My Worldwide Collection: An Ongoing Journey

Sherlock Wmk
Best to begin looking at 2 mins onwards

There has numerous posts talking about it but no one seems to have used it.

I do not own one or seen one in actual operation but it seems to take a lot of time if you have a lot of stamps do check. Depending on their sizes I guess one could put more than one stamp at a time.


Can you bypass putting the stamp in the box and just put it on the outside which would make it a faster process?

I guess that would be a better chemical-less alternative for checking watermarks. But as mirman states, it does seem a bit slow, especially if you are wanting to check hundreds of stamps. It looks like you may get 2 regular sized stamps on at a time, but that's about it. I'm use to putting about 6 stamps at once in my wmk tray.

Decided to start on some of my minor projects that have been piling up. Back when I was first learning the ins and out of the Album Easy program, I made some pages for my "Sociedad Del Timbre" stamps I've been accumulating. The original pages I created were very crowded and a bit clunky, as well as being on cream colored cover stock. So I decided to redo them to have the same basic feel as the pages in the rest of my collection. I was also able to reuse the mounts.

It seems many collectors run into these and are not sure exactly what they are. Here is what the Edifil catalog has to say about them (translated by Google).



"In 1875, the services of the stamp and sale of papers used for fiscal payments were leased by the Government to one operated with the name of "Sociedad del Timbre". It was an anonymous company, whose domicile was located in Madrid, in calle del Clavel, # 1 and presided over by the Marquis of Salamanca.

There are 50 stamps in the set, one for each of the 49 Provinces, plus 1 that just says "Sociedad Del Timbre". They bear no denomination and are listed alphabetically, by Province.

I'm sure there is more information contained withing the Edfiil catalog, but I haven't had the time to translate anything. If anyone has other relevant information, I am all ears.

Here are the pages I created, with stamps mounted. As you can see, quite a few empty spaces still.

Made a page for some more Spanish revenues.

Sociedad Del Timbre, 1878

Unlike the previous issue, these do not have the province printed on them. There are 23 different and all were used in each of the 49 provinces. It is possible to collect all 23 stamps with each of the 49 provinces stamped on them.

I've been thinking of trying this myself. They show up pretty regularly on ebay.

And I was thinking the first revenue series you posted would be a big undertaking but 23 values from 49 providences that would be a good long term goal for sure!
Love seeing all the pages, everything is very nicely presented and put together.

Willie

In my best infomercial voice...."But wait, there's more!"

There are also sets, of the same design, in orange (23 values), green (11 values) and maroon (10 valyes). All can be found used in each of the 49 provinces. Add into the mix many with "Habilitado" overprints, and you got yourself quite a collection going.

That'll keep you busy for a couple of days lol

Most of the ones with the higher Clase #'s, I've never even seen one, let alone one for each province. I wonder how possible it actually is. I just bought a group of 15 on ebay, but again all lower numbers.

Here is what I have for the green set. There are only 11 different in the greens, but still can be found with 49 province markings.

Not sure if I mentioned it or not , but all of these Sociedad stamps were printed by the American Banknote Co., in case anyone is interested. You can see a margin imprint on the strip of 3 (first page).

Just a little update on what I am up to:

Besides being rather busy with Christmas preparations, I have been able to sit down for a few minutes here and there to try and do something philatelic.

I'm basically done with my "base" Brazil album (to 1960, for now), and I've been placing a few odds and ends into some of my other albums just to keep things moving along. Now, with 5 days off from work, Xmas preparations mostly done, I am able to think about where I want to go next.

I have been trying (and sometimes failing) to print pages in, more or less, alphabetical order. At least now.. In the beginning, I was all over the place, just doing what country struck my fancy. That presented some problems for me. So now, like I said, I am trying to stick to alphabetical.

I am "basically" on A & B countries right now and the last main "A" country I have yet to get to is Australia. I've been putting it off because I haven't figured out how deep I want my album to go. I realize the KGV and Roo's are a highly specialized area, but it is probably beyond my collecting level. However, I do want to go a step beyond Scott and Steiner pages , with shades, and die types, etc...

So this is gong to be my challenge this weekend. To start making pages for Australia.

Comparing the Scott listings to the SG listing for this country, I see many challenges ahead.

It is was when I looked at the Gibbons Aussie and Kiwi pages that I returned the relevant stock-books to the shelf!

I can sympathize. Luckily, I don't have that large of a stock, so what I do have on hand will hep me determine how deep into the hole I want to go.

Well, things took a drastic turn for me. I was all excited to start the Australia project, until I sat down to start sorting my stash and I realized I must have misplaced the envelopes. Sooooo...........

I decided to go a different route.....Colombia!

Maybe not as exhilarating as Australia, nor as popular, but I've always liked the South American countries, especially the early issues.

My first impression, just by looking at the Scott catalog listings, is that I probably won't need any kind of specialized catalogs because even the Scott listings have lot's and lot's of varieties with regards to shades, papers, etc...

I haven't looked at the Steiner pages yet, to see if they are as in depth as the Scott catalog, but I will look at it tomorrow. This country looks like a whole lotta fun!

Here is what I am basically starting with, a large manilla envelope with about 25 album pages, a few small envelopes, and a BIG pile in a box lid. I'm estimating about 3000-3500 stamps to sort.


Here is my sorting progress so far, which isn't much because it's kind of late for me.


What I find interesting about sorting is that each and every country provides it's own unique challenges, whether it's because of the language barrier, technical details of the stamps, or any number of other reasons.

I'm not very familiar with the stamps of Colombia, other than the small amount of classic-era stamps I have already in a BIG BLUE album. So I immediately had to figure out some way of successfully sorting such a large amount.

Most were not dated, so that was out, so I went to my stand by way of sorting.
1 - I start piling those that have similar designs, usually large definitive sets.
2 - I also make a pile of, what look like to me to be, older, pre-WWII looking designs.
3 - Another pile is for 19th c. and early 20th c. looking designs.
4 - Another pile for Air Mail
5 - A pile for oddball back of book stuff
6 - A pile of modern-ish commemorative types
7 - A pile of Colombian States

This will give me a basic start to sorting these for now.

I'm also going to pay special attention to the early issues that I have. It looks like I will wind up with a good variety of shades, etc..

Sorting before diving in at least helps. One challenge for any country is look alike stamps. You think you have identified and then find several variations of the same design. You do not know if the perf, watermark, etc. is important.