Questions On Steiner Pages ......................

Hi,
I use Scotts albums for both my international and USA collections. But, I am curious about the Steiner pages and have a couple questions.

- I've just been wrestling with a lot of India "state" stamps and overprints. Do the Steiner pages have slots for each of these? Does it have slots for the color variations? Of course this applies to other countries besides India.

- If Steiner doesn't use pics or Scott (or other) identification aids, how does the average collector figure out "what goes where"?

Thanks,
Mobilman44

If the stamp is a major number in the Scott catalog then there is a spot for the stamp on the Steiner pages. Now remember Scott adds new numbers or changes numbers over time but not enough to cause a problem .Your better off if you have a old set of catalogs when mounting stamps .

Mobilman44,

I don't collect India but I do have a Steiner subscription so I took a peek.

There are pages for India to 2011 as well as the Convention States and the Feudatory States.

From a quick look at these pages, they appear to be in the "standard" Steiner format, there is a space for all the major Scott numbers. Sometimes he sticks in major variations but generally it is just the main Scott numbers.

Although he can't use Scott numbers or pictures, he follows the Scott catalog very closely. There generally is enough information, e.g. description, denomination and color to find the right space for a stamp.

Here are some free sample pages you can download to see what I mean:

http://www.stampalbums.com/instructions.asp

Hope this helps!
Dan

If you have a Scott catalogue open, it is a piece of cake to figure out the Steiner pages, as they literally almost always follows the Scott sequentially. They do include, at times, minor numbers, but generally will just hit all the major numbers.

Thanks all, I'm sure one would get the hang of it pretty quickly.

One more question........ I collect internationally thru to 1959. Right now, that fills 5 of the Big Blue binders. If one were to print out the Steiner pages for the same time period, for all countries excluding the USA, how many of those big binders would one expect to fill? Of course they would be printed on one side, and the paper weight would be "pretty good" quality. Soooo, ballpark wise, how many of those Big Blue binders could I expect to fill?

Thanks all, I truly appreciate your help and expertise!

On his home page steiner quotes "6,500 Classic Era pages". if that's to 1940 or so that at least gives you a figure to start from to calculate to 1959

Allowing 100 pages per binder divided into 6500 pages = 65 binders. If that 6500 pages is to 1940 probably in the region of 150 binders to accommodate the moderns to date. A bit less, say 85 binders to 1959. Good luck.

Terry

Yikes! Even "only" collecting the classic years, and using Scotts binders, it would still take a good 20 of them to hold the collection. Of course on this Forum we have seen folks that have done this and it really is impressive.

For a relatively new collector like myself, one could just print out the countries or pages for which one had stamps. That would surely cut down the volumes / space needed.

Thanks all for the input. I'll likely stick with my "Big Blues", but I sure can see the beauty of having those Steiners!

Don't worry about it and enjoy yourself ,take it as far as you feel comfortable. Everyone that I know gets sidetracked with their worldwide collection .Many collectors get interested into speciality areas or completing a country the best they can .Also remember very rarely has anybody filled the first six volumes of the internationals.

Another approach is to print out the Steiner pages as you need them. Then store the made up country pages in A4 or A4+ filing boxes until you have made up enough pages to put in an album. Then buy the album. This way you can spread the cost of albums over time.

Terry

I can give you a specific hard figure.

I have thirty-five 1 1/2" Avery Binders for the classic 1840-1940 collection through San Marino. Sarawak through Zululand is yet to be printed. Compact it is not.