Need Catalog Help For British Stamps

Up till now I have only collected U.S. and the Scott Specialized has been great. I am interested in starting a British West Indies collection and, in anticipation, I got the Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth catalog. My problem is, a lot of people selling these stamps are using Scott numbers, which makes it quite a bit more difficult to tell exactly what they are selling. My question is, what source should I use to help me better ID these stamps? Is there a single volume Scott catalog for British stamps, or do I have to buy the whole 6-volume set in order to cover Antigua to Virgin Islands?

If you limit your collection to 1940 and earlier, a Scott classic catalogue (one volume)will fill your needs. Otherwise you will need the entire set of Scott's.

Matossian, a couple of years ago I had that come up with my Switzerland collection. I owned a Zumstein, but had to have Scott numbers. Somebody on E-Bay was selling the Switzerland pages of Scott for about ten dollars. A couple of months ago he sent me an Email to see if I wanted this years, but I lost the Email and don't remember his name. Maybe someone will recognize this and help out, or maybe you can find this on E-Bay? Good luck,

Peter

OK, I found it. The company name is Chirokmd. If you google that you can get all the info!

Peter

Is finding a library with a Reference collection and spending some time at the copy machine illegal? Since you're not copying the whole volume that is.

You could take out circulating Scott's catalogs from your local library and begin to build a cross reference in a spreadsheet. The main differences you will see relate to shades, papers, and flaws listed in Gibbons that don't appear in Scott (although some of these varieties appear in Scott's Classic Specialized).

Some countries will be very challenging to convert however, for example Bermuda keyplates. Scott basically just lists the perf differences (in the case of KGVI, perf 13 and perf 14). Yet Scott doesn't list the line perfs from this issue so one must learn how to find them and use Gibbons to value them. Scott does list the lemon-yellow shade for the perf 14 12/6d, which is incredibly irresponsible given how Scott always tries to protect collectors from stamps marketed as expensive varieties of common stamps. There are probably fewer than 10 dealers in the USA who can properly identify a lemon yellow, yet it's amazing how often you see the stamp offered for sale (cough). There are also a lot of lemon-yellows floating around with bad certs, especially those issued before the 1990's. If you are offered a lemon yellow with a cert dated 1968 or 1977, you're best off passing on it as it's most likely not correct.

Another very tough area to convert in KGVI is St. Kitts Nevis. Scott's listing is perfunctory while Gibbons is very deep and detailed. This occurred because of a fabulous, richly-researched monograph published in the 1990's on St. Kitts Nevis. It's a ton of fun but Scott's will be of no help.

I don't know for sure if the Scott's Classic separates any chalky from ordinary papers for any countries, but awareness of which values come which way can only be ascertained and valued using Gibbons. If you have a strong interest in KGVI collecting, a great resource is the Commonwealth Catalog published by Murray Payne, a division of Stanley Gibbons. It only prices stamps used or lightly hinged whereas Gibbons only prices used and never hinged. Commonwealth goes even deeper into listed varieties than does Gibbons, especially plate flaws and additional shades.

The solution will depend on how current you need to be.

Scott Classic will take you through 1952, which is the end of King George VI's reign.

Scott used to include the Commonwealth in Volume 1 with the U.S., so if you want to go past 1952, but don't need to go all the way to current, you could look for an older used Volume 1.

If you want to know Scott numbers up through relatively current issues, you're stuck with needing a full set.

Unfortunately there's no reference material that annotates various catalogs numbering systems by comparison - I believe I have read somewhere (not sure where) there is a copyright issue involved with such.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

There is reference material available that annotates various catalog numbering systems. Several European catalogs have these comparisons. It is too bad that Scott is not one of the participating catalogs. They are too proud of their system to give in to what seems a fairly useful request!

Peter

I am not familiar with the European Cats, though I have heard their names tossed about (e.g. Michel, Yvert, etc.) - I am glad to hear that they cooperate with one another by cross referencing their numbering systems for collectors ease of reference.

It is a shame that Scott does not play nice with the other guys - such cooperation could only benefit the hobby as a whole.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

I have a Michel so I know they have worldwide coverage. Does Yvert cover WW or just France and French areas?

Yvert offers worldwide coverage, and a classic catalogue with a bit more coverage than Scott Classic in some areas, a bit less in others (and a firm end date of 1940...no stretching the BC to 1952).

The four majors offering worldwide coverage are Scott, Gibbons, Michel and Yvert.

Thanks very much CJD

Seriously, thanks everybody for all the great suggestions. It never occurred to me that my local library had the Scott. They have the last 5 editions including up to vol. 4 of 2016. Their oldest one is available for circulation. I borrowed vol. 1 today and am happily cross-referencing Antigua this very moment.

It all depends on what you are interested in collecting. If you are only interested in collecting non-specialized material or generic examples of the stamps then Scott is the best catalog. But if you are interested in more detailed breakdowns of the stamps according to all of the varieties then you really do need to use Stanley Gibbons. SG gets into things like the different watermarks and perforations and differences in overprints and specimens and Great Britain stamps used abroad in those countries, etc. Scott has very little of that. As a result, you will find that there are some people who mis-identify stamps by using Scott which can be to your advantage if you have SG and will be able to spot mis-identified rarities.

Kimo I would disagree regarding perfs and watermarks as Scott does list the vast majority of these. There are notable exceptions such as the Bermuda line perfs, Jamaica 5/- line perf, Gold Coast line perfs, and for a long time Scott didn't list the major perf varieties for Swaziland. Not sure if this has changed recently.