Newbie Who Inherited A Stamp Collection - Is This A Possible 423d?

Hi there,

I'm a brand new member with a probably oft heard story - I inherited a stamp collection. I'm trying to research and learn but I live in a fairly rural area and there aren't any stamp collecting groups anywhere near me. I'd like to post a few pictures of stamps that I've come across to get the group's opinions, if that's OK. The collection has stamps from all over - both hinge-mounted and loose including a shoebox of loose, mixed stamps. I think it'll take me years to go through this. :) The pic is one of the stamps that I came across and I'm wondering - is it a 423D?

Hi Dicentra, and welcome to the forum. Your picture is a bit too small for proper identification, but please try http://stampsmarter.com and click on the Washington / Franklin link. It is the easiest way to identify your stamp.

Peter

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the welcome! I tried the link you posted above but I got a bit confused on counting the perfs and on identifying watermarks. I think my stamp has 10 perfs horizontally and 12 perfs vertically but I'm not sure whether to count the perfs at the corners as horizontal or vertical. I'm also not sure what watermarks on stamps look like. I know - I'm probably being a complete pain being so new to this - mea culpa! I'll try attaching a slightly larger picture. If someone could help me on the counting of the perfs and/or learning about watermarks, that would be wonderful. Links to good articles and/or websites would be fantastic!

Hi Dicentra

Perfs aren't measured by counting the total # of them on a stamp which is what it appears you are doing. It's actually the # of perforations in 2 centimeters.

However, it's much easier to use a gauge to check perfs.

Here's an article about them:

http://www.kenmorestamp.com/perforation-gauge-cms

I think that this is a U.S. Scott # 543

Thanks for the link and instructions on how to measure perfs, Mike. That's how new to this I am - I have no idea what I'm doing. :)

The collection I inherited was my grandmother's and she apparently inherited it from her father. My grandmother came to Canada in 1958 from Germany so there are quite a few German stamps in the collection. Someday, I hope to have this all sorted out, at the very least. Identification of individual stamps is probably the last thing I should be worried about. :)

Thanks for the help, everyone!

We'll be very interested in seeing your stamps over the next few weeks (or even months.) We're here to help.

So glad I found this community - and so, so, so glad for the offers of help! My grandmother actually passed away when I was 15 (I'm now 44) and this collection has been sitting on my shelves since then. I've always meant to try to make heads or tails of the collection but every time I looked at it, it just seemed too overwhelming so I'd put it back on the shelves. :) Some of the stamps are hinged in books (which I know is a no-no) but many are loose. She does have some in books that have rows of clear channels to put the stamps behind - I think they're called stockbooks? Her eyesight also wasn't the best so even when she had sorted and mounted stamps, she sometimes mis-sorted stamps so I'm finding random mis-sorted stamps mounted everywhere. This is going to be a massive job. There has to be thousands and thousands of stamps here. :)

In regards to the loose stamps in envelopes - some of the loose stamps are stuck together. What's the best way of separating them? Is it something I should even attempt?

Scott #543

As a general rule, one can soak stamps in lukewarm distilled water to separate those that have become stuck together. The more recently released self-adhesive stamps are another matter entirely.

Thanks for the separation tip, KGB. These are all older, gummed stamps. Would I then let the stamps air dry? Would they have to be weighted down while they dried so they don't curl?

Well, I let them air dry and press them in books after they are completely dry. My only concern is remembering in what books I have placed the stamps!

Welcome to the group! I started here ... golly, nearly 8 years ago now under similar circumstances, and there is still so very much to learn.
Use the search on this site, for there is a world of information on absolutely everything!

For drying and pressing soaked stamps, I absolutely love this stamp press:

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/whi...p-press.html

Matt

Thanks for all the replies, folks! I've started by sorting all the envelopes full of mixed-up stamps into countries. Still working on the stamps with Cyrillic, Arabic, or Asian lettering. After that, I thought I'd pick a country and go through all of grandma's albums and gather together all stamps from that country into one place and then work on ordering them by sets and then chronologically. I'm enjoying the organizing. :)

For identifying foreign stamps that don't have any English characters, a stamp identifier is very useful. Here is a link to listings of "the Stamp Finder" on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...der&_sacat=0