My GB Album Journey - Novice Version :)

That seems to be a hereditary condition.

Nigelc managed to post a link to the Stoneham Catalogue I mentioned earlier. I expect you will like it.

http://goscf.com/t/54589&whichpage=29#682570

Awesome thank you! It has been a nightmare week in Texas for many of us. I'm hoping to dig into my stamps today and finally relax. Hopeful that our mail will finally be delivered as well (it has been 5 days of no mail)- I have quite a few stamps coming :)

It was in the news here. I imagined sitting in the dark would not be ideal for philatelic activities.

I guess you know it is bad when they start to cross the Mexican border in a southern direction.

New Page completed. I really love those Royal Arms stamps. a few other additions. going to be looking into UV light as I am still unable to be sure on the Phosphor lines no matter how many angles and views I try.

I got a uv light to detect phosphors and have not found it much use on British stamps, My lights are not high end all singing all dancing types but they pick up very few that I can't see by eye. spotting phosphors by eye is a knack one acquires with practice. You kepp tilting the stamp so it is more or less parallel with aline between your eye and a light buldb then suddenly hey presto you start seeing phosphors. my favourite bricks and mortar stamp dealer sells high end uv lamps but says quite oenly that they are not a foolproff way of detecting phosphors and he doesn't universally recommend them. Don't forget that on used stamps the phosphor can easily get washed off during soaking.

Very nice Nora.

I agree that after some practice, you will get the hang of spotting phosphor bars without a uv-lamp. From the early 1960s until 1967, most commemorative stamps were printed both with and without phosphor bars. Knowing how to spot them is helpful as you otherwise might miss out on interesting varieties. From 1968 until the early 1970s, all commemoratives had phosphor bars. So, those are good to practise on. After that period, phosphor was used, but not always applied as bars. It is correct that soaking can affect the phosphor.

Many of the post-1967 stamps exist with phosphor omitted. Some are not even very rare.

If using a uv-lamp, you need a shortwave type for stamps British stamps up to ca. 1995. An ordinary blacklight or longwave uv-lamp will be of little or no use. You, also, should use it in a dark place. Hold the light over the stamps for at least 10 seconds before switching off the lamp to see the afterglow.

Wildings and Machins come with a range of phosphors. The lamp is required if you want to distinguish the B1, B2 and B3 phosphors used on Wildings and B1, B3, contaminated B3 (Jet) and A phosphors on Machins.

I collect mint stamps and rarely have problems with uv-light.

some lovely stamps that I have added - this home remodel is truly a challenge. I need to channel the patience I have to categorize and mount stamps to help me survive the frustrations and challenges of having a torn up home.

Very nice Nora,

You already have a complete basic set of the low values of Edward VII and a high value. A nice addition would be the overprints. They exist for official use, British Post Offices in the Ottoman Empire (Levant), and the Morocco Agencies.

Your "Jubilees" also are coming along nicely. That 1/2d from 1900 at the bottom looks very blue. The stamp was printed in blue green. The change from the original vermilion was due to UPU regulations for international mail. This value required a greenish colour. A yellow zinc-chromate pigment was used. This is soluble in water and cause the colour to change from greenish blue to blue. For a long time, SG catalogued this as a blue stamp, but it deleted the listing when they had proof it was a colour changeling. By the way: Jubilees with overprints in Ottoman currency and official overprints also exist.

Finally back and ready to enjoy and add to my collections. :) Nora.

Wondered where you'd been - I hope you and your family are well.

Welcome back Nora. I, also, wondered where you had gone. Hope you are well.

Thanks. I've really missed you guys and the forum. The family is very well with working mom life keeping me ultra busy. Unfortunately my plans to either win the lottery or retire in my 40s have not come to fruition (ha, jk). Glad to have some time now to jump back into my stamp passions.

It's actually very easy to retire in your 40s... All you have to do is give up eating and sleeping in a room. :)

Nora,The collection is looking good. Don't despair of ever getting the pound stamps, 20 years ago I thought I'd never get the £1.00 stamps. I got the green ones for a little over a £100 each though my ke7 £1.00 has a blue pencil mark that someone tried to remove, and the other has a few pulled perforations.
How do you get on identifying all the different shades of king George the 5th halfpenny and penny stamps?