New Member, Old Collection.

Hello all and thanks for letting me be a part of this community.

I'm AEV. I recently was given my late grandfather's Scott Stamp & Coin Co. International Postage Stamp album, Jr. Edition (blue with red binding) and am hoping to find a reputable stamp appraiser in the Virginia/DC/Maryland area so I can get them COA'd. *I live near Richmond.

Some of the stamps are still attached by their tabs in the book, some were loose. The book was kept in a climate controlled basement for 30+ years and some of them are in amazing shape. Even the ones that were not tab-attached, its unreal how great they look.

Examples:
set of the Pony Express stamps, 80th Anniversary 1860-1940 4 stamps un cut with the perforation piece still attached.

set of Stephen Watts Kearny Expedition Entry into Santa Fe 1846-1946 4 stamps un cut with the perforation piece still attached.

2 sets of unused Francobolli Dello Stato Della Citta Del Vaticano. (each book has 10 unused stamps in them)

The British Empire Coronation stamp sets from 1937, need to see if all of the sets are here for each country ( there are 3 diff colored stamps in each set), looks like they might in fact all be here, need to double check.

The book is not 100% complete, but does have stamps that are in amazing condition. Some processed, some unprocessed.

Any ideas would be helpful and appreciated. I have been reading some of the threads and want to make sure I enter this community on the right foot.

Best,

AEV

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Welcome to SC AEV ! COA'd means what ?
Enjoy the Forum

Maryland Stamps & Coins has a shop in Bethesda, Maryland.

Hello. The complete 1937 Coronation group would probably go for around £50-60 at auction here. There are a lot of these around.

Welcome, AEV.

Do you want to sell the stamps, or do you want to collect? Collecting is a lot of fun.

I was in a position similar to yours three years ago, with an inherited collection and stamps I collected as a kid. I'm pretty seriously into it now and enjoy it very much. And the experienced old hands here are tremendously helpful.

Don

AEV, do you know if your grandfather belonged to any philatelic organizations? If so, that might be a place to go for advice. The American Philatelic Society has an estate planning service, for example. You might also check out the Greater Richmond Stamp Club (http://www.grstampclub.org/home).

Book is an album. Tabs are hinges. Perforation piece is a plate number block of 4. Processed is cancelled.

CoA is a Certificate of Authenticity usually used for single items such as art work, sports items but I have never heard of one for a stamp collection.

Presumably by "CoA", you mean expertised. But that's not necessary for the average stamp collection, but rather for the scarcer or more contentious individual item.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome everyone. I collect other things and was really not trying to get into stamp collecting, so yes I am trying to sell them.

Thank you Randy for the breakdown with the terminology, appreciate it! Can stamps be graded like comic books, baseball cards?

Wasn't sure if that adds value or not. I might stop by the Richmond stamp club, thanks for the information.