Need Help With Small Inherited Collection

Hello all! I recently came across a small book that belonged to my wife's grandfather. He passed years ago and I never met him, but he's the one who basically got me into coins. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about stamps! The collection includes pieces from all over the world, but I will try to just keep the US stamps here and make another post in the World section for the others.

I have taken pics of them as they are because some are a little stuck in their places and I don't want to damage them unnecessarily. If there are any that might be worth taking out and examining further, I will certainly do that. I understand that they are partially hidden, but I figure many, if not all, would be recognizable to collectors. I very much appreciate any guidance you all can give me!

Sorry to disappoint, but I do not see anything that is going to pay for breakfast :-) Donate to a kid or ?

Welcome.
Looks like a good start on a new hobby!
The 'Washington/Franklin' series (1908-1922) were stamps issued in the millions and billions, real 'work horses' of the era. Due to the long production run, they were a number of changes in perforation gauges and watermarks. This can make this series challenging to learn. Some verities are quite uncommon today but the vast majority of stamps found are the common types. You can learn more searching this forum and/or here https://stampsmarter.org/1847usa/1847Home.html.
Stamp Smarter also has a good Illustrated Glossary and 'How To' section which can assist you in learning more about stamps in general https://stampsmarter.org/index.html
Don

I'm always the eternal optimist when I find these old little collections. A little soak & drying book. Sort and check, Perf and watermark; perfin /pre-cancel / cancels.

There is usually a little "nugget" to be found. If not, the hunt is the fun.

Looking forward to seeing the foreign selections.
Pat

Thanks for the insight and suggestions! Can you recommend a reasonably priced reference book for these and/or the world stamps that would provide an rough valuation and some info? I quickly checked ebay on a handful, but a book (something like the Red Book for coins) would be better.

Your best bet is to go to a local library and use their Scott stamp catalogs. There are so many different world stamps that it takes several large volumes of Scott catalogs to show them all.

That was my suspicion. I have also seen stamps referred to by Scott #, so assumed that was the standard catalogue.

Yes, the Scott catalogs are the most commonly used brand in the US, so Scott numbers are the most commonly used identifiers in the US. The latest Scott U.S. Specialized Catalog has a cover price of about $140, so hopefully you can find a library that carries a set. If you go to a library, and they have an older set, the values of the common stamps don't change much from year to year, so the catalogs should still be relevant except for higher-valued stamps.

I would suggest that the prices marked are still accurate enough. Whomever placed these in the book and priced them knew about stamps. This is a stock book for duplicate stamps and they appear to be just that. This is not how most collectors would keep more valuable stamps. Your quest for a current value would mean spending a lot of time and effort. The minimum price in the scott catalog is 25 cents. The actual selling price for the stamps in the book are going to be pennies.

I don't want to discourage you but for example, if you found a full coffee can labeled "Memorial cents" and a second tiny jar labeled "wheaties" would you want to spend 15 min per coin going through the big can to find a rarity? Having to learn the catalog system and then check each stamp is going to be on that scale. You can get faster at it but it does take time.

If you want to keep them for possible future interest, I'd get a decent stock-book and store them in that. If you aren't interested, just putthem in ebay as they are, with a low starting price.