I Am New And Want To Learn Everything I Can About Stamp Collecting

Hi, My name is Sue and I inherited my father's stamp collection and I want to continue it. I want to replace the few stamps my father sold (especially is Battle of White Planes proof sheet he sold to keep the house) and some of the stamps from the 1980's (they were new at the time and he used them to mail letters). This collection starts in the late 1700's, the best part is the 1800's. 95% of this collection is mint, only a few stamps have cancellation marks.

I want to be able to learn where I can get this collection properly appraised so I can know if I should store it in a safety deposit box or keep it at home and have it insured with my home owner's insurance. My father was very protective of this collection, so I want to know all about it. Is it even safe to even scan a page of this collection or would the strong light of a scanner ruin the ink?

I got this collection back in 2009, it stayed safe in my mother's home until I just bought my first house this past March. My father started this collection in the early 1980's. The pride and joy of this collection is "Cattle of the Storm" and the 1918 "Landing Jenny" airmail stamp. It's not the upside down Jenny, it's printed too low on the stamp, thus the title "landing Jenny".

So I think I'm going to lurk here for a while and learn. I joined this forum two years ago and never went back because I got really busy with real life and I was in college at the time. Now I have free time and want to learn. I remember being a young girl and watching my father collect these stamps, him taking my sisters and I to coin and stamp shops to buy stamps. I want to learn how to buy the stamps because there are hardly any coin and stamp shops anymore and I don't trust ebay LOL.

Welcome.

Given that the first stamp was issued around 1840 I am not sure what you have that dates in the 1700's.

You can start at this link: https://goscf.com/t/51932

Welcome,
If you have any questions please let us know.
Don

I recommend Cabeen's Standard Handbook of Stamp Collecting. I believe it is out of print but you can find nice used copies by a Google search. If you are only interested in relative values, and how to identify US stamps, get a recent copy of Scott Specialized Catalog of United States Stamps & Covers - again a recent used copy should suffice.
Dan

ROFLMAO Your right about the dates, I meant to say it starts in the late 1800's where some of the best ones are in the 1900's of this collection. It was very late at night where I am from when I wrote this lol. I think it would be good to get a recent copy of the Scott's guide. I have my dad's and it's from the 1980's LOL.