Greetings Phellow Philatelists!

Hello, I'm Penny Post and I was pleasantly surprised to come across a site that can give me insight to this new hobby I've taken up. I am interested in cat and space stamps from any country, US handpainted FDC, and all the different types of cancels. I would appreciate clues on IDing US stamps before 1900.

Hi PennyPost and welcome! We are here to help, and one great help with your IDing would be www.stampsmarter,org


Peter

Penny Post,

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.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Thanks!
Peter, I am compiling a list of useful websites and this one will be added.

hoosierboy, I agree that much of a stamp's journey can be lost when it's mode of transport is removed; that's one reason I like FDCs. I believe that its story is only lost when it hits the trash can, never to be viewed again. It is folks like us who can limit the loss and document its life. Just think of how many stamp tales you have saved in 53 years of collecting!

Hi and welcome.
Regarding info on stamps, US or others, there are a few sites:
StampWorld - an online catalog.
Sites that go deeper into the history and variable stamps: Stamp-collecting-world, BigBlue, StampSmarter. The last one goes into detail about US classic stamps.
As for the stamp journey as depicted on the envelope, I think FDCs are nice but usually have a short journey from the USPS to the collector's album.
You might find a regular stamp's journey more interesting and educating when mailed in times of war or by unusual route and so on.

Welcome!

Dale