Swiss Or French?

I do not have a Scott's catalog yet, however, Ryan gave me a link to a great deal on ebay (thanks Ryan!) I have some old stamp albums that have helped me identify a lot of my stamps, but I do get stumped! Are the following stamps French or Swiss??
Thanks again!
Donna

All of those are Swiss, but you'll only find the upper left stamp in a Scott's catalogue - it's a postage due stamp. The others are local fiscal issues (revenue stamps).

Ryan

Thanks Ryan. But then what do you have to get to know that the others were revenue stamps?
Donna

There are catalogues specific to revenue stamps, but they're not as common as the regular postage catalogues. Some of the most common US revenue stamps are included in the Scott's catalogue (more detailed listings are in Scott's US Specialized edition), so you'll be able to find those. There's a Canadian revenues catalogue by ESJ van Dam which is not too expensive, and I have a copy of that. But other than an old Barefoot catalogue for British Commonwealth revenues, I haven't found much on ebay dealing with revenues. I don't come across too many revenues in the piles of stamps I buy, so I guess that's not such a bad thing.

Ryan

Nice stamps Donna!

here is an example of the 1915 "Forbin catalogue" listings,

Donna-

There are many, many revenue catalogues, but you have to look for them, and they can be expensive. The grand dame of revenue catalogues is probably Forbin, which was published in the early 20th century. It has been digitized and is available online for a small fee. I almost never see hard copies for sale, and the last one was outrageously priced.

The Byrum Supplemental is a more recent catalogue, last updated in the '70's, I believe. Mine is 1973. When it is available, it seems to go for around $80-100. It includes some revenues, locals, and other cinderellas.

Barefoots are available for many countries around the world. They are updated infrequently, but are nice resources for what is out there. Erler is another famous name to keep in mind.

Some of these can pop up in unusual places for not a lot of money (or so I hear...I am not usually that lucky).

The best way to start to learn about revenues is by looking at revenue websites and reading posts, here and elsewhere. Eventually, you'll start to recognize many of the designs, and learn the clues to i.d. designs you don't recognize. There are some words that will only appear on revenue stamps, sometimes the stamp shape is a clue, and there are some cancels that will be a tipoff to a revenue usage (though the underlying stamp might still be a postage stamp in some cases).

Revenues are worth your time.

My 2d.