Tupperware Box Of Stamps

My name is Cheryl and I've never collected. inherited a collection with very small stamp books and mostly wax envelopes of all sizes with stamps from the U.S to quite a few other countries. I've read about the terminology and have to admit I only understand a quarter, if even. I get that for some this is relaxing, but my shoulders are tight guys, not understanding this as I never knew a collector. Maybe it would be different if someone had guided a bit when they collected. I just do not see the difference in the stamps to take a guess at the year produced. Here are some of the stamps in the collection and I believe all are used in some way, but could be wrong. Neat stamps none the less. There are two Franklin stamps that are different colors, one darker than the other, does this mean that one is counterfeit? I read about that too and just have no clue how to tell. I compare pictures with stamps and sorry not seeing it. Some seem to be original and others are definitely cancelled. I'll share as more pictures are taken.

A belated welcome to SCF!



No, no counterfeits here. But stamps of this design can get altered (perforations recut, perforations cut off to imitate coil stamps, forged overprint added) to try to imitate expensive stamps. Not the case here. Different color shades are often just from different printings of the same issue. The right stamp might be from a booklet pane.

The 2c strip of 3 is, as you might already know, is a Confederate States issue from 1863. This HAS been forged but is not engraved like your stamps are.

The 2 stamps below that strip are from the 1898 Trans-Mississippi issue.

An immediate worldwide reference is the StampWorld site which might be useful for just touring at this point if you haven't used it yet. Otherwise, Scott catalogs are available in your local library's reference section with some older ones often available for checkout. The "Information for collectors" in the front of every volume is a must-read but can be overwhelming even though you have a head start. But it can also answer a lot of questions, whch you can always bring here regardless.

Looking forward to more pictures.