Acquired 2 Collections From My Mom And Aunt

Hello all, I have recently acquired two different collections in short order from my mother and aunt, I am new to philately and now have a pretty good start I think. They are fine, no deaths I'm glad to say, they just stopped a while ago and left them dormant for years and gave them to me. The term "big collection" is relative I suppose since I have no idea how they stack up in the philately world. I have been doing some research trying to get a feel for this hobby, and have even researched and catalogued some old stamps that were loose. I have a couple liberty albums that are pretty complete from 1920's on (1 stam, 1 plate block). My moms is mostly US stamps, my aunts stamps are from literally every country ever created I think. The perplexing part to me is the shoe boxes of covers with stamps from 1870-1980. They are cool to look through, but way too bulky for my collecting taste so far. I guess my questions would be if you could spare some advice:

1- Is it safe to assume I should leave the stamps on the covers, even if I need one or two for the book? (Reading some of these topics it seems like blastfamey)
2- do they make an international book like the liberty book for the U.S. stamps?
3- I was trying to identify if some old 1890-1920 stamps for watermarks, and I could see any anywhere, even using the guide from the back of the old album. Are the really hard to see or... ?
Bonus question- my aunt said she had a stamp in her collection from a country (presumably in the Middle East) that "was taken over (conquered) for a day"... The stamp is from that 1 day that the country was occupied... But she can't remeber what country it was... I can only assume that it was canceled that 1 day by the occupying country? Maybe overprinted? I have googled my fingers off and can not find out what she is talking about... Maybe the Suez Canal, it is the closest thing I can find... An Egypt stamp with an Israel cancel mark? Any suggestions would be great so I can find a country folder to look in... Lol

I know it is a huge post and thank you for taking the time to read it... I'm new and have a million questions, but I'll leave it at that for now... thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you

Welcome to the club. Don't take the stamps off the covers. But do take the time to talk to people who know about different countries or stamp topics. You can email mer through this network to get advice on Canadian stamps and covers. (Why do you not allow people to send you email?)

Hey Canadastamp, oops, I will see if I can change that setting. I guess it is just habit to uncheck stuff when I sign up at a site. I never really thought about country specific areas, I was thinking more on a general international collection scale, good idea. Is there ever a time when taking a stamp off would be considerd acceptable? In the collections, there are I am guessing, well over 1000 stamps (maybe 2k +) that are on a corner of a cover but not the whole thing. Is it acceptable to try to get the stamps off those pieces, or is it better to keep them on if the whole cancel is visible? Thanks for the advise!

Watermarks can be a challenge even for an experienced collector (and if the stamps are still on cover or on a piece of cover, then near impossible).

Generally, the older the stamp, the more it is worth on cover than off cover. Unless the cancel is a fancy cancel or from a deead town, on piece is not really better than off piece.

Carpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent republic on March 15, 1939, but was returned to Hungary between March 15 and March 16, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the end of World War II, when it was ceded to the Soviet Union. This has made it the shortest time a country has been independent.



This stamps is Czech, but was made to commemorate the event.

Hey Ikkoller, that is a pretty cool piece of information. My aunt has a ton a mailing pouches, each with a different countries stamps and covers, I will check to see if any those have the mystery stamp in them. The impression I got from her leads me to belive she was talking about the mystery stamp being from a more Arab country, I think she said "it is from some country like Jordan or around there" But any clue is worth exploring in my book, thanks! :)

Hey canadastamp, I will take a look and try to let you know. I can not send an email back yet because it says I am "new"... Hopefully that will change soon...

wingnutt hang in there. You will have 50 posts before you know it. And by the way to SCF

Good luck with your collection Wingnutt! Sounds like a very exciting opportunity. Please share any unusual finds with us.

Another reason for leaving older material on paper is that the dyes may run when immersed in water. There is a device made by Morley that can apparently help with watermarks of stamps on paper, but I have enough trouble spotting watermarks on stamps without backing, let alone on covers.