Has Anyone On The Board Completed A Scott National Album?

I'll start by saying I'm a new collector, so I realize this may be a completely idiotic question. However, has anyone on the board ever completed a Scott National Album (say through 1960)? This would just be regular issue postage stamps and not back of the book or anything like that. Are there any particular stoppers in the album that are simply too rare or costly (e.g., over 10K) to obtain? Thanks!

I think that Antonius Ra (Mitchell Ward) may have and if not then he's gotta be close to it!

The difference between "almost filling" and completely filling the Scott National is exponential- almost straight up in cost for those last goodies.

A few "hard to fill" spaces....

1867 Scott 85A 1c blue "Franklin" Z. Grill $3,000,000
There are only two examples known....

Air Post 1918 Scott C3a 24c carmine rose & blue "Curtiss Jenny"
Center Inverted, Never hinged $1,000,000 ( A bargain!)

I think William Gross (of PIMCO fame) has completed all of the "spaces" ( I could stand corrected.)

Now, if one subscribes to a certain sliding morality, I do offer a solution...

(Humor alert- this was posted on April 1 )

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...-dollar.html

Hi and welcome glchen, I have mentally filled those spots. But I find the latest fun in sorting thru all the boxes I have acquired thru the years, hoping to find that rare stamp..but no luck yet. You might as well start filling the album. As soon as I get 50 posts and I'm worthy. I will be able to trade with those "who need what I have" and "have what I need". No question out here is idiotic, you will find responses from this forum that will help clarify things which you don't know about... Gary

I have been known to print out a stamp & place it in the required spot. Even with my cheap inkjet, a bit of sharpening, clarifying, brightening etc of the largest pic I can find & voila, I have BOTH Franklin Z Grills

Thanks for the feedback. Good to know these things. Maybe I'll put the recently issued $2 inverted jenny and put it in the place of the original. Not sure what I'll do w/ the grills.

I'm probably crazy, but lately I've been "collecting" stamp albums, and not many stamps yet. I recently purchased a used Davo USA Vol 1 from ebay, and I have very worn Scott National in addition to a Mystic. (I think I also have a Minuteman album from when I was a kid and used to collect.) The Davo is really nice album. I'm thinking of putting my MNH / OG in that album, and the cancels in the worn Scott National. I'm even thinking of picking up another better looking used Scott National for Mint, but hinged or no gum stamps.

Robert Zoellner is consider to have been the first to do so. His collection was sold by Siegel in 1998. At that sale, Mystic bought the 1c Z Grill for close to $1,000,000. A few years later, Bill Gross traded his plate block of the inverted Jenny, for which he paid $3.4 Million, for that stamp, completing his collection.
The catalog of the Zoellner auction is on the Siegel website at: http://www.siegelauctions.com/dynam...?sale_no=804

You can download the entire 400-page catalog in .pdf form on that page. It is a great reference, as it includes introductions to each of the different issues, descriptions of each stamp, and census information on the rarest of them (as of 1998). Siegel updates the census information on their website on an ongoing basis.

The introduction to the catalog, where Scott Trepel tells the story of the assembly of the collection can also be read online at: http://www.siegelauctions.com/1998/...os/intro.htm

So, the answer to your question is 2 - Zoellner and Gross (though some may add Miller, whose collection in the 1920s was considered complete at the time).

Edited to add: Catalog can also be found on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Publication...nkw=zoellner

glchen: When you note that you collect albums are you referring to JUST the album sans stamps?? I acquired a 5 Volume Schaubeks Permanent Album, 1920. The text is German, BW illustrated and even though old and shows age wear, would be great for classic collections.

Thanks Chip, very interesting. As a relative newbie, I didn't know about the rarity of the z grills. You inspired me to read more about them.

With only 2 known 1 cent Z grills, as long as one stays with the Miller collection at the New York public library, there can be only one complete collection at any given time. Assuming they can also lay their hands on one of the 2 existing Lincoln Z grills, among others.