I Inherited Grandfather's World Stamp Collection, Help?

Ah, the fun begins.

Now you need an atlas and old maps. Some countries no longer exist or have changed names. Some towns have changed names.

Some nice cancels there.

I like the Spain (Espana) Goya stamp. That's been on SCF before I think, maybe in the art topic thread?

You need a translator too probably, I know I do at times. Some countries you get to recognize like Magyar Posta is Hungary Post, I think Magyars were the people, the horseman, of Hungary.

Sverige is Sweden, you have some Czechoslovakia stamps (now two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), I think that cancel you mentioned is Karlsbad (Baden) in Baden Germany on a Hungary stamp (maybe?) under the Austrian Empire. Big guess there. Good to post that so the older Europe pros can see it and tell you.

A nice scan is the best thing for stamps. Flatbed scanner or one of those pull-through jobs but the stamps should be on a black-background plastic page for those, or for the flatbeds too I suppose.

The rectangular stamp you have laid down sideways with a rectangular luggage cancel is a Belgium Railway Parcel Post stamp and some of these come with hexagonal cancels too, the older stamps have locomotives on them. In Scott catalog but in the 'back of the book' after the regular postal stamps, in with airmails, special deliveries, registration, etc. I collect the hex cancels (so far).

Some of these I have not seen before now (well, there are a lot of stamps out there). The 8-sided (octagonal) Austria (Oesterreich) under German rule or influence (swastika) and with the Viking ship is amazing. I'd like to see a close-up of that sometime, I think there is a thread on here about Viking ships or Vikings)

Little tiny Russia stamp off to the left, black on yellow, with double eagles and posthorns (horns blown by the post riders when they arrived in a town with the post (mail)) and maybe thunderbolts (lightening bolts) drawn threw the horns, hard to see, need a close up to be sure. (These stamps come/came with or without the thunderbolts.)

That's all from me for now. And I hardly known anything. Just imagine.

Thanks again Puzzler, I'll get hold of some maps online. I'm sure this goes without saying, but just googling the words on the stamps has helped a lot too. I may not always be able to make sense of it, but still. Also, some things I just can't Google because of the lettering, but I'm sure I'll get that later. Here are three individual scans of three you pointed out just for you to see closer if you want. I'm sorry to make this post so short but I need to take off and get ready for work. Time is slipping away!







I have a quick question. Do the postmark/cancel marks matter in terms of collecting or value? For example, are some stamps, if they are monetarily worthless, made to be worth more with certain types of postmark/cancel marks? Do some people actually collect mainly for those marks? Or is it mainly a mixture of the two together more than anything?

Absolutely they do. Certain postmarks can take a minimum value stamp and add nice value to it. Postmark collectors are every bit as fanatical as any other specialty collector.

That's very helpful to know, thanks. What is the difference between a genuine postal cancel and a fiscal/tax cancel mark? I have a few, not many but a very few, that have tiny pinholes on the stamp. Are those fiscal/tax marks?

I believe the tiny pinhole ones are called Perfins (Perforated initials) do these pinholes form letters ?

I would have to check when I get home, but I believe they do. The ones with the holes, it isn't just one or two, it's a whole bunch in some sort of shape or image.

For more information on Perfins, see here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfin

Interesting. So they used to be considered damage, and now it's going the other way. How odd. I'll have to pick those out and keep them separate as well.

There is no such thing as a stupid question, every single one of us was once in your shoes, trying to learn about stamp collecting and having many, many more question than answers. Just ask away, people here are more than happy to let you know what they can and I'm sure we'll all learn from each other.

That's the #1 reason to belong to a good forum like this, we're all in this together.

Welcome aboard!

Perfins, like just about anything else, can be collectable. If there's a subset of stamps, it's almost certain that someone out there collects them. It's very rare that a perfin is as valuable or more valuable than a non-perfinned stamp though, most non-perfin-collectors consider them damaged and place-holders until something better comes along. They can be an interesting collecting topic though, I'm sure there are people around who could point you in the right direction with specific stamps.

Got ya. I'm trying to figure out how to continue sorting the loose ones I have, so I'll start there next, which wont take long as I don't have many like that.

Here is one that has been bugging me - how do you tell the age of the stamp, if no date is printed on it and there are no postmarks of any kind? I'm going to try to be able to sit down with a Scott catalog soon if at all possible.

It depends. Are you talking U.S. stamps or foreign stamps? For U.S. commemoratives, it's pretty easy, just look at the denomination, they usually were only used in a specific denomination for a couple of years (especially recently) until rates were raised. Definitives are usually pretty stylistically distinct, it's not hard to determine what era it's from just by how it looks. Get the similar stamps together, post an example of each type and we can tell you what the dates are.

I'm talking foreign stamps for the most part. Out of this entire collection, very few are from the USA. I wish I had more of those in here to work with since I can obviously understand those a great deal more, but no such luck. I'll try to post some more tonight, maybe some scans of a few pages from the album. I've just been preoccupied with all of these loose ones.

Ok, wow, lol. Would anyone here like to help explain to me just how to even use a Scott catalog?

First, here is a good site to help you decipher the languages on the Stamp that you do not understand.

http://www.stamptrader.us/stamp_identifier.htm

Some countries will have the year on the Stamp, others you just have to fumble through. There are patterns which will help you narrow down the years. Stamps from the 1960's are very easy to tell apart from the stamps of the 1800's and once you learn these patterns the investigations go quicker. Also words like Aero, point you to Airmails, etc.