Yvert & Tellier

Greetings!

I have been reading the wonderful forum topic about engraved stamps and because of this have decided to start collecting the stamps of France. I noticed some members refer to the stamps by Scott catalogue number but also list a number by Yvert & Tellier. Is this a specialized catalogue for the stamps of France? If so, how does one obtain a copy? Which catalogue is used the most when collecting stamps from Europe? I know Stanley Gibbons is used the most when collecting Britian and BC. And it seems the Scott catalogue is used mostly for the the USA and Canada. Are there other specialized catalgues that are used more than the Scott catalogue for other areas of the world? Thank you!

David

If you are going to get a specialized catalog for France, go with the Arthur Maury catalog.

Smauggie, what is the reason for that? Peter

Hi Darkoath

A member of our local club specializes in France and he too uses the Maury Catalogue. He has stated that it is well written and lists many varieties that the Scott Catalogue does not. I believe it also lists the stamps on cover as well (?) I too would like to get a copy of that catalogue.

Chimo

Bujutsu

One of the differences with Yvert is that they are worldwide in scope. The four majors that take a crack at the world are Scott, SG, Michel and Yvert.

Scott and Yvert are the only two that do a worldwide classic-era catalogue, though SG does an Empire/Commonwealth-up-to-1970 catalogue.

There is a specialty catalogue for almost anything you can imagine. Sometimes two.

Much of Europe, collecting generally, would be likely to use Michel catalogues. (Collectors of Germany would be highly likely to use Michel.)

Collectors of Scandinavia would probably have a Facit for general reference, but again, there are specialist catalogues, depending upon what one is interested in.

Subway Stamps used to be great for buying three- to five-year-old specialist catalogues at huge discounts. Since I am more interested in the varieties than the current values, a 2007 catalogue is often just fine for me.

I haven't seen as many options at great prices lately, but maybe it is cyclical. Or maybe I haven't been looking hard enough.

Don't forget Unitrade for Canada!

I'm not sure if it was a good price or not, but I was able to land an unused 2011 Unitrade for $30 recently and the Scott's 2007 Classic in really nice condition for $25. The former is on it's way from an Amazon retailer and the latter from a local stamp show. I have a 2000 Zumstein for Switzerland/Liechtestein on it's way also from another Amazon retailer for $1.49. I figured I can't go wrong for that price.

I was rooting around on Amazon for awhile. There was a massive range of prices and many didn't make sense at all. I saw the same Scott's 2007 Classic online from $85 to all the way to $1,499! Why the high prices?!? Some sellers most really have pie in the sky dreams. However, if you search carefully, you can find many of the Scott's for a reasonable price if you are fine with a library copy from 2011 or so. I did see some farily recent copies of Facit and Yvert & Tellier for decent prices too. Michel is still pricey no matter what it seems. There were other more specialized catalogs (Stampless covers of New Jersey, etc.) for sale and many of them were at the $50-$100 mark or higher.

The Arthur Maury catalog is a specialized catalog just for France. Whereas the Yvert y Tellier catalog, while produced in France does not specialize as much.

Yvert catalog is widely used in Western Europe, mainly on the Latin languages speaking areas: Belgium (Wallonie, actually), Italy they also have Sassone), parts of Switzerland, France and the Iberian peninsula; where most "learned people" know, or at least can read French. While Michel comands on Easter and Central Europe, who speaks German. And
Europe is a very complicated continent, also for philately...

And Fischer is the specialized catalog for Poland.

The Maury catalogue also uses Y+T numbers

It is reasonably priced and I'd also recommend it as I prefer it over the Y+T.

I have a lot of France duplicates (mint and used) for trade if interested.

If I am not mistaken, Yvert & Tellier were taken over by Maury and the Y&T catalogue is no longer under that name (??)

Chimo

Bujutsu

I have a 2013 Y+T for France so I guess not.
Maury was Ceres and Dallay I believe.

OK thank you.

I got my catalogues mixed.

Chimo

Bujutsu

(warning, never let Google Chrome save your password for here...it seems to cause all sorts of havoc)

I just picked up the 2005 Dallay Catalogue de cotations de Timbres de l'ex empire Français d'Afrique 2005-2006 which is the edition prior to the Maury 2011 African colonies catalog which seems perpetually out of print. It is a gold mine of specialized information regarding varieties (including a whole range of plate types on Senegal's 1913-1933 Definitive series that Scott does not mention at all), paper varieties, on cover prices, and a whole lot more.

I purchased it new from Amazon.fr and the total cost, including shipping from France, was about US$55.00 which I feel is a great price (how much are Scott volumes now, over US$80 each or sth). Amazon.fr lists available the Maury 2010-2011 catalogs for France, the DOM-TOM overseas territories and the post officies & colonies in Europe and Asia. They also list the 2005 Dallay catalogs of the similar regions plus the African colonies one.

If you wanna specialize in France or French Colonies then Maury (ex Dallay & Ceres) seems the way to go. Hopefully there will be new Maury editions out soon.

And since a picture is worth 1000 words, here is a page from my Dallay (not best scan, catalog is softcover and I didnt want to break the binding and had to do it low res to fit within the 100KB limit for images)