Great Grandfather's US Stamp Collection

To wrap up the year, I ended with a few great purchases. There is still some thought and decision making I need to make, but right now my interests are starting to coalesce towards a few areas of collecting.

They are used WF coils, 1847-1869 used stamps and postal history, and regional/state postal history where I live.

I am sure it could specialize further, or I can end up collecting all the material above, but this month I made a few nicer purchases.

In the First Sunday Stamp and Coin Show in Dedham MA this month, I acquired a set of RH White Encyclopedia of The Colors of US Postage Stamps Vol I-IV for a very reasonable price. Maybe in the future I will look for Vol V and the gum/paper book, but for now I am happy to have the rest of the issues for initial color ID'ing. I know this book is not a 100% accurate reference material due to age, but it is certainly a useful tool for initial decision making and whether to send a stamp in for a cert.

I also got a free copy of the Armstrong WF book with the White purchase. There are out of date items in the book, but it also has a good overview of WF that is still useful to reference. There are other reference materials I plan to purchase too to better educate myself, better appreciate philatelic items, and assist in selecting a collecting area(s).


Last week were two big Rumsey sales. I participated in the auction running from 9-11 December, and initially I was going to try to get a 244 $4 Columbian (sale 126 Lot 513) but it went beyond what I thought it was worth, and instead decided to get two covers I won, Sale 127 Lots 2051 and 2052.

They are quite scarce WF perf 12 coils on cover, a 351 5c vertical coil pair and two 355 5c horizontal coil singles with certs. Looking at the senders they appear to be old time stamp dealers, but the period use appears correct with the 8c reg + 2c letter rate for the 351 pair and 10c reg + 2c letter rate for the 355 singles. I spoke with some WF collectors before and after to better understand the material, and used WF perf 12 coils really fascinate me due to their scarcity (especially on cover). We'll see what the future holds for further acquisitions and specialization!

Oiman, congrats on all of your certs and recent purchases. It's nice to see someone enhancing an inherited collection.

IMO, the Armstrong WF book is a better reference than "The Experts Book" by Schmid. I've read the Armstrong book from cover to cover more than once, and not only is it easy reading, but it gives a great explanation on how the different print methods and different perfs evolved. It would be so great for someone to find one of those 6c WF coils!! Congrats on scoring the Armstrong!

Ray

Thanks Ray.

Besides the 16 I purchased and posted in the US stamp forum, I also got this used 293 $2 Trans-Mississippi to complete the series. It came with a 2022 PSE ungraded cert (1414258) that noted it being sound, but I am curious about the top right perf. It may be a scuff or paper inclusion, but the rear doesn't appear to show a fold even when checking in fluid. The auction description didn't note anything either.

Looking very closely at the cert pic it does appear very faintly in the image, so I am curious if this is a fault (or not) big enough to mention, or if it can be attributed to it being used and remain omitted. Viewing it in person is much harder to detect even with magnification and appears accentuated under a scan. I'm happy with the stamp regardless, and this is more of me better understanding condition

I think I answered my own question. Looking at PSE's grading criteria it appears they won't mention very minor faults on the cert they issue (whether it's a fold, scrape, or inclusion). It would only impact the grade if the stamp was graded, so if this was graded 90, 5 points would be subtracted without noting the fault.

a rather tiny "fault" on a very attractive stamp
could it be an internal inclusion? (it would show up with backlighting)

There appears to be a trace of the guideline on a perf in lower left. I learned the hard way that, for some reason, guidelines will knock it down one grade (PF does this, don't know about PSE). However showing on one perf shouldn't matter (I think).

@eyeonwall that's a possibility. It's difficult enough even using magnification with my limited experience for me to judge what it is. It's essentially invisible when looking at it in the album

@canyoneer looking at the PSE grading guide it dings it as an Extremely Minor Fault if the guideline is on perf tips of one side. I interpret it it as a distinct line being fully visible on the whole row of perfs to fulfill that fault definition. I agree with you; I'm doubtful a sliver on one or two perfs would count, but who am I to say that's true?

I suppose if I really wanted to find out I'd send it in for a graded cert. I am not concerned personally from a visual opinion and I don't plan to sell this stamp. It already has a clean cert, and I believe I got the stamp for a fair price regardless.

It's been a few months! I have gone to a few shows and also have been active in my other hobbies. However Boston 2026 is arriving in just a few weeks. I plan to be there for most of the week to meet people and see the many exhibits and societies that will attend alongside me.

I also wanted to show this cover I got recently. It is among the highest domestic rates I've seen with mixed franking (69 and a strip of 3 113) to pay 6x the 2c letter rate from Harrisburg PA to Adrian MI.

looking at the PSE grading guide it dings it as an Extremely Minor Fault if the guideline is on perf tips of one side.

This puzzles me to no end:
What idiot decided that layout lines are "a fault"?
They are there for a reason and have nothing to do with faults....

Fantastic cover!

"This puzzles me to no end:
What idiot decided that layout lines are "a fault"?
They are there for a reason and have nothing to do with faults...."

Not a fault, but visually distracting to some.

I sent out some more items for certifying to the PF and these Richard Doporto certs. The latter probably won't return for at least a month but Doporto had a very quick turnaround, taking one week from receipt to shipping back out from CA back to New England! I was pretty confident the pencil notation stating the plate positions on the rear of the two strips of 3 (II-IIIa-II and strip of 3 II), but I wanted to have certainty. I also got a fresh cert on a 21 type III on cover I bought at the Boston 2026 show from Rumsey as its prior cert was from 1980, ex Pietro Provera.











I also placed an item on extension for the first time. I won a bid at a Kelleher auction for a double recut Scott 34 and decided a I wanted a fresh cert, which will also be from PF. I hope it comes back clean as the lot description stated!

That is a darn pretty #34. With a nice red cancel that is not too heavy to obscure the design. Does this complete your set of the 10-cent greens with red cancels?

Thank you,

It does not complete the set of 5. I started out with a Type II, Type III, and Type V (Scott 32, 33, 35). I have been a little selective in that I am specifically only trying to get a red cds for the missing 31 and 34, the latter which I hope is fulfilled with this one from Kelleher if the cert is clean. This would make all the 10c stamps consistent since I started out with the three stamps having a red cds.

The 35 in particular is really nice in centering and is one of the stamps I sent for a cert. If the one odd looking perf on the left margin dings the grade or causes no grade to be given I'm fine with that possibility as it still looks great regardless.

I was gobsmacked at how quick the PF got back to me. They received my stamps on 3 June and they shipped them out last Friday 12 June. I actually called them to ask why it was so quick, and they said sometimes the stamps are able to be quickly certified if they are easily checked and a consensus is reached quickly among expertisers.

Among the most surprising aspects was my $3 Columbian. Someone actually added a fake cds to a genuine stamp. Really curious as to why that happened but I'll hold onto it as an oddity. I won't hold Kelleher hostage over it since it was sold as is with faults, but it does mean I'll be looking for another 243 with a town cds!

A few stamps were submitted just to see if they graded decently high, in particular the 35 and 208. They looked really great. The 35 is from the original great grandfather collection and the 208 was a Walter Kasell purchase.

I resubmitted the $2 Transmississippi and it came back as a VF 80. I'm satisfied with that.

I submitted multiple 24c 1861 series stamps to have certified color references, and one of them came back as a changling (I thought it was a 78b gray). It's all good stuff to have for future checks.

The last item was a 349 Line Pair I previously thought was faked, but after I started reading more about WF I realized that if the guide line was genuine then it was likely the pair was genuine too if the perforations were real as they cannot be faked by trimming perforations off a stamp like a 332 since the sheets were cut up on those guide lines before getting released to the public. I took another look at the specimen, checked the guide line and noted how it slightly bent as coils sometimes do from being wound up. Only a booklet could be used to fake the pair with a real guide line but the watermark checked passed this step with flying colors (since booklet stamps have the watermark oriented differently from real coils).

I will wrap up this post with the fact I finally got insurance for the collection. I tried reaching out to Brown and Brown through the APS a year ago, but they never got back to me. Turns out they were in the process of getting purchased at that time, and I managed to speak with them at Boston 2026 and submit an application. I am pleased at how fast they processed the form. The annual insurance rate is good too.