Arranging Collections

apologies if this has been asked already ... I have read most of the posts on this forum and don't recall seeing this addressed directly

what are the most common ways to arrange precancels?

It took me a while to figure out that it's a three-dimensional collection ... stamp number, pre-cancel type, and city/state.

So within those three parameters do you go with all of the 100+ #803's (as an example) on pages? Or do you go by specific city/state and collect and arrange each stamp and type for that city?

I'd like to see some examples and different arrangements.

Thanks!

Alphabetly by State and City seems most logical to me.

I agree with the direction of your question, there are diferent ways to arrange precancels. It depends largely on the scope of one's collection. Do you have a few 100 or a few 100,000? Is your interest mainly in one particular type of precancel or an era or focused on a particular stamp issue - or all precancels in as many ways as they can be found? Even with us not knowing your specifics, your choice of arrangement should please you first and reflect your interests and collection scope. That said, here are two pages showing two different approaches:

A Vario page from a broad collection (Indiana in this case) arranged by state, city, type, and catalog number.



And a page from a small exhibit on "Benjamin Harrison on US Stamps" arranged by catalog number, type (Bureau vs local), state, and city, where the emphasis is on the stamp more than the precancel.



The Precancel Stamp Society webpages will give you some ideas of how people collect and organize precancels by the wide variety of their catalogs and sample album pages. There is no one correct answer. Please yourself first.

thanks John for the good advice. I like both of your examples ... I'm mainly focusing on Bureau's at the moment since that collection actually has a chance to be completed in my lifetime.

I had thought originally to collect and arrange by City ... then type and lastly stamp. For example ... St. Louis --> Old style types (40's & 50') collected over each stamp in a series (i.e. #'s 581-91). And then go on the next type and stamp series ... but then I saw some collections that collected all of the 1c Franklins together and then all of 2c Washingtons etc etc.

I may still go with my first idea ... maybe I'll post up some pages wehn I get them arranged ...

Here's how I keep my precancels. Similar to John Becker's, but my labels are to the right of the stamps.




Robert

Hi Clifhiker,

I finally broke down and bought album pages for my precancel hoard. Like you I decided to focus on the Bureaus for the same reason. So I ordered the K&P Album pages from a precancel dealer last week, it arrived a couple of days ago, and I've already mounted over 100 stamps in it. It was only $50 post paid. It goes alphabetically by state, catalogue number, and precancel type. Check it out, it works for me.

For my Overrun Countries precancels I have photocopied the OC page from Scotts National album. Then if I have more than 2 denominations for a city I hinge up a page. If I have fewer, and many towns have only one or two, I keep them on Hagnar sheets in the same book. I do the same for my Champion of Liberty precancels.

Here's an example of what a page of Bureau precancels would look like arranged per the PSS Bureau Catalog 5th Ed. in "Vario" pages. It's pretty full. The empty space at the top is for the last stamp from San Fernando. For each state the first Bureau stamp starts at spot #1 on page #1 and so forth. A missing stamp has a spot left empty. No labels, just stamps (or holes) in order. Once a state is set up, there's no further rearrangement necessary, just put in new stamps as they come. After trying several different ways of arrangement, I've found this one suits me best. At first I had stamps grouped by PSS style, but that seemed to often waste page space and I couldn't readily see what was missing without referring to the catalog. Now I kind of like seeing the different styles side-by-side and the stamps in general order of issue.

This is just another arrangement option to consider. There are many other good ways to gather and display precancels.

To each his own... Have fun is the main thing...

By the way, this is my first image post. I've learned the basics now and hope to show some other stuff in the future.

Does anybody have any "upside down" precancels?

Some inverts from "DC" .... the two open spaces are quite scarce