Translating The Hibernian Catalog To Another Catalog System

The Scott catalog for the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth definitive series of Ireland, "the Birds," is a mess. There are a lot of "see also" and "like" references sprinkled over many pages. It gave me a headache.

So, I got this bright idea. I'll make my pages to conform to the Hibernian catalog. It is a straightforward presentation and made sense to me. I thought I had a complete series but I was mistaken. Now, you can see what's coming ... No one lists Ireland stamps by Hibernian catalog number!

I've found cross references for the bird stamps from SG to Scott to Michel to Yvert but none of them includes the Hibernian catalog numbers.

Before I bite the bullet and dig into Scott, does anyone know of a cross reference from the Hibernian catalog to a major catalog system for these stamps? I'm sure there won't be a one-to-one correlation but anything would help.

Thanks in advance.

Dan

I doubt that there is a cross reference. For the 11th definitive series, I went through Scott and made a list of every one the listings with #, date of issue, short description (if needed) and face value, and then included that "Scott" page in my Ireland definitives binder.

Not even the main listing in the Hibernian catalogue is complete.

A few of the stamps were printed on two paper types. You need to go through the specialised listing at the back of the catalogue to find out what paper varieties there are. Also, whereas Roy Hamilton-Bowen lists all imperforate sides for the Gerl definitives, he does not for the birds stamps.

Check with apastuszak.

Here I am, responding to a 4-year-old post.

I had a discussion about the Bird Definitives with members of the EPA back when I was still a member. The members told me that no catalog anywhere has a complete listing for every variety of the Bird Definitives.

I tried to use Staney Gibbons for my Bird Definitve pages, and I had stamps in my collection I bought off of ebay that were not listed in Stanley Gibbons or my Scott Catalog. I don't own Hibernian, so I could not check there.

It's funny, you would think some Irish stamp collector would publish an article in some philatelic journal detailing all the various bird definitives, and the catalog makers would update their catalogs. But it appears no one has done that. I don't think even Anpost has a complete list of all the changes done to the bird definitives. It's very frustrating to have stamps in your collection that are found in no catalog.

The Hibernian lists quite a lot of the "birds" definitives. It lists two paper types for the ISSP printings. It, also. lists the constant varieties from some of the booklets. Other than that, it lists all printers, perforation but not imperforate side*, phosphor, size, and source varieties.

However, Roy once wrote me people had been very critical about his specialised listing of an earlier definitive series. He, therefore, had grouped paper-gum varieties into three groups, when, actually, there were seven such groups. He had done so because he expected most buyers of the Hibernian would no longer buy it if it became too specialised.

I have been trying to get my hands on a few remaining varieties. They, just, cannot be found. No one identifies and stocks them. I think there is very little demand for them. I, often, get the impression Ireland is one of those areas few people care about. But those who are interested become heavily addicted to Irish stamps.

* Which you can find by looking at the booklet panes' section.