Syria , Swiss And Transvaal

Do you see anything interesting in this bunch?

Yes For a stamp collector every single one is interesting

Peter

Agree with Peter ,a lot of interesting stuff . Now it is your turn to spend time learning what makes those stamps interesting to look at and to have .

The Syrian material tells some of the story of the destruction of the Arab kingdom and the disastrous French mandate. Well worth reading around. Many of the Transvaal stamps are likely to be fakes/reprints - you often come across thise in old albums.

The French blue Sower stamp with the red surcharge can be collected with different varieties......an undertaking in itself.
http://www.semeuses.com/3_syrie.html

Thank you - bookmarked. Syrian stamps just got even more difficult!

Very nice collection to build on!

And not just Syrian stamps. There's a mountain of information about all sorts of the Semeuse stamps - I glanced at a couple of entries and now I'm having a sit down and a cup of tea to recuperate!

But fabulous information about a fascinating series. Thanks indeed for sharing this

Looking at the Transvaal (an area I collect) you haven't got anything outrageous there. It is extremely difficult to tell the reprints of the "arms" series from the originals unless you have a large number of stamps to compare them with. I usually assume they are all reprints. The 1d surcharge on 2d shows a nice "broken bar" variety. The 1d mail train / mail coach stamp is one of my favourite issues, and there are many nice and subtle plate varieties.

Good basis on which to build a nice collection, and most Transval from this period are very affordable.

Sorry, forgot to add that I'm happy to offer non-conditional advice on some of the fakes and forgeries! There are many..

The second sheet of Syria, 7th row, 1st stamp, is 4piastre on 75c "Ronsard" design and should therefore be SG 170 not SG 165 ( if these are SG refs). Nice but not rare. The overprints on Syria are very interesting but beware of eye-strain! I scan everything first, then examine at x5.

I'll join the chorus.........
Lovely pages, screaming for proper mounting and organisation.
These are the types of pages I gravitate to, at auction.