American Gardens Pane Of 20 Scott# 5461-5470

philatomic -

Thanks for the point about the Coral Reef pane. I looked at it again and great point about the difficulty of getting a strip in Scott catalog number order. But let me add it would be easiest to obtain all 4 designs from the columns rather than the rows as the repetition of one of the designs increases the risk tears or removal of backing when trying to get 4 stamps from a row of 5.

Now I offer another interesting pane which offers NO strips in Scott number order although it provides all 4 designs. HOWEVER you can get the stamps in Scott catalog number in a pane of 4 (2x2) going left to right top row and then same direction bottom row. IN fact you can obtain 2 of them with the top left and bottom right corners being the easiest to obtain from the pane.

So it goes back to my point that the stamps in panes with multiple designs really offer some interesting visual challenges as well as a nice mosaic to appreciate, especially as your point about obtaining the designs in Scot catalog number order further enriches their appreciation

And regarding coils and panes of low denomination stamps thanks much for the additional info. The gist of my point is simply that to obtain all coils and panes of low denomination stamp design series such as American Design and Meyer Fruits can take a bit of legwork and patience due to their intermittent availability on USPS, the large amounts you have to get sometimes for coil stamps if you miss times smaller coils are sold at USPS and the unavailability of some coils and panes at post offices.

I gave up trying to follow Scott's format when I was doing my own pages. If I can get a horizontal strip, I would use it but if it needed a vertical, I just used singles rather a strip. The state flags was a good example. I do not like strips that need to be mounted sideways.

A lot of this is based on a sharp decline in demand. Everything today is done on the internet or by email. Very few people use the postal service. And many of those that do print out digital stamps from the convenience of their own homes. (I often get stamp orders from ebay that have digital stamps and it upsets me every time.)

Therefore it makes sense that USPS would produce lower quantities of stamps since less people are buying them. I feel that in today's market, most stamps are aimed at the USPS's best customers: Collectors. Since they can't accurately determine how many collectors are out there they can't really decide how many to produce. They also have today's collectors trained into the "here today, gone tomorrow so get it while you can" mentality.

Also, by keeping the supply low, they increase demand and make it more likely that collectors will jump on the stamps as soon as they are issued and they will sell out, leaving little overstock to deal with. Simple economics really. [/purple]