What Do You Prefer - Mnh, Cancelled Or Something Else?

If its a stamp, I collect it: MNH, Hinged, Used, On cover, Whatever!

I collect both mint and used but, I too, am not interested all that much in MNH stamps; the premium needed to acquire classic Canada in MNH condition, for example, makes them so much more difficult to collect, it isn't worth it.

There are examples where it is actually harder to find good used stamps than mint. A good example is the Newfoundland 1919 Trail of the Caribou issue. No problem finding mint sets on ebay but used sets are much more rare. I recently completed assembling a used set but I had to buy the high values (above 5 cent) a stamp at a time and I'm missing (and not likely to find) UN-124b, the rare 15 cent Prussian Blue (I have a mint copy). Which goes to show that collecting MNH or MH or used depends on the stamps. I DO have a preference for mint stamps but I'm fine with used copies too depending on the circumstances.

I've always thought that the problem with CTOs is that they are contrived; nobody actually used that stamp, but here is a sort-of-used copy.

The problem with going down the contrivance road is where it leads you. Every cacheted cover - whether it be from an FDC cachet publisher, or a club/show event, or a first flight - yes, even DC3's maxicards - is contrived.

(I recently bought the US Brooklyn Bridge stamp for use with postcards of The Brooklyn Bridge; anybody want one?)

For some of us, that element of intention adds value; somebody created something, and here it is, and look what a nice job they did! The cachet adds the story and, as I've posted at length elsewhere, Stories'R'Us.

Perhaps the problem with CTOs is that the act of contrivance is all you get; there is no story being told.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Most of us don't mind paying hard earned money for mint or postally used stamps. A mint stamp is one that someone had to buy at face value because it was valid for postage. A postally used stamp actually served its purpose. For me, a CTO stamp is like paying good money for nothing more than a small, decorative piece of paper. Although it looks like a stamp, it's not really a stamp if you ask me. I don't mind CTO so much in bulk lots where the cost per stamp is a few cents each (or less), but I can't see myself ever buying a specific stamp or set that way, unless there's really no other choice.

I collect stamps, not gum. That said, if I end up with a MNH stamp, and it has a catalog of over $50, I'll usually keep it in a mount.

I also absolutely refuse to participate in the grading craze that goes along with MNH. Seeing common commemoratives from the mid & late 20th Century going for even hundreds of dollars is ridiculous.

Cheers! Climber

To me the look of the stamp is key. A well-centered stamp with a face free cancel trumps an off-center mint. That being said, anything post 1900 I will generally insist on MNH. (US)

My worldwide collection is definitely mixed. I will tend to go for the lower cost of stamps depending on whether they are used or MH. For common stamps, I do also buy MNH, but not because the gum status is important to me. With this said, I hate to put a hinge on a MNH stamp, so if I know I am going to hinge it, and a dealer has an example of both, I will take the MH stamp since I know I will be hinging it myself.

For slightly more valuable MNH stamps, I will use a clear mount to place it in my album.

-Craig

As a quick interjection... some of my best
stamps (pre-1940, of course) are ph's and
ng's... MNH collecting (in this market) IMHO
is for suckers, hoping for that 'pie in the sky'
valuation for MNH... when? when they're dead?

*R*

As far as my U.S. collection goes. I prefer Mint because I want to see the artwork not the cancel. I don't care if it is hinged because I don't look at the back of stamps anyway. I am forced to collect cancelled for the older stamps Pre 1934 because of cost. I prefer Black mounts because the black makes the stamps pop. I only use the mounts on the older Pre 1934 and all Mint. After 1934 used stamps have very little value and I plan to replace them with mint anyway so I just hinge them. Right now I am 100% mint from 1934-1980. I don't collect any after the year 2000.
I am just starting to collect Canadian and they will probably all be used because of costs. Any mint Canadian and Provinces I purchase or trade for will also go in mounts though.

Hi all, Myself I collect MNH, MH. NMNH,NMH,Used,BDS,VBDS and STNW.Oh.. I forgot the definitions for the collectors like me.
NMNH-not mint not hinged
NMH-Not Mint Hinged
BDS- Badly Damaged Stamp
VBDS- Very badly damaged stamp
STNW- Stamps that nobody wants
Been trying to get these implemented into stamp albums, but always get "return to sender" responses.


Gary

I guess I am in the if it is a stamp camp. If it can fill a hole in the area I am collecting in I will put it in my albums. Upgrading to better examples when they come along. I guess this would include some CTO stamps as well. My Brazil collection for example has both CTO and posted of the same stamp. There are a lot of countries that produce CTO like wallpaper. The CTO issues which probably would never get used as regular mail I tend to stay away from. Because there are more interesting stamps to spend my time with. I guess I could also say that instead of kinds of stamps ( MNH, MH, Etc...) as a standard for my collection, the time to collect within a country would be a big factor to what I collect.

I collect Used Stamp mainly .... I love it all cancelations type.

But I have some stamps MINT ... because don't exist used (recents mainly).

I love it Stamps on cover too.

Family,

I have seen some really neat cancellations on postage stamps. Sometimes the cancellation is better than the stamp. Even so, its US MNH for me!

Jack Kelley

I'm collecting mint stamps for my main collection (Canada), for the other country, it doesn't matters