New Collector With First Questions (Sheet Stamps, Paper, Plate Varieties)

Hello everybody,

although I had an album when I was younger, I never was a big collector. Some weeks ago I was at a peddlers market and found and bought a thick stamp album (100 Pages) with duplicates of US stamps (many many thousands). And what should I say, since then I spend evenings and weekends with looking at stamps :). I discovered that the older US stamps (W-F and before) have so interesting colors, designs, papers, printing methods...

Since weeks also, I found this forum and read many threads and bookmarked the forum in my browser. There is so much knowledge (even experts) and help here - thank you already.

Well, I already saw some interesting and odd stamps in my album, so I will show you some the next days or weeks and ask things. Before I start making photos or scans, I have some questions already:

- about plate varieties: The book by French is the best, right? but there are probably no catalogue values? so how can I know how valuable a plate variety (like a double transfer) is? In the Scott Specialized there is often just a "---").

- why are there only mint or on-cover stamps of the 1033a silkote paper? Couldn't it have happened that someone took the stamp off the cover so that there are normal used copies?

- if I have a stamp with a straight edge with a line (W-Fs), is this always a sheet stamp, as in booklets there are no such lines?

- I read here (by Clark) that Kiusala believed that there could be a 596A. Why is this not sure, can't you see in US stamp printing history if this 596A is possible or not? What would be the parameters of a 596A (in theory)?

So much text :). In the future I will show also stamps.

The "Encyclopedia of Plate Varieties by Cloudy French is a fine general guide for BEP issued stamps, but it is limited both in time and in the depth of each issue. You will still need to investigate other sources for material not in that book.

If you are considering collecting plate varieties you will make lots of contacts in the hobby and that will gradually tell you what things are worth. However, I don't recommend that as a start in the hobby, because it presupposes a great deal of knowledge new collectors simply do not have. Joining the USSS (United States Stamp Society) would be a big help to showing you how in-depth study is done.

hello and thank you. Yes I noticed already that in US stamps there seems to be some study to be done. French's book could be a good start, but it's not easy to buy it. If there is no alternative, I will have to wait and hope that I can get a copy (for not more than 100 USD).

What I do at the moment is to look at all the thousands of stamps and make a second "my own" album with all the issues and the most beautiful stamps. While doing this with so many duplicated I wonder, of course, if there is something to look after. I have (since years actually) the Scott Specialized and there are some hints about double transfers and so on. But nearly never there is a real description or image. That's why I asked about French. For example, at this moment, I wonder how a "retouched toga button" looks like at the 528.

Also, I still wonder about my other questions, of course :). But perhaps those are "too much beginner", means they can't be answered in one sentence.

Hello everyone,

I guess my initial topic was a bit too diverse, sorry for the many different questions.

About the plate varieties I know now what to do (wait for French's book somewhere).
The 1033 thing I will ask in a better forum (US after 1940 stamps).
The 596A stamp will probably have the same parameters as the 596, I suppose.

So my remaining questions of my "opening and introducing posting" would be this one:

a. - if I have a stamp with a straight edge with a line (W-Fs), is this always a sheet stamp, as in booklets there are no such lines?

b. - how does a retouched toga button look like (approximately)

Let me know if my questions are wrong :).

Richard Kiusalas postulated a theory that sheet waste stamps originated from experiments with rotary perforator pin spacing. As turned out, the simple explanation was that sheets cut from broken rolls were perforated on flat plate perforators. If a perforator had been set up with experimental pin spacing like 11-72 x 11-73, the quantities of stamps that would have been produced would have been large compared to sheet waste and would have likely been found in all of the current rotary press 1 through 10 cent denominations.

Some of the questions raised here, like flat plate booklet pane layouts, are answered in the Scott United States Specialized Catalog. The rest can be answered by joining the American Philatelic Society for access to the American Philatelic Research Library and joining the United States Stamp Society and the United States Philatelic Classics Society for complete access their on-line journals.

Thank you. I just discovered those pages in my Specialized. Ok, so a guide line can appear also on booklet stamps, not only sheet stamps. I thought it would be only relevant for sheet stamps, as I only saw booklet panes photos without guide lines.

Thank you also for your answer about 596A. In your other posting I didn't get it if Kiusalas theory could be correct, or - as I read it now - has been disproven.

Yes, I will definitively have a look at the memberships you mention. I am just getting into the hobby.

Late to the conversation here. But thought I might pipe in as another "newbie". My reference library consists of Scott Specialized, Scott Identification Guide to U.S. Stamps, World Encyclopedia of Stamps & Stamp Collecting by Dr. James Mackay, Scott United States Stamp Catalogue, and finally Mystic's U.S. Stamp Catalogue. I even use Mystic's website to identify stamps or just to find the Scott number.

Between all of these, I have learned a great deal in a short period of time. Of course, these don't cover every bit of knowledge out there. So, today I joined this forum. The search for knowledge is all about the trip, not the final destination.

If you are interested in Classic United States stamps there are a number works available as electronic versions for download on the US Classics Society web site. Here is a link: http://www.uspcs.org/resource-cente...ic-library/. The best worls for a new collector would be the three volume Brookman set. These .pdfs have all been bookmarked by me for ease of usage. You can also find the four volume Johl set on the internet. I believe that Robert A. Siegel Auctions has them available for download, but they are not bookmarked.

The Silkotes do exist used, but would need a Westbrook, Maine cancellation and be used in the after December 17, 1954. The entire production of this stamp was sent to the Cumberland Mills station of the Westbrook, Maine post office according to Ken Lawrence in the book "Liberty Series".