Asia China/Japan/Macao/Malacca/Indies Value Of 1900 Blocks

I have a lot of stamps in blocks and pairs, I wonder if they become more valuable together than individually? There doesn't really seem to be a rule of thumb for these kind of things.

China 1913 ship


China 1907 French po


Indo China 1907


Japan 1899





Japan 1918 (1,50)


Macao 1911 (3)


Dutch Indies 1914



Straight Settlemetns Malacca 1902 / 1912

By definition, a pair is scarcer than a single, but, to have much of a premium, the basic stamp needs to be scarce too.

Shame that the Edward VII Straits $1 pair has a bank (HSBC?) and hand cancellation, rather than being postally used.

I'd keep all of these!

All the Straits and the 1918 Japan and 1911 Macao are "somewhat" scarce having a catalog value of at least $2 I believe. Does this increase in any way?

For example my Macao 5c have an individual catalog value of 1,50EUR and I see this horizontal pair of 2 on Delcampe (1898 1/2c) with a value of EUR1 individually sold for 27EUR?!

Is that what a pair like my Macao 5c's are worth? About 30EUR?

please remove this post

Used Macao 5c sell for around $1-$2. If you could find a buyer for the Macao pair, it might sell for around $5. There are not a lot of people who collect multiples. Don't use 'asking' price as an understanding for market value; silly asking prices abound. You should filter the online auction searches for 'sold' listings.
Don

In my view, I would not separate these stamps, especially those that have a readable cancel.

The 10¢ Strait pair is almost certainly fiscally used.

I see what you mean with the "bank (HSBC?) and hand cancellation" and the "Fiscally used" stamps but what does this mean for a stamp?

Doesn't it still have their regular used condition catalog value?

No - a postage stamp with a cancellation showing non-postal use will usually only be worth a fraction of the value of a postally used stamp. The Straits strip of three are also perfins, which also reduces the value.

Stamp386: I see this is just your 8th post, so allow me to welcome you to the Forum. The stamp catalogs, like Scott and Gibbons, are for postally used stamps. Higher value British colonial stamps often did fiscal duty, in addition to use for mail. Fiscal duty might be being used for a bank payment of some kind; being used to pay a fee in court (primarily civil cases); being used to pay other fees, like export/import, where such a fee was charged. Catalog value for a revenue usage stamp can be of minimal value, compared to the same stamps postally used. Example: look at the Scott listings for Straits Settlements #172-174 (since you have some Straits stamps). #172 with a postal cancel catalogs at US $650; $5.75 for a revenue cancel.

For another good example; if you have access to a Scott catalog; check out the Kenya & Uganda listings for the 1922-27 King George V issue. You can quickly tell that the pound stamps with revenue cancels catalog much less. As an example, the L5 stamp catalogs $5,500 as a mint, original gum, stamp. That is way outside of my stamping budget. Last year, however, I was able to get a used copy with a beautiful, perfectly centered, revenue cancel, for about US $250.

Another sign of revenue usage might be a blue cancel, like your $1 Straits pair. Good advice also not to separate these. I collect multiples when they come to me in collections that I have purchased. Others may do likewise. Hope this helps. Steve

Thanks for clearing that up Steve!

Too bad catalogs don't always display a value for these cancels, for this one Scott sais nothing about it.

This Straits 1902 King Edward VII $1 has a catalog value of $75 in Scott #102 as a used stamp, what happened to the value with this bank cancel? I have another one of these single, unfortunately with the same bank cancel...

Normally revenue usage reduces the value to 10% of catalog price for better stamps. In the real world, you would be lucky to get around $5 for the $1 pair.

For the Japan stamps, those don't look like revenue cancels, just fyi. I'm pretty sure they're postal cancels.

Indeed, for the ones I can make out, they are Roman-letter swordguard cancels, and were likely applied to international mail (which is why they're more likely to be found on higher-denomination stamps). There is usually a little bit of a premium for those, and there are collectors of them with nice strikes. The Kobe cancel would not be uncommon, but it is a nice strike on the 2-sen green pair.

Take care with the 10-sen blue pair -- it looks like there is some separation at the top. (Perhaps they are attached to paper that way?)

I also forgot to mention that the Japan cancels with colored inks usually carry a bit of a premium as well.

But, speaking from personal experience, if trying to watermark with Ronsonol, the colored cancels will fade. :-( (I haven't had the courage to try again with regular watermark fluid or Clarity.)