What Is The Best Way To Sort Asian And Arabic Stamps

What is good way to sort worldwide stamps (determine the country) that do not have English alphabet (Latin alphabet) lettering at all on the stamp? I have successfully described some stamp pictures to Google but some stamps don't really have a describable picture. Thanks for any help, Jim

Hi! Don´t you even know the year?

by color ?

yellow_cad, Greetings:

I've started a spreadsheet with keywords that frequently appear on stamps & coins in one language or another.

The names of the countries and the word 'postage' are, of course, the easiest place to start, and will also give you samples of the alphabet.

Once you have a printed one-pager, you'll find that you get pretty quick pretty quick.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Welcome to the forum! You can sort by country, always clearly written on the stamp. If you don't know the country then a quick bit of research is half the fun of stamp collecting. If you still don't know the country there are plenty of folk here to help who can deal with Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and many other non-western scripts. Just scan the stamp and post it!

Once you've identified the country, you can find it in the catalogue (book or on-line) and start sorting by year of issue, etc. Have fun.

Glad to find this forum. I just started collecting stamps after doing it once fifty some years ago. I love the sorting most of all especially with the few online aids I've already found. I was just looking for the ticket to the no English lettering stamps which had me stumped. Thanks for the suggestions. Jim

yellow_cad/Jim: Welcome to the forum!

I think the best reference I've seen is in the back of the Scott catalog (any volume). They have a visual identifier for non-Western alphabets.

Since you're in the US, you might well be able to find those catalogs at the public library, depending on where you are. In my experience, oftentimes the largest (main) library branch in a city will have them. Typically the newest set is in the Reference area and doesn't circulate, but usually the sets from a year or two before are available to check out. You don't need the most recent volumes for the identifier, and it's the same in every volume, so it doesn't really matter which one you pick up.

Hopefully that would work for you.

Alternatively, you can always post pictures here. No doubt collectively people will be able to identify them pretty easily for you.

But getting familiar with the Scott catalog, including the introductory material, is a philatelic education unto itself.

Hope that's helpful!

This site may prove to be of some assistance...

http://www.stampmasteralbum.com/For...fierHome.htm

Please be advised that since the establishment of the UPU (United Postal Union) all participating countries have been required to have the country name in Latin printed upon the stamps for postage use (except Great Britain - that's another story), though for internal usage such as revenue stamps that is not the case (especially with Arabic countries, as you may find from time to time).

Regards,
Stampalotapus