in your area. Hands on expertise is probably better than scanning pictures especially when it comes to older stamps. I love the 1847 envelope!

It looks like a very nice collection. Thanks for posting the pics. I posted regarding the #39 in your other thread.

The 5c Franklins are very nice. Strange that the top 5c Franklin would have both a pen cancel and hand cancel. Hard to tell from the pic, but it appears the other 5c Franklin is not tied to the cover by the hand cancel -- see if the right side of the hand cancel also continues onto the cover.

Closeup of the stamp.