Stanley Gibbons Great Britain

Apparently these several Stanley Gibbons catalogues for Great Britain.(not colonies)

Which one gives the most complete information?

You didn't specify, but I am assuming you mean general postage stamps (as opposed to postal history, cancels, plate identification, revenues...)

Then I would say the Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Specialised Stamp Catalogue, which I believe is still at 5 volumes. It is not updated every year. In fact, several years often pass before a volume gets updated. So if you are looking for recent issues, this is not the catalog set you want.

Aside from that, it provides a great wealth of information sufficient for most beginning to intermediate GB collectors starting from QV issues through the pre-decimal QEII issues, and into some of the decimal QEII stamps.

If you are not interested in catalog values, an older volume still offers a tremendous amount of information.

If you want more detailed info, then you will need to get into the specialized books covering very specific topics/eras. In general, those are not catalogs but reference books.

If you are looking for a 1 volume GB catalog that is sufficient for most general collectors of Great Britain, then the SG Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue should be considered.

I use the Concise catalog to ID/sort stamps. But I use the Specialised catalog to ID varieties and plate information.

For a single-volume catalogue with a good level of inclusion, the Stoneham catalogue could also be interesting. If you're looking for something with catalogue numbers that the rest of the world might understand, the Stoneham won't be of any help since it uses its own numbering system. But it's a decent book and I'm happy to allow it to take up its share of space on the bookshelf.

Here's an interesting comparison between the SG Concise and the Stoneham.

http://www.gbstamps.com/musings_3.html

Ryan

Very interesting comparing the two catalogues.

Thank you

The mainstream answer is the Gibbons Concise (I have one). Currently about $50 postpaid from an outfit in St. Louis, I think.

Ryan - thanks for sharing the link. I've heard the Stoneham name before, but never realized how 'decent' it really is.