Great Grandfather's US Stamp Collection

Sorry, I think I should have been more specific. I will be at GASS on Friday right on the dot from opening at 10:00 with my dad. I will be carrying my Great Grandfather's US album with one or two of my other Grandfather's International/Hungarian collection albums.

Did you enjoy the show? I had a fantastic time.

Yep, I met a few people I've talked with online! I visited various booths and talked with Miller Stamps from CT about the US collection. A guy named Wayne was helping Irving Miller and between the two of them I got some good advice I think about future purchases and maintaining the current collection. I also chatted with the Hungarian Society and US Philatelic and Philatelic Classic Societies that I think will help with more closely identifying the earlier stamps.

I got a nasty cold this week that may have been a souvenir unfortunately, but it was a very nice event. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I bought something I was looking for as I did notice there was a lot of dealers offering lots of material for sale.

Wayne Youngblood?

Why yes actually, that is the Wayne I talked to. He said he is from Wisconsin but was helping Irving as a favor. During my time spent with him I noticed a few other GASS participants chat with him briefly and asked about certain articles he was planning to write or has written. He seems to be well known. Very nice guy and he did not try to push me to sell or buy anything. I hope to remain in contact with him.

@PhilaFactor I forgot to respond to your Lincoln look-alike but that's also quite the 'beard' he's rocking too!

Wayne tends to be rather busy, so contact with him outside shows can be rather slow.

I didn't see a dedicated mass post on the 1861 perf issues, so I decided to place the various Scott 71's here. One appeared to be a pair in the past but was cut on the left side. Kind of an odd thing to do I think since it's imperf on that side now. The most well-centered is probably the far left one with the black cancel followed by the next one adjacent to the former with an upside down red PAID cancel (2nd from left).

The 30c stamp cut at left, including a significant portion of the stamp to the left is likely a right pane single, cut far into the left pane of the sheet. These sheets were produced with 200 stamps, cut into a left and right pane.

That does appear to be the case once pointed out.

Many of the stamps in the album appear genuine, but there are a few nestled in there that are very likely fake. Next to the fake 318 that was shown earlier are two Washinton 2c stamps that have been altered to look like a very, very rare Scott 321 and slightly less rare Scott 322.

The fake 321 has an odd cut on the right side while the fake 322 does not appear to be a Type II and has a yet unheard of used status

I went to the Spellman Museum today, and while I was visiting I made my first stamp purchases from their little store that sells duplicate stamps already in their collection. I don't know where I will mount them yet, so for now they will remain in their glassine evelopes, but they were fun little acquisitions after sorting through their early US stock.

I liked the blue target cancel on this Scott 63, and it is either from a middle position on the left plate or someone cut the perfs off on the right side


This Scott 73 Black Jack had a handwritten date that I thought was relatively unique and interesting. Handwriting in the 1800's was really an art I feel like.


This Scott 11a has a very dark green town cancel that stuck out to me. I don't recall many green ink cancels in the album so I decided to get it.


This Scott 10 was in decent shape with a blue cancel.



The most interesting purchase I think I made was this Franklin 1c stamp with a really large offset horizontal cut. I can't tell 100% since the bottom margins are missing, but I think it is a Scott 7


These were scanned with a new scanner I got today too, a Lide 400. So far it appears superior to the Brother printer/scanner I was using originally.

post edit fix: corrected the a designation in the 10 and 11a

11A (recut inner lines) not 11. True green cancels are uncommon but there are some "almost" shades that don't qualify. I am not qualified to have an opinion on yours.

Assuming the color is right, 10 (inner lines not recut) not 10A.

Manuscript cancel could be from smaller PO that didn't have a cancelling device. The market treats them as less desirable (at least off cover - on cover lack of a cancelling decice could indicate small PO = less common), but it is your collection, so go for it.

Ah, I flipped the a definition then of recut/not recut.Thanks for the clarification of the Washington 3c's!

The green ink is very dark, almost black, but multiple people at Spellman independently believed the cancel to be green. If in fact the ink isn't a true green as defined by catalogues, I paid very little for it in the end.

In addition, here's an example between the original scan I did of the collection and a scan from today.

Original scan


Scan from today

I attempted to plate the Scott 10, and if I understand it correctly I believe it is 4R1i with the upper guide dot in the top right and no recut vertical lines as seen on 10a.

The 11a is more difficult to determine as the characteristics I've positively identified produces a few hundred possibilities so far.