Recommended Philatelic Books?

Hi friends,
i would love to hear about you must read philatelic books.

Well it depends on what you collect.

british commonwealth

Do you have a Gibbons Commonwealth catalogue? If not, that should be your first buy.

Might be worth your looking at this thread

https://goscf.com/t/4140&whichpage=...ic%2Clibrary

'Nassau Street' by Herman Herst would top my list.

If you like British Empire Stamps, you can't do much worse than get hold of Robson Lowe's Encyclopedia. There are usually plenty of used copies kicking around (in 5 parts, unfortunately) on ABE or through philatelic book dealers. It's a catalogue, but his commentary is always interesting and pertinent, and his reputation of a wit and "man about town" often comes through and makes me laugh out loud with his disparaging comments and put-downs. Not many catalogues can do that!

There a couple of volumes of Robson Lowe here at item 237.

http://www.somersetstampauctions.co...rent-auction

Tim - did you notice the COGH triangulars lot? Not cheap, though.

Here's one that I find extremely useful (and interesting) for worldwide collecting. There are many, many maps showing all the stamp issuing entities, as different geographic areas have evolved since 1840. There's also text with the basic postal history of each entity -- the period during which stamps were issues, when the first stamp was issued, etc. And there are lots of stamp images too.

Geoff, I hadn't noticed the COGH lot until you mentioned it. Nice, but expensive for what it is!

I wholeheartedly agree with this recommendation. However, this is not a philatelic publication but rather the reminiscences of a US stamp dealer from the salad-days or heyday of stamp collecting. There are plenty of interesting stories and anecdotes and makes one long for those days.

Its similar to "Where are the Customers' Yatchs?: or a Good Look at Wall Street" by Fred Schwed if you have an interest in investing. Highly entertaining and informative from the dealer/broker perspective.

Look the philatelic Library--what about 10,000 books you can choose and borrow and they send to you house as an APS member--really good stuff