Large Organized Collection Inquiry

Lovely, fresh colours. I presume that's a fastbound Scott album. You should be able to get leaves from the period since then for a peg- or ring-bound album. The preference tends to be for "hingeless" albums (i.e. with mounts attached to the pages) for mint stamps, enabling you to dispense with hinges.

John,

That's an excellent start to a solid US collection! You mentioned that you want to learn how to handle stamps. Does the collection have some of the basic stamp tools, e.g. stamp tongs, perforation gauge, magnifying glass, maybe a watermark tray?

There are a lot of threads here that will give you that sort of information. Try a search. Of course, if you get lost, just ask!

Dan

Recapping what I have seen...

The three small boxes contain "plate number blocks," which were created by removing the plate number corners of some panes. All the blocks appear to be mint.

The black album contains mint hinged stamps, including some souvenir sheets. Also in the black album I have seen:

• stamped envelopes or wrappers (Scott# prefix "U" or "W")


• revenue duck hunting stamps (Scott# prefix "RW")


• air post stamps (Scott# prefix "C")


• defense postal savings stamps (Scott# prefix "PS")


• air post special delivery stamps (Scott# prefix "CE")

The covers depicted are a mixture of "first day of issue covers" (FDC's), perhaps historic covers, and one mint stamped envelope.

This collection is very well organized and in excellent condition. That speaks highly of the current owner (you) and the previous owner (your great-grandfather). Overall, it is more organized than my collection. Personally, I am transitioning my albums from hinges to mounts. Your photographs depict at least one stamp that I lack in my collection, though my speciality is used/canceled stamps (not mint).

John,

An afterthought. There is no one "right" way to collect. The basic rule is that there are no rules.

About the only thing stamp collectors agree on is that they love to collect stamps. Some collectors prefer albums, others prefer stock books. Some people make their own album. Some people prefer hinges, others split back mounts or hingeless albums.

Even something as basic as stamp tongs can generate controversy, needle-nose vs flat nose.

You get the idea. Do some research and go your own way, have fun and don't be afraid to ask.

Dan

John [johnabb92]

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences. Russ

Your album pages are from a Scott National album, one of the most used by advanced U. S. collectors. I collected U. S. for 20 years before I felt my collection needed the depth of coverage of the Scott National. In other words, this was not a beginner's collection. Congratulations and welcome to stamp collecting!

"In other words, this was not a beginner's collection."

The stamps within are at a beginners level. I agree that it could be fun to expand but maybe not realistic given that the stamps that are all hinged and are all common issues that are readily and cheaply available in quantity for a fraction of catalog.

I am not being Debby Downer but I like to temper expectations by not engaging in unwarranted hyperbole.

That being said if the OP was so inclined he/she could take it up a notch utilizing the decent album as a base and replacing with better centered and MNH specimens. Just a thought. Fun to look through for someone new to the hobby no doubt.

Cheers

Pulling attractive mint stamps from an old album, buying umounted mint copies of the same stamps, putting them in stamp mounts and glueing them in said album? That sounds more like succumbing to a modern collecting neurosis than "taking it up a notch".