My GB Album Journey - Novice Version :)

Thank you Noocassel. Yes a lot of stamps out of my reach - but I am always on the look out and when I find a "high" value that has nice color, decent centering and a reasonable price I try to save up a bit (or cut something out) and slowly add piece by piece. It has been a while since I delved in - I have a lot to refresh that is for sure. On the different shades - I am sure I have errors, but I do my best and ask a lot of questions - you guys have helped me a great deal. And I am happy to say, I finally!! was able to see the phosphor lines on a few stamps that my Dad gave me from an old collection he found when cleaning up his house for a remodel :).

That is great. Before you know it, you get addicted to phosphor. You will look out for a long-wave and short-wave uv lamp and check for the different coloured phosphor reactions, bar widths, short bars, misplaced bars, etc. And before you know it, you will have many albums of them.

EDIT - I think I need to move 62 over to the left - Gray spot. Oops. Will move and reload.

A couple additions to the slowly growing GB Album.

You may be right. Your six pence stamp with plate nr. 16 is a "grey" stamp. There also is a "buff" one that always has plate nr. 13 (that plate also exists as "grey"). Plate 16 was put to press in October 1874.

Nice EVII high value there.

Always on the hunt for treasures that I can afford. New one that came in today. I think it is a nice representation of sc#96 especially for what I paid... Hoping everything looks legit. Truly enjoy GB stamp collecting. Any insight on the postmark is always appreciated :)

LOMBARD ST BO EC
BO = Branch Office
EC = East Central (London)

Usage of hammer
BETWEEN 16th February 1900 to 19th March 1902

BETWEEN 20th September 1893 to 24th March 1900
Code at top DT (Month before Day)

2 shillings and sixpence (2/6d) colloquially known as "Half a Crown"

Cannot read your year date, if 02, the this is LKU = Last Known usage.

Lombard Street
Quite a famous Post Office, boasts an array of cancelling hammers over the years

Thanks Rod what exactly do you mean by usage of hammer 16 Feb….as in stamped postmark between those dates?

That is the dates known, when the cancelling hammer was in use
at the Post Office.

After the last date it may have been replaced, damaged, or removed from use, in favour of a newer model.

It MAY have been used later, but Philatelists have not recorded any
later date, THUS FAR.
If your date was 1902, then you would have a new discovery .
(For the database)

The CDS (Circular Date Stamp) LOMBARD ST BO EC
Was used for 8 years 1882 to 1900
During that 8 years 10 differing known hammers were used.

That's nearly 1 new hammer a year, which explains how busy the Post Office was.

Your code DT came in 2 designs "Month before day" and "Day before Month"

Ooops
copied the wrong dates..see update

Back at it. Still in love with these early GB stamps. A few new additions - I feel confident one is scott 51 red violet - it also has no hyphen after 6. also one new added to QV Jubilee issues - 9 down, three to go :)

Just above the "O" in the lower left corner is the plate number "8." It only exists with watermark "Spray of Rose."

The plate was put to press on 18-12-1868 and the stamps issued from 8 March 1869.

SG specialised recognises two colours: dull violet only from plate 8, SG 108, and mauve from plates 8, 9 and 10, SG109. Stamps from plate 10 were never issued in the normal way. With the caveat that identifying colours from pictures on the web is never reliable, I think you nailed it: quite a reddish violet colour.

I can fill in a few gaps for you, Senora. Sending you an email.

I am afraid, very afraid - ha. Time to start reading - these are daunting. My Dad was over recently and said here I found these stamps hidden away (most on paper). These are not all of them- but since my Dad gave them to me, I figured I would soak and try to figure out best way to catalogue and display (yes I know these are extremely common). I am going to dive into the many threads on here on how best to identify at the simplest level- at first glance in my catalogue, I was already confused. Most of these are from the 70s. Nora.

I hope all are doing and feeling well.

Nora,

The dated can cellations can help identifying the stamps. Since these are used, you won't be able to identify by gum. You need at least a long-wave uv- lamp to identify certain papers. The phosphor bars, normally, are not too difficult to see. However, there are different types of phosphor you can only identify with a uv-lamp. For the stamps issued before 1995, that would require a short-wave uv-lamp.

This is a specialised catalogue of Machin stamps. The introductions to the chapters will give guidance:
http://connoisseurcatalogue.net/catalogue.htm