Rare Danzig Freie Stadt Stamps In My Collection

Hi,

I used to live in Germany and I inherited an old stamp collection while I was there. I have what appears to be quite valuable Danzig Freie Stadt Stamps. How do I find what the value of my stamps are?
I'm curious how much they are worth and possibly might be interested in selling them.

Regards,

Sean

Hi Sean,

Welcome to the forum. Stamps from Danzig vary widely in value. You can get an idea of the value of your stamps here:

http://www.stampworld.com/en/stamps/Danzig/

Some would say their real value comes from the enjoyment of collecting them! Best of luck!

Hi Sean,

Another way to determine value is to see what they have sold for on e-bay.
You will have to identify the individual stamp first though. In the USA, Scott catalogs are probably the most popular stamp catalog to identify a particular stamp. Many larger libraries have the Scott catalogs. Once you have found the Scott # for a stamp, you can search for it on e-Bay, or other auction sites. But be sure you are correctly identifying the stamp. Some stamps looks identical, but have different perforations or watermarks, or other subtle differences that can make a big difference in catalog number and value. Also the condition of the stamp has a lot to do with the value.

How about making a scan(s) of your Danzig stamps and posting it here?

I only collect Danzig Airmail stamps.

Dave N.

Hi Sean, and welcome to the forum. You did get some good advice from two members above.
However, if Danzig is the only thing you have I would go in a different direction. Since you lived in Germany and probably know some people there I would try to find an auction house that handles Danzig and get some catalogs from them. Good luck,

Peter

Several points about Danzig. Overall condition is HUGELY important in the German market. Mint, unhinged, decent centreing, full perfs, fresh colours, will get you top dollar. Anything even slightly less & the value will plummet.

All the expensive overprints have been seriously forged, you will need certificates from German experts for a potential European buyer to be satisfied. A signature on the back of a stamp is not good enough, even they have been extensively forged.

Some decent scans would be helpful to ascertain what you've got

Before you get your hopes up, note that forged postmarks are very common. You need specialist knowledge/literature to navigate in these waters.

Anyway, unless you find an ignorant buyer on ebay, you will have a hard time getting much unless you get them BPP certified.

Ooh yes, how could I forget about postmarks, thanks for the reminder, ClassicalStamps.

Assume that most postmarks are Cancelled-to-Order & have never actually been through the post, it wasn't only the Communist countries doing this on a massive scale. The Michel catalogue even has a separate listing for CTO & a quick look shows that most CTO are catalogued higher than mint-hinged giving more impetus to forge postmarks.

There are several philatelic tomes on Danzig, but they are mighty, expensive & I unfortunately don't have them.

To give you a couple of examples of things you should know if you collect used Danzig:


This is a '24-hour' postmark (note the time: 17-18). A genuine used would have 'V' for Vormittag (before midday) or 'N' for Nachmittag (after midday).



This 'postmark' was created from an old French Handbook:


Postal History is - as always - dangerous.
Here you can see the date/year it was used - 1920.
The phrase "Freie Stadt Danzig" was not used before 1921.


(Originally published by BPDh)

WOW so many responses! Thank you. I think that I'm actually really just stoked to have theses stamps I really dig them! I'll post some pictures of my collection.