Question For Classic/Post Classic France Specialists.

I have thousands of early French stamps, mostly from the early 1900's to about WWII. All I have is a Scott catalog to go by, so I know I'm probably missing out on some things. Is there anything I can look for in these years that isn't in the Scott catalog? Anything like plate varieties, cancels, shades...anything? These are all from definitive sets from the period, and are, from what I can see, the most common issues. Not looking to sell, just looking for something to do on an overcast, rainy evening.

I'm not a France specialist, but I've found the "Maury" (Ceres & Dallay) catalogue (I have the 2009 2 volume) indispensable if one wants to go beyond the Scott catalogue.

I have the 2009 Maury too, and aside from the fact it's in French, and the print is TINY, it is an excellent source of information, one of the most detailed catalogs in the world for a major country.

Seconded on the Maury. Also, as catalogs go it's pretty cheap at under $40 shipped for the 2-volume set:

http://www.hgitner.com/news/maury_catalog.pdf

...and cheap! Don't forget cheap. I'm pretty sure they were available at Chicagopex for $35.00, total (for both volumes).

edit: well there you go...revenuecollector beat me to it, and with a link, to boot...

For cancels go to

http://marcophilie.org/

There are all sorts of variations to be found in French definitives between 1900 and 1940.

For instance, Scott doesn't break down the sowers nearly as much as Yvert.

The Scott Classic catalogue tries to address many of the variations in the 1900-1940 definitives, but some are just mentioned, and not pictured. An example is the 1930-31 Colonial Exposition issue. The Fachi woman 50c value has two types, which differ by the woman's hairlines. Yvert pictures the differences. Scott just mentions them in a couple sentences below the listing.

There are differences in frames, value tablets, fonts and/or vignettes across many of the issues. Too many to try to make a list of them. Here is a link to a tutorial for identifying features of some of the Semeuse (sower) issues:

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=6413

If there is another issue that you have plenty of, perhaps we can try to fill in a little information an issue at a time?

For anglophones that already have a copy of either the Maury (aka Ceres & Dallay) or the Yvert et Tellier catalogues, you should know that Henry Gitner publishes a French--English Philatelic Dictionary.

It is free and available here:
http://www.hgitner.com/news/french_dictionary.pdf

Bonne Chasse (Good Hunting)!

--Kevin

Wow!
Like most everything out of collecting "realm", I had no idea!
Now I kind of wish I hadn't sold a large group (about 3000) of the Sower issues a while back. But I stil have thousands of others, from other issues, left to investigate. I LOVE that French cancellation page, it even works with Google Translate, which is great because I can't read a lick of French.

Cjd - I haven't been to that board in a while and totally forgot about looking there. Thanks for the link, very helpful!

I'm not sure if I want to go the lengths of buying catalogs though, but I will check around. I haven't gotten into acquiring anything but Spanish-related reference books so far. I'm ind of getting torn between sticking with what I know the most about and expanding into other areas. It really is a slippery slope.

Gonna start going through my piles tonight and will post some of the things I find that I think are interesting.

Thanks everyone!

Maury is so detailed (including the pricing of covers) that one good [obscure] find, and you've paid for the set of catalogs.

3000 sowers? You wonder what might have been in there...

Don't worry about what might have been...see what you still have. I've found some neat cancels in glassines of sowers. Lots of opportunities for some fun.

The great thing is that you can go back through them in a couple years when looking for something completely different.

A great return on your investment...

doug222 - I might just have to keep an eye out for a set.

Cjd - Not many sowers left unfortunately.
Here is a representative scan of one of the 2 piles I'm sorting out.



Here are a few I pulled out so far. Not knowing, yet, what to look for, these just stood out because of the selvedge connected to them. They look like the little advertisements that are mentioned in that stampboards post, just not on sowers so I don't know if they are the same thing or not. Anyway, I thought they were neat. I also liked the cancel on the vertical pair. That particular issue I also have thousands of.

The cancel is a TPO cancel. Check the cancel site linked above for more information. You can search for ondule/courrier convoyeur cancels.

There are also several threads here that discuss these.

By the way, the cancel appears to be used on the Bourg St Maurice à St Pierre d'Albigny railroad route.

The booklet items with advertising labels are collectable and have some value. Not much but more than the min. cat. that the items without have.
They make a great side collection.

AnthonyUK - Do you know if there is a list of advertising labels available on the net somewhere? I'd never seen them before.

Here is another I found in my stash. Also found this perfectly centered s.o.n. cancel.