The Stamps Of Turkey / Turkiye: On Steiner Pages.

Rod,

Glad to see they finally made it. I should demand a refund from the USPS for sitting on them for so long. I actually filed a lost mail claim at one point, because they sat in Hawaii customs for over 3 weeks.

I think you have electronic copies of the Birkens and C&Ws already from me sending them to you previously, but it never hurts to have the hard copies. I thought you'd enjoy the Anatolia. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one.

Sad to hear about Dr. Birken. He really was a gift to the field. I guess we'll see what becomes of the remaining unfinished volumes of his handbooks.

Hi all, I am new to SCF and am enjoying scrolling through the past posts in this forum (topic?), which seems to have most of the more interesting queries on Turkish stamps. I have been collecting Turkey for about 8 years, which I relatively new compared to my other areas.

I use Isfila (2014, and the 2-volumes from 2007, I think, for postal stationary) as well as Scott. I don't have a current Michel for the area.

My question today regards values in Isfila. Before the Turkish lira really sank in value, in the 2014 catalog there were some stamps that seemed to be valued much higher, on a relative basis, than in Scott. I don't mean to comapre Isfila to Scott in general, I mean specific items that were much higher in Isfila, especially MNH/MUH.

An example is the 1948-50 Nurse/Plant set of 11 (Scott RA122-RA130B and Isfila K93-K103). Back I 2014, Isfila valued a never hinged set at 400 TRL, which was well of $100 USD. Scott values it at $30.

This variance of Isfila being 10+ times Scott was far wider than the usual variance of say 2 times Scott. I came across similar differences in say, Turkey in Asia.

I've usually assumed the local catalogs were "more correct" than Scott.

Does anyone know how Isfila values changed, in general, in the new 2018 edition? I know that the lira is now 6.7 per USD, so stamps could have depreciated by 50-70% if you just go by the change in USD. Or, the Isfila values, in TRL, could have been raised to account for the lira's depreciation versus the dollar, euro, pound, etc.

Sorry for the long post!!

A nice day "sheltering in place" and catching up putting away some material I bought a few years ago...

Welcome to the thread Azurite.

I cannot assist much at all really, catalogue pricing is a cloudy issue for me,
I do use it for assessing a stamp's probability for purchasing, its scarcity,
and pricing for duplicate re sell etc, but then it fades into obscurity.
I have no idea what my overall collection is worth.

Up to about 8 months ago, when the Aussie dollar fell alarmingly, I was purchasing from a dealer in North America, and would assess all my purchases at 25% of Scott. If I could not get at that price, I would leave.

I do not recall ever buying, singletons or sets, except the Semi Postals
"12th congress of Women's international Alliance" Sc#CV $700
I felt that was an important set to acquire, and I paid I think around $90
mixed mint / used, mostly mint.

I would always target part collections, that had stamp I had missing, then would on sell the duplication.
My dealer has since, changed tactics and breaks down his own pages,
so that took any value away for me, so I ceased purchasing from him.

Our member Michael (whom no longer frequents here) would have been more of a counsel with prices, I believe he returned to the US from Turkey, and had his collection for sale at $30,000

My opinion lies with stamp prices falling over the next 5 years (excepting rarities for investment) This is a watershed moment for the globe, in how we do business and personal incomes.

Look forward to any contributions you may have on this thread.

Good luck with those "Imprime" overprints,
I consider them all forgeries, I save them, but do not collect them as a discipline, I have yet to find an accurate source for indentification.

Fodder for ebay scammers.

Azurite 1 ----Welcome to collecting Turkey , I have a few Turkey stamps also . On those "imprime " stamps they all look like real stamps . Here is a sample of two fakes and a real stamp .
On the fakes they made the box in the overprint,it is smaller than on the real stamp as you can see . The box is longer on the real stamps .These are from a forgery collection of mine .

Thanks for the replies, rod and floortrader. As far as the Imprime overprints, I too had been assuming they are fakes but accumulated them as part of lots or sometimes paid $5 or $10 for the higher catalog ones, again assuming they are forgeries - but wanting some examples to study later. On my to-do list!

I see in the past folks have posted some of their supposed forgeries looking for advice - hope that is OK if I do too, and if you are like me its always fun to see.

The biggest danger with forgeries is to think there was only one person creating fakes .I ran into that with Tibet where there are 6 different fakes made by 6 different forgers.

Building a reference collection takes a lifetime because some fakes are rare than the originals , I took the easy route by buying two or three reference collections and combining them .

By the way, is this forum (Steiner Pages) the best place to post questions about Turkey/Ottoman stamps - like varieties, forgeries, etc? As I mentioned, I am new to SCF and it looks like there are only a handful of country-specific forums, like Australia. Thanks, Michael

This is likely as good as any, though you might get a bit better response with a new thread in the world classic stamps category instead of resurrecting older threads like this. This one is really better for showing your collection off than asking questions.
For the Imprime forgeries, one hallmark of almost all the forgeries I've seen on the 1898 issues is in the genuine the strike is always really weak on the left side. Most of the forgeries are better strikes. I believe the ISFILA catlog that has the specialist section on these mentions it, though it might have been Burak or Pulhan. I have certs on a couple of the earlier issues, purchased from ISFILA a few years ago...

Thanks, billsey, I'll try the World Classics out. I have a question on a possible postal forgery

Hello Everyone

Can someone help me identify these ?




Bottom one looks to be a #10. While the other two are confusing.

I only see 1 pi listed as yellow or lilac in the catalog. These appear Brown.

Top 3 try 1 Piastre Postage Dues 1865
Middle is Sc#16 1867 1 Piastre
Bottom Sc#10 1865 1 Piastre lilac P12½

Thank you rod222.