Stamp Collecting..or Perhaps I Have Gone Mad !!

Stock page after stock page of Scott Guatemala #118 , I continue to purchase them and their overprinted varieties...is there ever enough ?

Hey! is it hurting anybody?
Just revel in your addiction, I presume thay are small change,
if they are expensive, then you have a nest egg.

Stamp collectors always have an excuse

Phil, have you ever sorted these by perforations? There are quite few perf varieties for all the stamps of this series.

I have not gotten to looking at the perfs...yet...there is a fellow in England that will take all the Waterlows he can get...i probably sold him hundreds..but not the #118. He was at our meeting at Washington 2006..he must have a room full of easels as I think he wants to plate each stamp in the series !

Phil, how many of these do you have? I collect US 2128a, an 8.3 cent Transportation seies coil with a very simple overprint. I have five albums full of different ones, over 1000 plate number strips!

Peter , I am ashamed to say I only have 200 of them..including blocks of 4 . I know there are people that specialize in one stamp. in one way you would think that would limit their collecting..on the other hand..they should have no shortage !!

I hear ya, man o man do I hear ya! I do the same with Downey Heads, here you have my 90+ Vario pages of the 1d. Downey Head.





And to answer the philb's question...... "Is there ever enough?"

My answer is "No"

Have a good one, and Good Luck! Maybe I' have some of those philb? I'll look around and lt you know!

200 of these #118 is still a lot of one stamp. I probably have only 15 or so.

skilo54...if you have any you have a customer...wow, and I thought I was bad !! I don't even have that many plastic stock pages !!

Marty, you are correct..they are not exactly packet material that you find a big glassine full of the Scott 118...i can still get them for 15 cents or so here and there !!

200 is nothing to be ashamed of! My favorite was printed in the millions; how many were there in Guatemala of Scott 118 (or 145)?
By the way, if this helps, there are two of 'em listed on Bidstart!

Hi philb

I have a few stock cards with some of the early Colombia issues. There are a lot of paper colors and subtle plate differences.

For Ecuador, I have piles of possible Seebecks. I really have to borrow the Seebeck book from my friend and see if any are real.

Jerry B

Peter, the Guatemala Scott 118 had many printings from 1902 to 1922...i think a figure of slightly over 7 million ...this would include the overprints !

Jerry, I did not know there was any difference in the Seebecks that were sent to the Central American countries and the ones later printed for the stamp collecting trade...interesting !

Hi philb

Two obvious differences. One is that the Liberty Cap on the watermarked issues is upright on the country stamps and sideways on the reprints. The other is paper thickness and gum. A friend who specialized in these issues told me that a lot of Seebecks have no gum. The reason being that it was "washed" off to measure the paper thickness.

The above criteria is not the definitive way, and by no means the only way, to tell real from Seebeck reprints. I have been told that are some plate differences. The reprints having been printed from the same plates used for the country. The differences arise from the plates being worn.

That is the extent of my Seebeck knowledge. Unfortunately my friend passed away a few years ago so my knowledge fountain has dried up.

As far as I know the only countries in which they are a problem are Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. I believe he also reprinted Postal Cards. Fortunately, as far as I know, not those of Ecuador.




So yes there are differences. Not only the stamp overstock was returned to Seebeck but the printing plates were in his possesion.
I would have no idea how to tell the returned stamps from the actual stamps. That seems impossible to me.

Jerry B

I would simply prefer to think you are Mad!...