Misidentified Stamps

For the last 15 years my main focus has been covers and revenues, but I never stopped accumulating stamps. Earlier this winter I decided to put some stamps in albums. I have not done this for probably 20 years. I got the Steiner software and started with an album for German states. The last few weeks I have been working on the Australian states. While most of the stamps I have came in lots or collections, I at least sorted by country before I squirreled the hoard away. Many of the stamps were in glassines or 102 cards with Scott or SG numbers on them. Some even had numbers penciled on the back. I am truly amazed at how many were misidentified now that I am finally looking though my hoard. I would be upset if I had bought these as specific identified items, but most of my stamps just came along with the rest of the collections I purchased. I also found several forgeries or reprints in the German states. It has taken me three weeks just to identify the Australian states and I still have to get through Victoria and Western Australia.
So I guess the point of my rambling is, the only identification you can truly trust is your own. You have to verify everything that has a variety. I don't believe that these were fraudulently misidentified. I think most were from lack of knowledge.

Completely agree. I have purchased a few items (lower values) from both private parties and dealers and found about a 50% success rate on identification of some issues. Either people are getting lazy, or they just figure that the lower valued items don't matter. In any case, Caveat Emptor, "Let the Buyer Beware".

In my experience, there is some to a lot of misidentified material in most collections.

So one needs to check and recheck.

And check again.

That goes for myself too.

If I recheck my work from an earlier time, I will usually discover a mistake or two.

I have to agree with the above comments.
I've also wondered how many scarce varieties of a stamp, that a specialist would kill for, are lurking in a generalist's collection, misidentified or unchecked.
Dan

Hi

I also have come across a lot of misidentified material in breaking down collections for my friend's store. I hate when someone puts a catalog number on the back of a stamp and it is totally wrong.

What amazes me the most is that even the simplest thing is overlooked. An example is Chile. Basically the identification is with or without a watermark and that watermark can usually be seen without fluid.

Either people do not read or just don't care as long as they fill the album spaces. I have had someone tell me that they cannot be bothered with watermarks or perforations.

Jerry B

I too have seen this in varying degrees with the collections and lots I was purchasing. I was pleasantly surprised more than a few times, however for the most part I was just frustrated and beguiled by some of the more outright blatant mis-identified ones that was so obvious I had to just wonder why? lol

I'm on the same page as others with this.

Not so long ago I bought an old (likely 1950s) collection of Argentina from local dealer. Everything was hinged neatly on self-made pages with Michel numbers written below stamps; supposed catalog value was 450 EUR. Likely this was work of semi-advanced collector, as there were mentions about subtypes (that a total beginner would not put focus on).

I was aware that the original evaluation would be likely more or less off the scale, as I had recognized a forgery on the first page (I had landed with similar item before). But off I went and bought the lot for 50 euro.

As I've progressed my way through it, I've learned that the collector did a pretty good job with identification of basic stamps. But when it comes to varieties, they've been put to pages entirely based on guess work: litho vs. engraved have been identified falsely on about half of cases; and about about fifth of watermarks have been falsely checked.

But I'm not complaining... My Argentinian collection will look a whole lot better once I'm done with this lot.

Also something to remember is when the stamp was identified. Today we have the luxury of technology and evolved reference material.
I just bought a collection a few weeks back and was amazed at how many we're identified incorrectly. But they were all identified in the 1930's and if anyone has seen a Scott catalog of that era you'd understand why.