US Coil Stamp Leaders And Trailers

Modern German coils have colored leaders and are collectible by color.

I have seen several listings on eBay for coil leaders and ends selling for significant prices.
I have a few of these in my collection but cannot find any kind of catalog showing any information on them, including prices.
I have my stamp collection insured and would like to know if there is any legitimate catalog listing prices for coil leaders or ends so I know the value to insure this part of my collection.
Any info on this is appreciated.

I am not aware of a recent catalog for US coil stamps and leaders. I have hundreds of them now and have assigned values in my group based only upon my own casual observations of market values.

The following is my opinion in regard to values. First, leaders have a greater demand than trailers and therefore leaders can bring about 50% more then the same issue on a trailer. I collect and present them as pairs whenever I can, even if they are not 'matched'. (In other words, the leader and trailer were not originally together on same roll.) For me, I am willing to pay a premium for matched pairs (25% or more).

I also think that the number of stamps on a leader or trailer can increase the market value (more stamp = more value).

Also note that there are a number of differences between the leaders. Leader paper types and the imprints can influence the market values. The 1938 Prexies for example, the early printings have manila paper while the later printings are a white paper. There can be a number of differences on the imprints included fonts used, and most certainly the roll size. For example, in my experience, leaders marking a roll of 500 stamps tend to be the most common. Leaders from rolls of 3000 and 5000 are much less common for most issues. But these imprints are something that many people have little knowledge so eBay listings tend to not reflect a lot of value difference for these collectibles.

Lastly, any partial leader or trailer on cover demands a significant premium. Many of the more common ones can drive the price of a cover to the $75-$100 range.
Don

Partial leader on out of period 486 use.

Thanks for the info 51studebaker. You mentioned that the leaders are about 50% more in value than the ends. Do you have any general rule of thumb as to calculating the value of ends or leaders? For example, an end is maybe a certain percent more than the listed catalog value of a regular stamp, pair, etc. and then the leader is 50% than that?
I made a recent purchase of 140+ leader and end coils off of eBay for $300 and would like to have a good way of valuing this for insurance purposes once I get them into my collection.

I have posted some pages that include 'catalog value' here
https://stampsmarter.org/learning/a...railers.html

NOTE: The values on those pages would be about right for an insurance valuation. In other words, like most catalog values, these do not reflect market values. I would guess that what a dealer would pay is a fraction (10% - 50%?) of the values shown. And if sold as a group, I think that the market values would also be in the 10% - 50% range.

I forgot to previously mention that Leaders and Coils that include line pairs/line stamp tend to command a premium.
Don

Thank you Don for your reply; this is very helpful.
I see you have a link to Stamp Smarter; is this your site? I have been using it for some time but have only recently discovered Stamp Community Family.
If Stamp Smarter is your site, I have to say thank you very much for creating it; it has been exceptionally helpful in furthering my understanding of US stamps - especially in identifying banknotes and Washington/Franklins.

Yes, thank you for the kind words.
https://stampsmarter.org/Connect/aboutme.html
Don