Lighthouse Canadian Provinces Album - Question About Numbering

I just received my new hingeless Canadian Provinces pages and album, since I am starting to finally branch out to the Provinces. I have never seen a Lighthouse album before and was surprised to find spaces for all the varieties. I am used to the Unitrade numbering system, with 16 PEI stamps instead of 36. Can I assume Lighthouse uses Gibbons for varieties or does it provide spaces for everything? This will massively increase my collection time and money since I hate blank spaces in my stamp albums.

Here is my plea. Has anyone recorded the catalogue numbers to the stamps on these pages? I had the same issue years ago with a Davo US album on someone provided me with the Scott numbers and their position for every page in the album, which was fantastic. Has anyone done this and is willing to share?

Hmmm, I thought Lighthouse was a popular stamp album. When I asked the same question about my Davo album, I got comments pretty quick.

I kind of like it though to a point, having al these extra spaces, but when they put spaces for extreme rarities, it is just irritating since you can never complete the album. I have four more spaces to fill in my Davo Canadian album and I have a complete run from #1 to present. (I add proofs for the early ones). I will never be able to fill every spot in the lighthouse, which will drive me crazy.

TomSwift

I myself do not use store bought albums.....If you don't have every single stamp that the album shows pictures for, it looks bare..I use other means to keep stamps in order as I come across them.

Robert

Tom Swift,

Yes--I have them for the Newfoundland pages...and in my view they are excellent (the hingeless, double sleeves). They pretty well track the Unitrade number and have all or most of the varieties. But not always--in some cases, I add a hingeless sleeve.... I typically write in pencil the numbering right below the stamp. here is what one of my pages look like...let me know if you would like to see every page for the numbering...

I'm a wierdo and only collect Newfoundland, nothing else--so can't help beyond those pages.

That would be fantastic, thank you. I am sitting here trying to find some of these variations in the Unitrade catalogue and am having no luck.It would be a big help to get the Newfoundland pages numbered.

TomSwift, show your pages here and I can help with some, especially BC & Vancouver Island and PEI. I am sure others will chime in too.

TomSwift..If you need any Newfoundland info...Ask Tommy..He is your man..I also collect NFLD and use N.S.S.C.(Newfoundland Specialized Stamp Catalogue) instead of Unitrade for more detailed information.

Robert

Tom Swift,

If you search on this forum by "Newfoundland" and look at my postings--you will find that I have previously posted all of my pages with all my stamps. each of these images have the Unitrade numbers written on the pages. So its there, with a little bit of time, maybe an hour--you can have all the numbers from my research to write on your lighthouse pages (in pencil would be my advice).

If you have any questions, or a stamp that you are not sure of--just post it or ask me.

Tommy, I found our pages, thank you very much. Huge help. I started my numbering project with the other provinces but even on page 2 of your collection, I found discrepancies. They have a first printing and a second printing position for stamps but for numbers 17, 18, 20 , 21, and 23, you just put the same scott number down twice. There doesn't seem to be a scott number for the hard and soft printings. I found this same thing with the Province pages (I will post my unknown ones soon). Where is Lighthouse getting their information for these places in their albums? This is just the second page of Newfoundland but with the amount I found on the other Province pages, I imagine it will come up again with the rest of the Newfoundland pages.

Another example. For New Brunswick, they have spaces for three Scott #6. One with no colour mentioned, one for dull claret and one for brown violet. Unitrade only mentions two colour variations. With Nova Scotia, they have four spots for #8. Yellowish paper (2. one grey-black) and 2 for white paper (one grey). Same for lots of the other Nova Scotia stamps. Where are they getting these variations from?

I know this seems anal to many but I am a completionist. Can't stand seeing an empty spot and I want the correct stamp in that spot.

So does anyone have an answer to this? I was looking at a Stanley Gibbons catalogue and they had these colour variations but they also had a lot more colour variations that are in the Lighthouse album so I am still confused.

Nobody has an answer to this?

Tom,

Sorry for short delay--I don't check the site regularly and traveling with holidays. I'm happy to take email at tommymoyes@gmail.com

The answer to your question is not a clear one. In my view (SPEAKING ONLY ABOUT NEWFOUNDLAND):, Unitrade (and Scott, since they use the same numbering system) are essentially useless at any level of sophistication because they are just not that precise (and they don't change as facts are uncovered). Its a good guide and their strength is constancy, but more like a map in a book done at 50,000 feet level. If you really want to get granular (e.g. like Google Maps), then buy the Newfoundland Specialized Stamp Catalog--which is very precise, granular and fact based but changes occasionally. It has a different numbering system though--I use both.

More specifically, for page 2 (the 1861-62 stamps): Scott/Unitrade has long believed that there were two printings on different papers (soft and hard) and Lighthouse reflects this duality. But Unitrade/Scott has not changed to reflect this with different numbering (and probably never will). So, yes--there are two different versions of #17 through 23 (but not 19 or 22, for historical reasons). An aside : Bogg's key history of Newfoundland Stamps does describe different papers, so we know it occurred, but little mention of soft or hard, which I suspect is a long dead Scott person's viewpoint.)

Same for other pages--though the flip side also occurs : Some Scott/Unitrade numbers do not have a place in Lighthouse (as you will see in my book's pages-like page 3 for #28)

Finally, I would note that NSSC does not list this distinction for 17-23 but does have a lot of objective details on discerning the three pence issues (like UV long wave size of colors, various positions of letters in words, watermarks [Stacey Wise] and mesh). I do not know why NSSC (John Walsh / Boggs in the past) do not do so, but my guess would be because its dang difficult to objectively determine "soft" vs "hard" paper on something 150 years old.

hope this helps and is not TMI

Thanks for the information. I have not sat down and figured out what to put where yet in my album. My problem is that I am overseas and buy everything online. Very hard to find a variety online when there is no catalogue number to describe it. Guess I will work on the easier stuff first then worry about the weird ones.