KGVI Commonwealth Coronation Series / General GB Questions

Hello everyone,

This is my first post to the forum. At a recent stamp club auction, I picked up a binder of the Great Britain Commonwealth King George VI coronation stamps. It has pages for each of the countries and many of the stamps are in it. I have always been interested in US stamps. But this caught my eye, and so I picked it up for $10. I think maybe 70% of the stamps are in it. Not knowing much about worldwide stamps, I had a few questions. Any help is appreciated.

1. Are any of the stamps in the series hard to find? I would like to complete out the binder, but I guess I am a little worried that maybe one or two stamps in this set are really expensive. I'm kind of crazy about completing small sets. I kind of hoped since these come after most of the classics, they would be inexpensive.

2. These interested me enough to start looking into British stamps, and I see that the period from the late 30s until the early 50s seems to be a popular one. Everyone references Stanley Gibbons. Is there a United States source for Stanley Gibbons books? In the few searches that I have done everything comes up in the UK.

3. Outside of these forms, are there any good website references for this period?

Thanks!

Hello Flashman, welcome!

For a catalogue with new up-to-date prices you might need a new Stanley Gibbons. SG lists more varieties and goes into greater detail for British and Commonwealth issues than any other catalogue, I hear.

Generally speaking Scott catalogue or another general worldwide catalogue may be OK. Depending on whether you want to get into the detailed varieties (if any).

Pricing is another question. SG's prices are considered to be somewhat high and Scott are more geared to the US market.

For buying online consider ebay (click worldwide) or Delcampe for worldwide sellers or Bidstart or others here in North America.

ebay may be a source for older used catalogues, if you don't need to be exactly up to date with everything, and for 70 year old stamps, not much changes really (although there are always exceptions).


Most KGVI stamps are relatively inexpensive as stamp collecting was in a good period in those years and lots of stamps were printed to meet (and exceed) the demand.

Condition plays a big part in stamp valuation. Well centered, good color, nice gum (if mint) or nice cancel (to your own preference) (for used), no flaws or faults will make for a more valuable and sought after stamp.

Remember to use the search button yop right to search this forum for KGVI stamps. Not of other sites otherwise.

Welcome to the forum Flashman

Stanley Gibbons is the most widely used catalogue in Britain and parts of the British Commonwealth. However, there are the Scotts Standard Catalogues in 6 volumes you might want to look at as well. These are usually available in your local library for on-site viewing. These will list all the stamps you are referring to as well.

Hope this helps

Chimo

Bujutsu

Thanks for the responses. Just a few weeks ago I finally broke down and ordered some older (2008?) Scotts, I picked up the volume covering the United States, Great Britain, and Japan (just seemed interesting). I did not get any of the others because even being four years old they're still fairly expensive.

Sounds like you got a great deal, but that is not surprising given where you got them (stamp club auctions are great for deals). Your local library will probably have a recent copy of the Scott catalogs.

I had these Coronation Omnibus stamps out this weekend and did a count of the countries I'm missing. When I tried to look up some of them online, the first set I found was Southern Rhodesia, and it seemed to range between seven dollars and $11. Almost all of the listings I found were on ebay or British stamp dealer websites. Is ebay where most of you all in the US obtain your stamps?

eBay, Bidstart and Delcampe are all good places to start your search.

Check to see if you have the Hong Kong set, as that is the most expensive to buy.