My Worldwide Collection: An Ongoing Journey

angore - That's one of the main reasons I chose clear over black. They are much more forgiving. I buy, almost exclusively, Showgard, clear split-back strip, seconds in bulk. I can slice them down the middle and then cut them to width, to fit almost any size stamp. I try to size my mounts to the stamp box on the page, but sometimes I fail. It's OK though, because with clear mounts, you can make them a little big, a little small or even a little lopsided.

My goal is to have the stamp itself centered in the box, as best I can. As long as that happens, imperfections in the mounts are not noticeable.

I've seen collections of high dollar stamps, where the collector used black mounts and cut them poorly. All that does for me is create an unnecessary distraction.

Everyone is different however and this is just my preference.



That makes sense. I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed that at some point in time the files needed to be revised.
But the more I think about it the more it does make sense. Even the border dimensions on the pages are smaller

jkelley - Mail days are always special, especially when something comes in large boxes or cartons.

So, I got ink and printed 100 pages for Brazil (roughly up to 1960). I'm not sure I'll have a need for much beyond that yet.

Here are the pages and some of my sorted and identified Brazil stamps. I'll probably get started on them tomorrow.



I'll post some pictures of pages as I go. This will be the first of my "real time" projects here, and the first new country I've added in over a month.

really looking forward to seeing this, I'm enjoying this topic a lot and I really like the stamps of Brazil. I look forward to seeing how the Steiner pages (and you!) deal with the varieties of watermarks and perforations that seem to make this country's stamps so complicated

When you get to the "Brazil watermark hell" of the definitives, don't despair. They were among the most troublesome when I collected WW :-(

Got back last night from my trip. There were four large boxes on the floor waiting for me. All WW albums - about 14,000 stamps in all. This is the very beginning of my WW collection. My wife was not happy.

Jack Kelley

Geoff,

I took your advice and bought four packs of Prinz'. They arrived this week while I was gone. Surprisingly, they were not "all curled up as you had suggested they may be. Happy about that. I will use them on my WW when I receive my Harris Statesman Albums; hopefully today.

Jack Kelley

Jack - Surprised you lived to tell the tale. Prinz must have put all of their curled ones in my packets then. Have fun!

Well, I must say, it looks like I really stepped into it this time.

I guess I didn't really realize Brazil was going to be so challenging.

I've taken some time to check out some previous threads here, especially concerning watermark varieties. I know Scott does their usual poor job of addressing the issue, and, unfortunately, Steiner's pages are largely based on Scott, which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view.

I mean, yes, I wanna include as much as I can beyond Scott, but not to the point of creating a bunch of pages for items I may never even see. So the goal will be to find that "happy medium", somewhere between ultra-specialization and basic collecting.

Some things I will have to consider:
1 - I don't own any specialized literature for Brazil.
2 - I don't have a large amount of early issues to go through, so having specialized information isn't really necessary for me at this time.

I'll just start at page 1 and go until I hit a wall, then I'll decide what I want to do from there.

Curled hinges - I like to cut my hinges in 2, doubling the number of hinges, so the curled ones will only have 1 side that needs uncurling.

Hey, you just gotta have a positive spin on things sometimes.

Spain_1850




Don't give up! Collecting Brazil can be fun. Yes, there are a number of variations on the early issues that aren't included in Scott. I have the specialized Brazilian catalog, RHM. So if you have questions, post them here. There are a number of people on the Forum more knowledgeable than I am that can help.

By the time you get to the definitive series with all the watermarks,the "Série Vovó," that stack of Washington-Franklin issues we all have and don't want to tackle will look like a piece of cake!

Enjoy!
Dan

OK, here are first efforts for Brazil.

Page 1 is straight Steiner, no modifications. I have so few of these right now I didn't see the point in expanding. One of these days I will get at least one of the 1843 issues.


Steiners page 2 included the perforated set of the numerals (I have none) and the first perforated Dom Pedro issue. I decided to redo this page by putting the perforated numerals on it's own page. Then I took the perforated Pedro issue from page 2, and rouletted set from page 3, and consolidated them onto 1 page.
Scott specialized notes that the 100R comes in 3 types, and I found I had examples of all 3, so I included spaces for them, as well as some listed shades of other values.


My new page 3 now only includes the Dom Pedro issue from 1878-79, including a couple shade varieties for the 20R.


I'm sure the specialized catalog is far more comprehensive than how I have them arranged. Maybe, someday, I will be able to expand even further.

Now it looks like the real fun begins with perforations........

Well Family,

My Harris Statesman's arrived today and I am on my way with my WW collection. I decided to put the pages in Vario G binders (5 of them) and then swap out completed pages from other Harris pages that I purchased. Then, I plan to added the missing spots as required.

Today is Day 1 and I started with Great Britain. Hopefully, I'll be done by Sunday and will keep you posted. The Prinz's are working out fine. I'm glad I bought them. Ten times cheaper than Dennison's - Ten Times!

Jack Kelley

danstamps54 - Does the RHM catalog specify which values, for the Southern cross, Liberty head, or Sugarloaf issues, exist for each perforation variety? Scott is really vague only mentioning the various perforations and compound perforations for the issues.

Also, do you know of a source to get an RHM catalog? Even if a few years old, as long as the old issues are properly addressed.

Spain_1850,




The short answer to your question is: yes, it is detailed. To give you a feel for the level of detail, I've done a quick scan of the Southern Cross issues.

Finding an RHM catalog wasn't easy for me. I collect only to 1990 so I was as happy as a clam in high tide when I stumbled across a used 2009 catalog. The catalog seems to be scarce in North America.

Dan

Well that looks like something I need. I thought maybe ebay would have 1 or 2, but nothing there. Googling websites, everything looks Brazilian based.

I'll definitely keep an eye out thoug. Thanks for the share.